The way of a writer

the long version

"Monte Harry Holcroft. M.H.H. These signature initials to his Listener editorials for nearly twenty years made him known to hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders. Through a range of ... books he has reached other extraordinarily diverse readerships. Now, in this ... autobiography, M.H. Holcroft goes back to his origins. ..."Young Mont" grew up in Rangiora and Christchurch. He toiled as a farm hand in back-country Otago, Canterbury, and the Thames Valley - and in Australia; then travelled and wrote in England and Europe. Throughout he had a "consuming purpose" - to be a writer. Almost certainly he was the first young person to try to make authorship in New Zealand a professional career. [This book] chronicles a unique apprenticeship and evolution. And, presented here ... are ... insights into New Zealand's social and literary life in the first half of [the twentieth] century. ..."--Back cover.