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All Visitors Ashore
As their friends leave for Europe and the government gets tough with the unions, a bohemian community is enjoying the euphoria of youth.
It was their dreamtime. The wider world beckoned from the white ships sailing past Rangitoto Island, but the dream was also here, on the Takapuna shoreline of Auckland, where the artist Melior Farbro grew his vegetables and let Cecilia Skyways follow her own form of Zen Buddhism in his garden hut. Where Carl Skidmore, his brilliant young head full of novels waiting to be unravelled, could dream of God, Fame, Nirvana, Great Love, or maybe just great sex. Where not even the harbourfront strike of 1951 could convince them that life wasn’t about poetry and painting and potential.
It was their dreamtime. The wider world beckoned from the white ships sailing past Rangitoto Island, but the dream was also here, on the Takapuna shoreline of Auckland, where the artist Melior Farbro grew his vegetables and let Cecilia Skyways follow her own form of Zen Buddhism in his garden hut. Where Carl Skidmore, his brilliant young head full of novels waiting to be unravelled, could dream of God, Fame, Nirvana, Great Love, or maybe just great sex. Where not even the harbourfront strike of 1951 could convince them that life wasn’t about poetry and painting and potential.
150 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
4 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
C.K. Stead
68 books21 followersChristian Karlson Stead is a New Zealand writer whose works include novels, poetry, short stories, and literary criticism.
One of Karl Stead's novels, Smith's Dream, provided the basis for the film Sleeping Dogs, starring Sam Neill; this became the first New Zealand film released in the United States.
Mansfield: A Novel was a finalist for the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize and received commendation in the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region.
C. K. Stead was born in Auckland. For much of his career he was Professor of English at the University of Auckland, retiring in 1986 to write full-time. He received a CBE in 1985 and was admitted into the highest honour New Zealand can bestow, the Order of New Zealand in 2007.
One of Karl Stead's novels, Smith's Dream, provided the basis for the film Sleeping Dogs, starring Sam Neill; this became the first New Zealand film released in the United States.
Mansfield: A Novel was a finalist for the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize and received commendation in the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region.
C. K. Stead was born in Auckland. For much of his career he was Professor of English at the University of Auckland, retiring in 1986 to write full-time. He received a CBE in 1985 and was admitted into the highest honour New Zealand can bestow, the Order of New Zealand in 2007.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 22, 2025
reflective and nostalgic how can i feel that i miss the auckland love, in the first year of the second half of the century?
16. someone like myself who is full of fear but needs to look out
17. who could sing in a town where the wind blew as long and hard as it does in wellington? (70.) that windowpane brightness and clearness of air that belong to wellington and the south island
31. they are the same fingers remembering (if fingers can be said to remember)
63… nods in his chair and dreams of his machine jolting under him like an angsty steer, or of hot metal pouring into his head and settling (68.) one foot in its grave and another on a banana skin
—
87. does the artist foretell? or does the dream create reality?
101. my head my heart my hands my head in my hands and my hand on my heart;
101. the form of the form of the poem
—
NB 14.4.25 p.15 its getting dark and i’m writing by the light of a kerosene lantern because there’s no electricity in this hut and i’m glad of that because the last place i was in my head was so electrified my hair still stands all around it, a kind of halo that makes me feel akin to you, floydie
16. someone like myself who is full of fear but needs to look out
17. who could sing in a town where the wind blew as long and hard as it does in wellington? (70.) that windowpane brightness and clearness of air that belong to wellington and the south island
31. they are the same fingers remembering (if fingers can be said to remember)
63… nods in his chair and dreams of his machine jolting under him like an angsty steer, or of hot metal pouring into his head and settling (68.) one foot in its grave and another on a banana skin
—
87. does the artist foretell? or does the dream create reality?
101. my head my heart my hands my head in my hands and my hand on my heart;
101. the form of the form of the poem
—
NB 14.4.25 p.15 its getting dark and i’m writing by the light of a kerosene lantern because there’s no electricity in this hut and i’m glad of that because the last place i was in my head was so electrified my hair still stands all around it, a kind of halo that makes me feel akin to you, floydie
November 3, 2023
It's 1951 in Auckland, New Zealand and we are introduced to 20 year old, aspiring writer, Curl Skidmore and his fellow writers, artists, and musical acquaintances. As you're exposed to the characters, we temporarily jump forward into time, to 30 years in the future, where Curl is making comments about what happened in the past.
Memories over the passage of time becomes blurred, and things that we remember may not be exactly what happened. This seems to be the weakness of the novel. While there are a few vivid moments described, most of the book is made up of weakly linked events that makes the stories seem incomplete, occurring to characters that appear to have little substance. The reader is told what has happened, but the novel lacks emotional connections between the characters and the reader.
Memories over the passage of time becomes blurred, and things that we remember may not be exactly what happened. This seems to be the weakness of the novel. While there are a few vivid moments described, most of the book is made up of weakly linked events that makes the stories seem incomplete, occurring to characters that appear to have little substance. The reader is told what has happened, but the novel lacks emotional connections between the characters and the reader.
June 24, 2017
Beautiful!
October 10, 2017
So beautifully written
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February 16, 2022Cover for this book is actually really nice, it's a shame it's not on here.
January 4, 2013
I am a great fan of stream of consciousness writing with Virginia Woolf one of my all time favourite authors. C.K. Stead's writing style fits this, and the All Visitors Ashore captures characters, context and the Auckland Harbour well. A worthwhile read if you like this style. If not, you're likely to hate it!
January 18, 2016
Beautifully written. The narration is very cinematic and flows very well. The main character is an asshole but the story is so rich and the characters so well developed that you want to stick to the end.
October 28, 2014
Still trying to wrap my head around it
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September 2, 2018Good but too much graphic heterosexual sex
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews