Steal Away Boy

David Mitchell was one of NZ's great poetic characters from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s: poet, lover, political activist, cricketer, impresario, mysterium and, to some, an all-round pain in the arse. Steal Away Boy, re-introduces Mitchell to a new generation and collects widely scattered poems in book form for the first time. A great partisan of poetry in performance, Mitchell initiated readings in various Auckland hotels and was a participant in the famous readings at the Barry Lett Gallery. In 1972 Mitchell's only full-length collection, Pipe Dreams in Ponsonby, was published and became an instant classic, selling thousands of copies in two editions. It broke new ground and won a Commonwealth literary prize. David Mitchell supports the Steal Away Boy project and his private papers and manuscripts have been made available to Edmond and Hughes by his daughter.