Nor the Years Condem
By (Author) Robin Hyde
Otago University Press
Otago University Press
1st January 1995
3rd Revised edition
New Zealand
General
Fiction
823.912
Paperback
292
Width 152mm, Height 203mm, Spine 15mm
384g
'They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.'. The line from the Anzac verse provides the title for this novel, in which Robin Hyde shows the predicament of returned servicemen and women after the First World War. Through the story of Douglas Stark, we see the many ways in which New Zealand was failing their expectations. It was not the 'land fit for heroes' they had fought for, but a changing society moving through the tough times of the twenties and thirties.
Robin Hyde was born Iris Wilkinson in South Africa in 1906, the second of four daughters. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to New Zealand where they settled in Wellington. Iris began writing at an early age and became a journalist at seventeen, when she joined The Dominion. Under the pen-name Robin Hyde, she published her first book of poetry, The Desolate Star, in 1929. Her first prose work, an account of her life in journalism entitled Journalese, appeared in 1934. Between 1935 and 1938 she published five novels: Passport to Hell, Check to Your King, Wednesday's Children, Nor the Years Condemn, and The Godwits Fly.