New Zealand Writers

EWING, Barbara

EWING, Barbara ( - ) is an actor and novelist whose first novel, Strangers (1978) was not followed up by a second for twenty years, when The Actresses was published in 1997. Born and educated in New Zealand, Ewing has spent most of her life living and working as an actor in London. Mistakenly assumed by many critics and readers to be Ewing's first book, The Actresses was a popular and acclaimed novel. It is described in The Times as combining "elements of courtroom drama and comedy of manners, as well as sharp insights into the harsher realities of theatrical life."

A Dangerous Vine (1999) is set in New Zealand. A coming-of age story about a young woman working with the largely Maori staff of a government department, the novel addresses race relations in 1950s New Zealand. In The Dominion, Rosemary Robertson writes "[t]here's an air of fable about Barbara Ewing's fine novel, of lessons to be learned and changes that need to be made." In the New Zealand Listener Marion McLeod suggests that "A Dangerous Vine is...much more ambitious than Ewing's two previous novels."

(KC.)

Updated Information

The Trespass (2002) spans from a rapidly disintegrating 19th century London to the energy and optimism of early New Zealand. The plot is a superb blend of history, containing love, evil, heroism and grief.

Rosetta (2005) is an historical novel that follows the early lives of two girls who marry in 1795.