Dame Fiona on film 'THIS IS THE REAL ME!'

The literary icon lifts the lid on life as an author

- Sophie Neville

As a child, Dame Fiona Kidman loved to listen in on other people's conversations. That innate curiosity, she believes, laid the foundations for her remarkable career as one of New Zealand's most distinguished writers. At 85, she's still putting pen to paper, but the literary legend admits her eavesdropping skills aren't quite what they used to be. “I'm deaf!” she laughs.

“I have hearing aids but it’s very frustrating because I’m not anywhere near as good at picking up conversations as I used to be.”

Fiona’s speaking to the Weekly from her house on the hill in Hataitai, Wellington, where she’s lived for 51 years. With views across Cook Strait, the airport, Hutt Valley and the mountains beyond, her home provides an ever-changing vantage point that she can’t imagine being without.

“I love that it’s unchanging in the geographical sense,” she shares. “But it’s different every time you look out the window.”

The bungalow also features prominently in new documentary The House Within, which paints an intimate portrait of Fiona’s fascinating and often tumultuous life.