A look back at family life

Every Sign of Life — On Family Ground

By Nicholas Lyon Gresson, Quentin Wilson Publishing, $69.99

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. The name Gresson is writ large in the annals of New Zealand law.

This family has produced a string of highprofile practitioners. Two became judges of the Supreme (now High) Court, one was the first president of this country’s Appeal Court. An earlier Gresson was Canterbury’s first resident judge.

It is a heritage Nicholas Lyon Gresson, draws heavily on.

His mother’s family had strong legal ties too.

Not all were high flyers.

The author’s maternal barrister grandfather fell foul of legal ethics.

Nicholas (aka Nicho or Nick) Gresson grew up in a life of privilege in Christchurch’s

Fendalton. Private school educated, he didn’t follow his family’s traditional legal route.

Rather, he’s been a man who has, to borrow from Shakespeare, played many parts. These include poet (he’s published four collections), artist, photographer, athlete, apprentice fitter and turner, ship’s engineer, explorer, adventurer, campaigner, investigator, sometime psychiatric hospital patient — and escapee.

He has a Queen’s Service Medal for public service.

Now an octogenarian, Gresson’s life has been full and, at times, heartbreakingly sad.

His father, Justice Terence Arbuthnot Gresson, took his life as did his mother before him. The author’s son died of epilepsy at eight.

His account of his life is written with full frontal honesty. He openly blames his mother for her husband’s suicide at 53.

This is a family saga that embraces five generations, the first fleeing Ireland’s potato famine to be among Canterbury’s early settlers. The book is peppered with fascinating characters. Meticulously researched, the end notes and index run to 57 of 736 pages.

As CK Stead writes in the foreword he finished this book full of admiration for Gresson. It’s hard to disagree.

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