New Zealand Writers

CUSH, Geoff

'Outlandish and stunningly original'

CUSH, Geoff (1956-) is a novelist, playwright and journalist.

Geoff Cush was born and educated in New Zealand. In 1978 Cush left New Zealand and it was while he was living in Europe that his first novel God Help the Queen (1987) was published. The novel was well received and was described in the City Limits as ‘a bleak and funny picture of London in the future’.

The novel was followed by a number of successful plays including The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (1993), which was reviewed in the The Times Literary Supplement as ‘a night of knockabout philosophy and cruel fun’. Benedict Nightingale, in The Times, writes that the play ‘might have been written in tandem with Jonathan Swift…outlandish, oddball and, yes, original.’

Cush’s play The Simple Past (1996) was an adaptation of the Driss Chraibi’s classic novel Le Passe Simple and with the help of the British Council Cush successfully toured in Morocco in 1996. Cush writes that the experience of taking this controversial play back to Morocco, some forty years after it was written still required armed guards on doors during performances.

In 1997 Cush adapted Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novel Guards! Guards! He has also written travel features for British newspapers and has contributed to the Marshall Cavendish Murder Casebook.

In 2001 Cush returned to New Zealand to write his novel Son of France (2002), which was selected by the NZ Herald as one of the best New Zealand novels of the year ‘a terrific story which is a mixture of dark satire and a delightful comedy of manners’.

Geoff Cush is currently living in Wellington and working on the sequel to Son of France.

(LK)

Updated Information

In 2003 Geoff Cush was shortlisted for the prestigious $60,000 Prize in Modern Letters. The shortlist includes: William Brandt, Kate Camp and Glenn Colquhoun. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony during Writers and Readers Week at the International Festival in March 2004.