Adcock, Fleur (1934- )

Adcock, Fleur (1934- ), New Zealand poet. Born in Papakura, Auckland, from the age of five Adcock attended various schools in England, where her father was a lecturer in adult education. Returning to New Zealand, she studied at Victoria University. From 1958 she was a teacher and a librarian, until 1963, when, disillusioned with life in New Zealand, she emigrated to Britain. There, she was Assistant Librarian at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Library until 1979, when she became a full-time writer.

Her first collection, published in Wellington in 1964, was The Eye of the Hurricane, some of which was reprinted in Tigers (London, 1967). These early books established Adcock's cool, lucid yet ironical style, which she has continued to apply to narratives about personal, social, and political matters, in such collections as the well-received In Focus (1977). With The Incident Book (1986), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, Adcock produced a brilliant series of poems about childhood, and another about men.

The subjects of Time Zone (1991) ranged from domestic matters to questions of contemporary politics, such as the Romanian bid for freedom in 1989, and support for "Green" causes, including the anti-nuclear stand. Adcock's mordant wit, tempered by a relaxed technical grace, and her quiet accuracy make her an eminently readable poet. Her Selected Poems, published in 1983, was reissued in 1991.