AustLit

Sargeson was educated in Hamilton and Auckland, completing his training as a solicitor in 1926. After spending two years in Britain and Europe, Sargeson returned to New Zealand, eschewed the law as a career and, after working at various jobs, took up writing full-time. He spent most of the remainder of his life on family land near Takapuna.

A significant writer of short stories, Sargeson also wrote novels and, in his final decade, an autobiographical trilogy.