NZ writer James McNeish.
What a phenomenon James McNeish is. Literary fashions, figures and feuds parade past and all the while McNeish is working steadily and skilfully away. He's the author of 25-plus books from 50-plus years of work. That's, well, phenomenal.
Much of his work is rooted in a strong sense of social
justice. Those who stand against repression have always drawn his sympathy. This creative biography is another example.
Werner Seelenbinder was an outstanding German wrestler of the 1930s. His leftist sympathies, and breath-taking refusal to give the Nazi salute after winning a national title, saw him banned and ostracised. He took part in the Berlin Olympics, "the biggest fraud in the history of organised sport", only because it gave him a chance to denounce Hitler.
He became a courier for the Communist Resistance. Inevitably, he was imprisoned. For nearly three years, he was shunted from prison to prison, starved, tortured and reviled. In October 1944, he was convicted of "high treason" and beheaded.
The most poignant aspect of this story is that he's still so unknown. After the war, he was lauded by East Germany and therefore ignored by the West. That bizarre rewriting of history continues; his name dropped from parks and sportsgrounds.
