Random Play by Graham Reid

Graham Reid is a freelance journalist living off his wits and his wife. Born in Scotland and educated in Auckland, his leisurely acquired degree reflects either a broad range of interests or an embarrassing lack of focus: he has papers in Chinese Philosophy, Italian Film and Literature, Botany, Zoology and a whole swag in English and Art History.

Before he became a journalist at the New Zealand Herald (from which he resigned in 2004 after 17 years of loyal service) he had short stories and features published in Metro, wrote about the arts for the Listener, designed album covers and band posters, and once had a free-format music show on Radio Pacific as a buffer between boozy rugger-buggers and the fey tones of Hollywood gossip David Hartnell.

In 1984 he launched his own music monthly Passages: A magazine of jazz and elsewhere which flew high for 11 months then crashed. It had more subscribers in Poland than Wellington. After Passages he decided he would let others take the financial risks. The Herald looked like it was going to be around for a while so he signed on.

At the Herald he was entertainment editor and books editor, but latterly juggled his music writing with features on world and local politics, terrorism, and other important stuff. He once interviewed a race horse. He wrote satirical articles which rather too many people took rather too seriously, and serious journalism which some people didn't take seriously enough. He has won some journalism awards -- many for his travel writing in the Herald and Listener -- and in 2003 won the Media Peace Award for his articles on the tetchy politics of the Solomon Islands where he spent two weeks getting sunburned and thirsty.

His first collection of travel stories Postcards from Elsewhere won the 2006 Whitcoulls Travel Book of the Year award and, encouraged by the acclaim and fortune which followed, he has written another, The Idiot Boy Who Flew and Other Travels in Elsewhere which is available through Public Address Books.
Graham thinks it is a better book than Postcards, but he would say that, wouldn't he?

His favourite pastime is lollygagging around, usually with red wine and a remote. He has three adult children of whom he is enormously proud, and a record collection of cheap music of which he should be profoundly ashamed.

Graham Reid's thrilling music.travel.arts website is elsewhere.co.nz and he can be contacted through it.