Alan duff biography

New Zealand writer

For the English cricketer, see Alan Duff (cricketer).

Alan DuffMBE (born 26 October 1950) is a New Zealand novelist and newspaper columnist.

He is best known as the author of the novel Once Were Warriors (1990), which was made into a film of the same name in 1994.

Biography

Alan Duff was born in Rotorua, New Zealand, the son of forestry scientist Gowan Duff (1910–1995), known as Pat, and Hinau Josephine Duff (née Raimona), known as Kuia, of Ngāti Rangitihi and Ngāti Tūwharetoa descent, and grandson of writer Oliver Duff (1883–1967).

Wikipedia page

He was born and raised in a State housing area in Rotorua. Oliver Duff was a writer and foundation editor of the New Zealand Listener,^[1] and Duff inherited his grandfather's love of literature.^[2]

Duff's parents separated when he was 10, and Duff moved in with a Māori uncle and aunt at Whakarewarewa.

He wrote at some length about his troubled childhood in his 1999 memoir, Out of th