Kaleidoscope - CK Stead

Television (Full Length Episode) – 1986

In this Kaleidoscope report, Lorna Hope profiles poet, novelist and critic CK Stead as he resigns from his position as a Professor of English at Auckland University to write full time. Stead is filmed teaching, writing (at his Karekare bach), at home in Parnell, and at Frank Sargeson’s Takapuna house. He discusses his academic career, family life, walking for inspiration, and how he began writing as a teen. He also mentions his novel Smith’s Dream (adapted into 1977 feature film Sleeping Dogs), and how its themes are echoed in the 1981 Springbok Tour protests, where Stead was arrested.

The whole family are tremendous walkers. We walk at Karekare, and we walk all over Auckland and we walk all over wherever we happen to be. That’s where ideas generate I think.
– CK Stead on walking and inspiration