Philip Temple
Robert Philip Temple ONZM (born 1939 in Yorkshire, England) is a Dunedin-based New Zealand author of novels, children's stories, and non-fiction. His work is characterised by a strong association with the outdoors and New Zealand ecology.
Also recorded as Robert Philip Temple
Philip Temple
- Born
- 1939
- Nationality
- New Zealand
- Occupation
- writer · novelist · autobiographer · biographer · photographer · mountaineer
- Honours
- Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement (Non-Fiction) · Robert Burns Fellowship · The Ian Wards Prize
- Languages
- English
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Documentary summary
Robert Philip Temple ONZM (born 1939 in Yorkshire, England) is a Dunedin-based New Zealand author of novels, children's stories, and non-fiction. His work is characterised by a strong association with the outdoors and New Zealand ecology.
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Note VALÉORINE
Philip Temple (born 1939) is an autobiographer, biographer and mountaineer, among other activities, of New Zealand nationality.
Languages used include English. Honours include Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement (Non-Fiction), Robert Burns Fellowship and The Ian Wards Prize.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q7184463 · wikipedia · Philip Temple
In this article
Career
Career
Temple's early work was non-fiction, describing mountaineering expeditions to New Guinea and New Zealand and includes Nawok! (1962), Castles in the Air: Men and Mountains in New Zealand (1969), The Sea and the Snow: The South Indian Ocean Expedition to Heard Island (1966), and The World at Their Feet (1973). Following this he produced a number of novels - The Explorer (1975), Stations (1979), Beak of the Moon (1981), Sam (1984), Dark of the Moon (1993), and To Each His Own (1999) - and many children's books, among which the most notable are The Legend of the Kea (1986), Kakapo, Parrot of the Night (1988), and Kotuku, Flight of the White Heron (1994). In 1980. Temple held the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. More recently, Temple has turned to an autobiographical relation of his own mountaineering adventures (The Last True Explorer (2002)) and a history of the Wakefield clan in New Zealand (A Sort of Conscience: The Wakefields (Auckland University Press, 2002), which won the Ernest Scott History Prize in 2003, the Ian Wards Prize for Historical Writing in 2003, and the Biography category of the 2003 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. He was also awarded the 2003 Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers' Residency and the 2005 Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement in non-fiction.
Works
Works
=
Non-fiction =
Non-fiction =
• Nawok!: The New Zealand Expedition to New Guinea's Highest Mountains (J.M. Dent, 1962) • The Sea and the Snow: The South Indian Ocean Expedition to Heard Island (Cassell, 1966) • The World at Their Feet (Whitcombe & Tombs, 1969) • Mantle of the Skies: Southern Alps of New Zealand (Whitcombe & Tombs, 1971) • Christchurch: A City and its People (Whitcombe & Tombs, 1973) • Castles in the Air: Men and Mountains in New Zealand (John McIndoe, 1973) • New Zealand Explorers: Great Journeys of Discovery (Whitcoulls, 1985) • A Sort of Conscience: The Wakefields (Auckland University Press, 2002) • The Last True Explorer: Into Darkest New Guinea (Godwit, 2002) • Mountain: Where the Land Touches the Sky (Penguin, 2007) • Life As A Novel: A Biography of Maurice Shadbolt. Volume One 1932–1973 (David Ling, 2018)
Novels
Novels
• The Explorer (Hodder & Stoughton, 1975) • Stations (Collins, 1979) • Beak of the Moon (Collins, 1981) • Sam (Hodder & Stoughton, 1984) • Dark of the Moon (1993) • To Each His Own (Hazard, 1999) • White Shadows, Memories of Marienbad (Vintage, 2005) • I Am Always With You (Vintage, 2006) • MiStory (Frontpublishing, 2014)
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Philip Temple”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q7184463: Philip Temple
General reference · Wikidata
Children's literature
• The Legend of the Kea (1986) • Kakapo, Parrot of the Night (1988) • Kotuku, Flight of the White Heron (1994)
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
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References
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reference work
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General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Photography
11,392 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Philip PhillipsPhotographer
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- Philip SouthernPhotographer
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- Philip ZilckenPhotographer
- Philip-Lorca diCorciaPhotographer
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