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Story: Fiction

Frank Sargeson

Audio file

Frank Sargeson was the leading light of New Zealand fiction in the 1930s and 1940s. His work is filled with cobbers, blokes, sheilas and 'the missus', and marked a new confidence in a distinctively New Zealand voice. His early writing in particular charts working-class lives in which actions, more than words, convey emotion. Listen to Sargeson talk about his realisation that he needed to write with a New Zealand voice. 

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Auckland Council Libraries − Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero o Tāmaki Makaurau

Reference: P50803

Sound file from Radio New Zealand Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero. Any re-use of this audio is a breach of copyright. To request a copy of the recording, contact Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero (The Problems Of The Artist In New Zealand No. 2/Reference number ID 33594)

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How to cite this page

Lydia Wevers, Fiction – The New Zealand voice, 1930s and 1940s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/speech/41926/frank-sargeson (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Lydia Wevers, published 20 June 2013, updated 1 August 2015.