Portrait from life: Oliver Duff.

This programme featuring a biographical interview with Oliver Duff, founding editor of The Listener magazine.

He is now living in retirement on his small farm at Lansdowne at the foot of the Port Hills near Christchurch, where he still writes a weekly column on rural life for The Listener.

He discusses his Waitahuna Gully childhood in Central Otago in a mixed community with Germans and Irish neighbours.

He talks about the place of religion in his family. The Anglo - Boer War broke out and he was only 18 when he enlisted and went to South Africa with his two brothers. He says they thought their country and the Empire were in danger and felt it was their duty to go. They all got through the war without any injury or sickness. He left the army with thirty pounds which seemed a huge amount to him.

Next he went to university and became a teacher, discusses religious issues and talks about becoming a swagman. He entered journalism, eventually becoming editor of The Listener.

He ends by describing his enjoyment of rural life.