JUNE 8 2019 LISTENER 33
curiosity about those questions, too.
You list sport as a hobby, having played
soccer a lot, but also admit to blobbing out
in front of the television. This is a random but
topical question: are you a Game of Thrones
fan?I feel like I’m one of the only people in
the world who wasn’t following Games of
Thrones, but I probably should have. I do
watch some box sets – we [with partner
Lucila] watched The West Wing, which
was close to home, and I watched a show
called The Americans, which is a Russian
CIA espionage Cold War thing.What are you reading?
I read quite a lot of fiction, because it
puts you into a different world. I am just
finishing Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen,
and I have really enjoyed it. I recentlyread Tina Makereti’s Where the Rēkohu
Bone Sings, which was very good. It is
nice to read New Zealand literature when
you are abroad, as it helps keep up the
connection.
I also read The Luminaries [by Eleanor
Catton] and really enjoyed it. Initially, I
was a bit daunted by the size, but when
I got into it, it was fantastic. I’ve also
recently read Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee,
about generations of Korean immigrants
in Japan. It is a brilliant read about a place
and time I don’t know much about.What’s do you most enjoy about your work?
I have been lucky to work on issues to
do with economic development and
education. I have always been interested
in international development, perhaps
inspired by May and
Harry. The best part
is being able to try to
make a contribution,
however small, and
to feel useful. That
doesn’t happen every
day, but when it
does, however fleet-
ingly, it is the best
thing I experience. lSA
LM
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N
FA
M
ILY(^) C
O
LL
EC
TI
O
N
She passed away when I was seven, but
I do remember her. She was a big figure
in our family life. Her book, a record of
her life, was a gift for us. Reading it was
influential for me in terms of some of the
choices she and my grandfather, Harry,
made, trying to do something to help the
world. Most striking was their decision
to go to Peru in their sixties and set up a
pottery workshop, then hand it on to the
local community.
On the paternal side of the family was your
grandfather, John Salmon, who wrote a
range of books, including The Native Trees of
New Zealand. Planting trees is so much about
the future. Did his interests and your parents’
involvement in environmental activism rub
off on you?
Yes, and my grandmother, Pam, was
also published. My parents were
involved in the Native Forests Action
Council. Thinking about the environ-
ment tends to make you think about
the future. In my book, I touch a lot
on issues of automation and artificial
intelligence, but I really wanted to bring
into that questions of climate and the
environment, because I think they inter-
sect, and there is a long family history of
3
2
“One of the things I’ve
missed about being
overseas is being
able to easily go to
beautiful places.”
1
- Kinley with his
parents, Guy Salmon
and Gwenny Davis,
and brother in 1991.
2. With partner
Lucila on Harvard
graduation day in
- On the soccer
field in 1999.
- On the soccer