Alan Duff
| Alan Duff | |
|---|---|
| Born |
26 October 1950 Rotorua, New Zealand |
| Occupation | Author |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Notable works | Once Were Warriors, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?(novel), Jake's Long Shadow, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? (film) |
Alan Duff, MBE (born 26 October 1950), is a New Zealand novelist and newspaper columnist. He is most well known as the author of the novel Once Were Warriors (1990), which was made into a film of the same name in 1994.
Alan Duff was born in Rotorua, the son of forestry scientist Gowan Duff (1910–1995), known as Pat, and Hinau Josephine Duff (née Raimona), known as Kuia, of Ngāti Rangitihi and Ngāti Tūwharetoa descent, and grandson of writer Oliver Duff. He was born and raised in a State housing area in Rotorua, New Zealand.
Oliver Duff (1883–1967) was a writer and foundation editor of the New Zealand Listener, and Duff inherited his grandfather's love of literature.
Duff's parents separated when he was 10, and Duff moved in with a Māori uncle and aunt at Whakarewarewa. He wrote at some length about his troubled childhood in his 1999 memoir, Out of the Mist and the Steam. Many of these experiences informed his writing of his novel Once Were Warriors.
Duff was expelled from his school Rotorua Boys' High School and ran away from home, ending up as a State ward at Hamilton Boys’ Home.
Later he lived with another uncle, anthropologist Roger Duff, and went back to school at Christchurch Boys' High School.
At 15 he was sentenced to a term in Waikeria Borstal for assault and breaking and entering.
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