Sad news that Bert Hingley, the legendary New
Zealand publisher at Hodder & Stoughton in New Zealand, died on Tuesday 3
September.
In his publishing days here he was a rock star,
publishing Sue McCauley, Russell Haley, Philip Temple, Pat Hanly and many
others. I watched from a distance – I was merely a book reviewer – but was
astonished to find that a person could be bookish and also worldly, witty,
commercially minded and, frankly, sexy.
The photo above is from my book The Dirty Decade: New Zealand in the 80s
and is undated but the hair is a clue. I captioned it: “The Peter Frampton
years: Bert Hingley of Hodder & Stoughton (seen with Sebastian Black).”
When he moved to Australia he tried his hand as a
second-hand bookseller at Darling Street Books in Balmain, which he passed on
to his son Benjamin when he took up the publisher’s position at the very classy
literary publisher Hale & Iremonger.
There will be obituaries by people who knew him
better and were closer to the action. I always admired what he did at Hodder –
but my favourite memory is from before that time, of him coming in to the Listener office in Auckland to deliver
his “Bookmarks” column (1979 maybe?), mid-winter, with a heavy cold, wearing
jeans, boots and a thin muslin shirt that showed off his curly chest and
medallion.
There hasn’t been a publisher like him since – it’s
not just the bravery, the commitment to his authors, the commitment to
production values, not just the conversation, not just the commitment to lunches.
But what a combination!
For those of you who are in or can get to Sydney, the funeral will be held on Thursday 12 September at 2 p.m. at Greenway Chapel and Memorial Gardens at Green Point, Central Coast. It will be a lay funeral of one hour, conducted by the family.
For those of you who are in or can get to Sydney, the funeral will be held on Thursday 12 September at 2 p.m. at Greenway Chapel and Memorial Gardens at Green Point, Central Coast. It will be a lay funeral of one hour, conducted by the family.
