Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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parallels between the farm where she and her siblings grew up and the farm setting of
Vigil, Morrison’s Bush was not an isolated place, in that they had close next door
neighbours on one side of them, and there were plenty of children their age to play with.
They were also on the school bus route and were picked up every morning both for
primary and secondary school. She recalls that they all had bicycles from an early age,
and occasionally cycled into town, but they were still fairly isolated – for example, they
were “too far really to go to the movies regularly”. 205 Ingrid does concede that growing
up at Morrison’s Bush may have been a more isolated experience for Vincent, because
he was so much younger than his other siblings who were sent to boarding school when
he was still young, leaving him at home as virtually an only child.
Marianne Chandler, Ward’s second-eldest sister, perceived the farm as being isolated
for the reason that her mother had to be very careful with money, and “even though she
made sure that we could have things like ballet lessons, we definitely didn’t waste trips
into town. So I think for all of us, the farm was isolating”. She does however comment
that Vincent was “very sociable” and always had “a large crowd of friends”. 206
David Field, one of Vincent’s friends at primary and high school, remembers Vincent as
“a loner, self-absorbed, having favourite places in a world of his own in the hills”. 207 In
his view, Vigil is autobiographical in its depiction of the seclusion of farm life in that
when he and Vincent were growing up, they only saw other children at the weekends.
Despite this tendency towards living in the world of his imagination, Vincent did many
of the typical things that country children do, such as playing with slug guns, belonging
to a Scouts group and playing rugby. David recalls that Vincent always liked to take
risks, pushing himself to the limit while playing rugby and getting concussion so many
times that he became known as “the concussion kid”. He was also always involved in
creative projects such as making plaster casts of toys. Later, while living in
Christchurch at the same time as Vincent was there and seeing quite a lot of him, David
perceived Vincent as being a “very studious, dedicated and self-disciplined” student
who often “refused to go out on the town with the boys” because he was pursuing his
art. 208
205 Lynette Read, interview with Ingrid Ward, 15 April 1999.
206 Lynette Read, interview with Marianne Chandler, 1 October 1999.
207 Lynette Read, interview with David Field, 15 April 1999.
208 Lynette Read, interview with David Field, 15 April 1999.