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James McNeish (1931-), a New Zealand novelist, playwright and biographer was born in Auckland in 1931 and travelled the world as a young man - working as a deckhand on a Norwegian freighter in 1958, and recording folk music in 21 countries. He worked in the Theatre Workshop in London with Joan Littlewood, and was influenced by her spirit of socially committed drama. He worked as a free-lance programme- and documentary-maker for the BBC Radio's Features Department in the 1960s. He also wrote for The Guardian and The Observer. He spent three years in Sicily with Danilo Dolci, the non-violent anti-Mafia reformer, and wrote Fire under the Ashes (1965, London: Hodder and Stoughton ) a biographical account of Dolci's life which is remarkable for its objectivity and clarity. He has written some 25 books.

James McNeish's writing has been the subject of critical acclaim both at home and abroad. Besides New Zealand, his books are set in Sicily, London, Israel and New Caledonia. He has been described as prolific by the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. His book "Lovelock" was nominated for the 1986 Booker Prize.

In 1999, he was awarded the prestigious National Library of New ZealandResearch Fellowship, allowing him to research the lives and friendships of five prominent New Zealanders who attended Oxford University in the 1930s - four of them Rhodes Scholars.It has been said about him that among New Zealand novelists, he remains "the wild card". He lives in Wellington, New Zealand, with his wife.