Getting There: An Autobiography

Barbara Anderson, one of New Zealand's finest and most loved writers, has written a classic autobiography. Getting There is both a moving life story with which many readers will identify, and a revealing insight into the making of a major writer.
In part one Anderson tells the story of her childhood in Hawke's Bay. Her father was a doctor, and her childhood was happy, with a loving extended family and circle of friends, and easy access to countryside and beaches. But there were shadows: the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake; and the more personal tragedy of the death from pneumonia of her beloved younger brother Colin.
Part two begins with Anderson completing a science degree at Otago University in the 1940s, and her early working life as a teacher and laboratory technician. In 1951 she married the dashing young naval officer Neil Anderson, and as Sir Neil rose to the highest rank in the New Zealand armed forces, the family moved frequently and traveled widely.
Barbara Anderson returned to university in her fifties, this time to study English, rekindling her early love of literature and desire to write. Bill Manhire's writing course in 1983 led to work broadcast on Radio New Zealand, success in short story competitions, and to the publication of her first book in 1989, at the age of 63. The story of these apprentice years, and the two decades of local and international success which have followed, is told in part three.