To See a World : a Memoir

This sequel to Jan Kemp’s Raiment is written with the same honesty and flair, as the ‘young New Zealand poet’ sets out to explore the world at large, where her openness to experience, sense of adventure, and willingness to take risks enrich her life and extend the scope of her art, as exemplified by interspersed poems. Her travels take her to diverse parts of the globe. For extended periods she teaches English language or literature in cosmopolitan Hong Kong and Singapore. There, and indeed everywhere she goes, she makes friends and meets fellow writers, including the famous. People, places, and occasions are vividly described. She has love affairs. But by the end of this phase of her life she is on the verge of marriage to her true life partner and residence in Frankfurt, where she will become, like Katherine Mansfield, ‘a New Zealand European’.