Literary Works
Bootham's early novels and short stories attracted favourable reviews, and in 1973 he was awarded a New Zealand Literary Fund Writing Bursary.
His 1999 short story collection Ivan Bootham Stories, from Fracas Publications, includes the story "A Change Is As Good As A Rest", which was short-listed for the 1989 Mobil/Dominion Sunday Times short story contest judged by Malcolm Bradbury. His radio plays include Mutuwhenua, an imaginatively dramatised treatment of the 1886 Mt Tarawera eruption. His other pieces for radio include Bus Ominibus and But For, performed by Alan Jervis and Pat Evison and broadcast on the YC Station of the NZBC.
Bootham's most recent works include three novellas published as Quince.Noon - the Trilogy (2001); a short story collection The Book of Cheerful Despair (2002); and a novel The Doctor Jesus Sanatorium (2003). A theme in much of his fiction is that of the artist struggling to come to terms with the gap between his creative aspirations and his achievements. Bootham has been praised as a highly original comic writer. His tone ranges from the ironic to the acerbic, his constantly self-questioning characters often relishing wordplay and verbal invention. He has also had art criticism and cartoons published, including a book of musical cartoons, sff.
Bootham is married with twin daughters. He is the son of the painter Joe Bootham.
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