Edmund Bohan MNZM is a historian, biographer, novelist and former international operatic and concert singer. Edmund talks to NZ Booklovers.
Tell us a little about Heart of the City.
This is the story of a building that was at the heart of the 1848 Canterbury Association’s utopian plan for an Anglican settlement in New Zealand - for a cross-section of English Anglican society to escape the moral dangers of industrialisation and democratic ideas! And of the personalities who have been associated with that building over the last 174 years.
The utopian plan fell apart amid a welter of personal, political and economic conflicts as soon as the first four ships landed in Lyttleton, but the settlement thrived in spite of all the controversies and rivalries that have - so notoriously - flourished in Christchurch ever since! The cathedral itself has been at the heart of many on those - especially after the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. Before that, there were intense and lengthy controversies about design and choice of stone instead of wood; where it should be sited; even whether or not there should be a cathedral at all; who should oversee its construction - Bishop Harper and Dean Jacobs strongly objected to NZ’ premier architect Benjamin Mountfort being given the job; how it should be paid for; earthquake strengthening and repairs after the several smaller quakes that struck from the 1880s; what form the Visitors Centre should take; and about internal alterations following the liturgical reforms from the 1970s onwards.
It is a book about the evolution of a cathedral into multi-cultural and multi-racial Christchurch’s most recognisable civic symbol - along with the Avon River - and a central place for the celebration and commemoration of local and international events. It is not a history of the city’s Anglicanism as such, nor exclusively about the post earthquake controversies whether to demolish or restore it. Both, of course, are inevitable parts of its story. Of equal importance is the wider question of to whom it morally or socially belongs: to a church whose purely religious influence has dramatically decreased during the past 50 years, or to the wider civic community - the people of Christchurch? I must emphasise that I am an historian, not an Anglican, but an impartial student of the past.
What inspired you to write the book?
My long-time publisher and friend Quentin Wilson approached me to write it in early 2018. Quentin’s Hazard Press had published my Edward Stafford; New Zealand’s First Statesman, in 1994 (both a Montana and NZ Book Awards finalist in 1995); Burdon, a man of our time, 2004; Climates of War; New Zealand in Conflict 1859-69. 2005, and the O’Rorke series of historical novels: The Opawa Affair,1996; The Dancing Man, 1997; The Matter of Parihaka, 2000, reprinted by Lucano 2017; The Irish Yankee, 2002, (runner-up Richard Webster Popular Fiction Award 2001; A Present for the Czar, 2003 (finalist 2002 Richard Webster Award); The Lost Taonga, 2017 (long-listed for Ngaio Marsh Awards 2018) Lucano imprint; A Suitable Time for Vengeance, Lucano imprint 2017. Quentin Wilson Publishing will be publishing the final O’Rorke - Turn on, old Time, in 2023.
What research was involved?
Intensive and very thorough - a long process involving countless hours in Papers Past, general online research, the cathedral’s archives, consulting secondary published works - over fifty listed in my bibliography - many personal interviews and almost endless conversations. Intensive research into, and discussion of every aspect of the subject, has to be the basis for all historical writing. Preconceived assumptions, uncritical acceptance of old myths, bias and supposition are simply not acceptable.
It was also necessary to select and obtain the photographs - 102 accompany the text - and provide their captions. This was a long-drawn-out task and involved acquiring and getting permission to publish images from such varied sources as Auckland and Christchurch Public Libraries, Canterbury Museum, The Press, the Cathedral administration and archives, the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, and from private sources. A number of individuals - notably the heritage consultant Jenny May - generously contributed many for the later chapters. In addition Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Ltd provided eleven ‘renderings’ - computer generated images showing what the restored building will look like - for a supplementary section.
What was your routine or process?
My usual routine: a long and very thorough research period, numerous drafts and almost endless revision. I have always used my mornings for writing actual text, and my afternoons for continuing research and revision. During my very long writing career - my first historical articles and essays were published here in NZ in 1960, and my first two historical novels in London in 1970 and 1972 (by Hutchinson of London) - I have seldom worked in the evenings. That’s when I relax and read for pleasure.
What did you enjoy most about writing this?
Unravelling the story - with all its controversies - and discovering such characters as Bishop Churchill Julius and Dean John Bluck. I’ve always enjoyed historical research for its own sake. I’m incorrigibly curious about the past, what has led to our present - and why.
What do you hope readers will take away?
An entertaining and enlightening tale, and an understanding and appreciation of the need to preserve the most outstanding aspects of what remains of our at-risk built heritage. In Christchurch we have the irreplaceable Mountfort Gothic Revival buildings - not just the cathedral but the Museum, the Arts Centre’s stone buildings and the Provincial Council buildings - a group of related heritage buildings such as no other NZ city possesses.
I hope people will also be left with a fuller appreciation of Christchurch’s - and wider New Zealand’s - past, the cathedral’s part in it and a realisation of how there has been a gradual evolution of a sense of public ownership that transcends mere sectarianism. I hope they will also have a more balanced view of the overstated and frequently derided ‘Canterbury Pilgrim’ tradition - that I refer to as the ‘Pilgrim Myth’ - but which was so prevalent from the 1920s to the 1950s and far too often coloured the rest of the country’s view of Christchurch and Canterbury.
What did you do to celebrate finishing it?
As a widower living alone, nothing special. It is, after all, my 19th published book - not to mention the other twenty or more to which I’ve contributed chapters or essays. I recall having another cup of tea and an extra chocolate biscuit or two (or maybe there were more than two!). And an extra glass of wine that evening.
What is the favourite book you have read this year?
Non-fiction; The Ottoman Endgame; War, Revolution and the making of the Modern Middle East, 1908-1923 - by Sean McMeekin. A remarkable historical tour-de-force.
Fiction: Too Much of Water - the most recent in L.C. Tyler’s John Gray historical fiction series set in 1660s England - complex plots, superb characterisation, elegant style and, above all, a dry and genuine wit that makes Tyler my favourite contemporary historical novelist.
Next on agenda;
1 - Next year’s publication of the eighth - and last - book in the O’Rorke series -Turn on, old Time. Already finished, edited and safely in Quentin’s hands.
2 - Completion of a history of Christchurch’s Arts Centre - from its century as the buildings of Canterbury University College (begun in 1874), the first Girls’ High and Boys’ High Schools, and the original School of Arts - to their transformation into the hugely popular Arts Centre in late 1974, and their rebuild and revival after the earthquakes. As with the cathedral, there’s a plethora of unforgettable characters associated with each of those buildings. This story will end with the Centre’s own 50th anniversary in 2024.
Canterbury University College was my university campus from 1954 to 1959 and the Great Hall was a significant part of my early singing career - and its final years. I loved the original Mountfort and later Hurst Seager designed buildings and Seager’s quadrangles - in spite of the obvious fact that by then our university had vastly outgrown its hopelessly overcrowded site.
At present, eventual publication is aimed at late 2024 - by coincidence around about my 89th birthday. Being an incorrigible optimist, I’m hoping to still be around to enjoy it!
Quentin Wilson Publishing