Nigel Cox (13 January 1951 – 28 July 2006) was a New Zealand author and museum director, with five novels published as of early 2006.

Childhood and early career

Born in 1951 in Pahiatua, Cox grew up in the Wairarapa and

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. It is New Zealand's sixth most ...

area. He worked in various jobs up until 1977; in the words of his author page on the

Victoria University Press Te Herenga Waka University Press or THWUP (formerly Victoria University Press) is the book publishing arm of Victoria University of Wellington, located in Wellington, New Zealand. As of 2022, the press had published around 800 books. History Vi ...

website, "His early working life reads like an author trying to find his way: advertising account executive, assembly line worker at Ford, deck hand, coalman, door-to-door turkey salesman, driver." Later, between 1977 and 1993, he worked as a bookseller in Auckland and Wellington.

First novels

His first two novels, ''Waiting for Einstein'' (1984) and '' Dirty Work'' (1987) were both written while he was working in bookstores in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

and

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about It ...

. Both these novels have

settings. For ''Dirty Work'', Cox was awarded the Bucklands Memorial Literary Prize in 1988, as well as the 1991 Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship. From 1995, he took up work as senior writer at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. He published a number of articles during this time, but did not produce any new novels.

2000–2006

As of the publication of '' Skylark Lounge'' in 2000, Cox had not published a new novel since ''Dirty Work'', thirteen years previously. The same year, he left New Zealand to join Ken Gorbey, his colleague at Te Papa, on the project team at the

Jewish Museum Berlin The Jewish Museum Berlin (''Jüdisches Museum Berlin'') was opened in 2001 and is the largest Jewish museum in Europe. On of floor space, the museum presents the history of Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present day, with new focuses ...

. In 2001 he became the museum's Head of Exhibitions and Communications. While in Berlin, Cox completed his fourth novel, '' Tarzan Presley'' (2004). The book was notable for fusing the life story of Elvis Presley and the fictional character Tarzan into a single original narrative. The book was nominated in the fiction category of the

Montana New Zealand Book Awards The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder W ...

in 2005, where it was judged runner-up, despite being embroiled in copyright controversy in the United States. Cox returned to New Zealand in March 2005, rejoining Te Papa as Director – Experience. His fifth novel, '' Responsibility'' (2005), set in Berlin, combined elements from noir and detective fiction with a comedic edge. It was runner-up in the 2006

. In 2006, ''Dirty Work'' was republished by

. On 28 July 2006, just four days after attending the

where he was the Fiction runner-up, he died due to cancer which he had had for some time. He was working on the final draft of a sixth novel, ''The Cowboy Dog'', when he died. It was published in November 2006.

Novels

*''Waiting for Einstein'' (1984) *'' Dirty Work'' (1987) *''Skylark Lounge'' (2000) *''Tarzan Presley'' (2004) *'' Responsibility'' (2005) *''The Cowboy Dog'' (2006)

References

External links