New Zealand Writers

SIMPSON, Adrienne

Her books present aspects of New Zealand's social history in an accessible, literate format that is still informed by serious scholarship.

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SIMPSON, Adrienne (1943 - ) is an opera-writer, musicologist, historian, broadcaster and avid cricket fan who sees no contradiction in her range of interests:

"This argument that people who are interested in the arts aren't interested in sports, and vice versa, is one of these great New Zealand myths," she says.

"I would be very sorry if people thought my history of opera was any the less scholarly and approachable because I happen to also have done a book about cricket."

Simpson's nine books published to date share a commitment to presenting aspects of New Zealand's social history in an accessible, literate format that is still informed by serious scholarship.

"Simpson's greatest asset is an engaging writing style that transforms a mountain of detail into the sort of stories you could... inject into a dinner party," writes Lindis Taylor in the The Evening Post.

Adrienne Simpson's titles are: Easy Lute Music (1975); Alex Lindsay - the Man and his Orchestra (with Geoffrey Newson) (1998); Opera's Farthest Frontier - a History of Professional Opera in New Zealand (1996); Classic Kiwi Sport: Cricket (1996); The Greatest Ornament of their Profession - the New Zealand Tours of the Simonsen Opera Companies 1876 - 1889 (1993); Southern Voices: International Opera Singers of New Zealand (with Peter Downes) (1992); Opera in New Zealand (1990); Capital Opera (2000).

In the pipeline is Women at the Wicket - a Social History of Women's Cricket in New Zealand.

(KC.)

Updated Information

Alice May: Gilbert and Sullivan's First Prima Donna was published in 2003.

Adrienne Simpson's ninth book Hallelujahs and History was published in 2005. It is a commissioned history of Auckland Choral, New Zealand's oldest musical institution.