A Portrait of Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield, a rare New Zealand writer to achieve international renown, left for Europe as a 19-year-old. Written and directed by Julienne Stretton, this documentary examines Mansfield's complicated relationships with her family and homeland, her turbulent personal life, her writing — credited with changing the course of the English short story — and her early death in France in 1923, at age 34. Shot in five countries and presented by actor Catherine Wilkin, it includes interviews with her companion, Ida Baker (from 1974) and biographer Claire Tomalin. Ilona Rodgers reads from Mansfield’s writings.

How many women, in 1908, would have been prepared to leave a wealthy middle class New Zealand family, go 11,000 miles to the other side of the world to live a bohemian life in London because they believed in their ability to create art?

– Biographer Cherry Hankin

Key Cast & Crew

Julienne Stretton

Writer, Director

Bayly Watson

Camera

Catherine Wilkin

Presenter

Ilona Rodgers

Voice of Katherine Mansfield

Gillian Boddy

Research

Sue Kedgley

Producer