Nelson Shaw

Nelson Shaw was a novelist who moved to New Zealand from Germany in 1951. His past before his move to New Zealand is gloomy and the subject of much debate and speculation. His career as a novelist is often over shadowed by rumours about his past. The most notable and accepted rumour is Shaw was once a German translater of intercepted intelligence in World War Two, called Niklaus Boyes, after which he fled to New Zealand to begin a new life. However such rumours are unsupported by facts and are commonly disregarded by historians as hearsay. When Shaw arrived in New Zealand he worked on a vinyard in the Hawkes Bay region. He eventually built a house on a small block of land and began to pursue his dream of novel writing whilst continuing to work on the vinyard part time.
Novels
Shaw self published his first two novels. 'Son of Hell', written in 1969, is a seemingly fictional story of a young officer in the German army in World War Two who must eventually face a war crimes tribunal and is imprisoned for life. His extensive knowledge of the war and military conduct fueled speculation of his involvement in the war. His first book was met by stern disapproval in the New Zealand literary society. After his death in 1989 'Son of Hell' was re-released to a much more forgiving New Zealand public. It's second edition climbed to number three on the Whitcoulls 'Top Summer Reads' list in 1989 and has since been acclaimed by modern critics and scholars. His second novel, 'The Damned and the White', was again slammed by the New Zealand literary society for its blatant racist themes and calous criticism of the New Zealand Maori. 'The Damned and the White' was never re-released but in recent times has been credited as 'briliant story telling, horrible story' by Chris Martin, of the New Zealand Herald
Shaw is also credited as coining the New Zealand expression 'Scurry-red' which means to be exhausted or short of breath. Shaw is also quoted in the New Zealand film Scarfies as saying: "The Scholar longs for depth, the genius fears it."
Death
Shaw died on March 19 of 1989. His death was caused by apparent heart failure. His last written words are well known as 'All human creatures have a wild animal at their core. The chief tragedy of our exhistence is that despite any age or time we will all be prepared to kill another and eventually we all die alone.'

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