Douglas Lilburn, Lili Kraus and post-war New Zealand
When I took up writing again I wanted to write about the encounter of New Zealanders with the world of the European refugees who came to New Zealand. In an interview Douglas Lilburn mentioned that hearing Lili Kraus inspired him to write his string trio. Lili Kraus survived the war in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in very difficult circumstances. After the war she remembered that she had met Mrs. Nash, the wife of the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister at a function in London. Walter Nash, an impulsive politician, but known for his personal interst in people, invited Lili Kraus to come to New Zealand and offered her citizenship. In the event she went to what was then the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. There was already a colony of well known European musicians there. This turned out to be a bad move. After the war Lili Kraus remembered the offer of Walter Nash, and lived in New Zealand  for some time She gave hundreds of concerts. She also taught at the Cambridge Summer Music Course, and Douglas Lilburn, at the time a very promising young composer, met her there. It was Douglas remembering the playing of Lili Kraus that was the inspiration for my story, Beethoven in Tirau This story was broadcast over National Radio. The link to it is below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B20wnKDgcC_CdHZHLXBQOFh3TFU/view

Not only was I interested in the encounter between New Zealand colonial culture and European middle class culture. I was also interested in the interaction between fact and fiction. In this story I used real incidents in the life of Lili Kraus, but the story of the main character is pure fiction. But there are parallels between his story and that of Douglas Lilburn, who grew up on a farm in Rangitikei, lived a solitary life and was a truly cultured man.