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Story: City images

A good keen man

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<em>A good keen man</em>

Barry Crump’s 1960 novel of a rugged, backblocks deer culler struck a chord with many city men who liked to think of themselves as country blokes at heart. This was an image strongly rooted in New Zealand’s colonial past when city life was represented as effete.

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Penguin Random House

Reference: Barry Crump, A good keen man. Wellington: Reed, 1960

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How to cite this page

Ben Schrader, City images – The city in literature, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/25323/a-good-keen-man (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Ben Schrader, published 3 March 2010.