Scott Menzies, writer and former Canta Editor, dies aged 49

“Over the years, Scott wrote more than 20 short stories, a couple of novellas, and at least three unpublished novels.” Source: Supplied / Jenna Heller. 

Scott Kenneth Menzies, a fiction writer, urban commentator, and 1997 Canta Editor, died on Tuesday 27 February in Ōtautahi Christchurch after a long illness. He was 49. 

If you’ve ever visited Scott at his beloved Merivale flat of more than two decades, the first thing you would have noticed – the thing you couldn’t help but notice – were all the books. Big books, little books, hardcover, softcover. Nearly all of them with little slips of paper sticking out from between carefully-selected pages. Reference points for a repeat, selected read. 

There were books packed neatly into and on top of book shelves. Books stacked on the table, a few on the couch, some on the floor. An invitation to be curious. A quick glance at the spines and you’d find Gore Vidal, Janet Frame, Maurice Gee, James Salter, David Ballantyne, and James Baldwin. 

Soon after noticing the books, you’d start to spot his other love: maps. There was a large one of the City of London from 1851, framed and hanging pride of place on his main living room wall. 

Without meaning to, your eyes would trace the snaking River Thames and slip through the illustrated streets and past buildings of the great imperial city. An intriguing focal point, perhaps best understood as a symbol for a life lived with both order and curiosity, and an homage to a city he loved almost as much as his beloved Christchurch. 

As an observer of humanity and city life, Scott was deeply committed to exploring, understanding, and commenting on human relationships, how we construct society, and the way civic life shapes us. He was intensely inquisitive, interested, and highly engaged right to the end. 

As a young lad, Scott became fascinated with newspapers. Growing up in Blenheim, the sunny town in the heart of wine-growing Marlborough, he remembers coming home from school, making a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of chocolate Quik, and then lying on the floor to read the Marlborough Express. He was as interested in how the newspaper was constructed as he was with its contents. 

When he was eight years old, he had his first letter to the editor published in the same paper. 

“I still remember what a thrill it was seeing what I’d written along with my name in print. I suppose that’s what set me off. Not long after that, I wrote the mayor who invited me to go to a local council meeting. It was quite a buzz.” 

Around this same time, Scott discovered an interest in maps and, oddly enough, phone books. 

“I remember saving up my pocket money to buy a map of Wellington and a map of Auckland. I’d go exploring around the cities with my finger. But it wasn’t just getting to know the places. I admired the beauty and attractiveness of the map, itself. How intricate they could be. I remember getting the Master Atlas of Greater London and being amazed by the density of streets compared to Marlborough.” 

His interest in maps led him to become curious about the places themselves, and next, the people who lived there. He started to send away for maps, newspapers, and eventually phone books from around the world. Together, these items gave him an insight into places like Iceland, Los Angeles, London. 

“It was a way of travelling without travelling. The phone books contained much more than just lists of names. They have advertisements. It was a window into that culture, that society.” 

Soon, he was creating his own records of life. While attending Bohally Intermediate, he started a magazine called the ‘Bohally Buster’ which was full of news and creative writing. Closer to home, he created, wrote, and published a family newspaper called ‘The Menzies’. 

Scott attended the University of Canterbury where he received a BA in Geography and did his Honours in Journalism in 1995. Upon graduating, he found himself “a job to pay the bills” but returned to UC in 1997 as the Editor of Canta, the university’s student news and entertainment magazine. 

Menzies’ Canta team in 1997. Source: Supplied / Jenna Heller. 

“Looking back, I see now that that year was probably the highlight of my life. It was the best year. I loved every minute of it. 

“I had a clear vision for how I wanted it to be which was truly reflective of student communities. I introduced a lot of new things, like having a reader representative who would provide quarterly feedback and help inform the direction. 

“I also introduced a lot of columns for students to have a voice. I introduced a column for Māori, a column for religion, a column called ‘Seven Days in the Life’. I also introduced a semi-satirical column that focused on university politics called ‘The Fifth Element’.” 

Scott continued to write and comment on society through op-ed pieces, specifically around urban design and architecture. In a piece that appeared in The Press in September 2020, he wrote:  

In the wake of the earthquakes, I urged architects and developers to give us an architecture that delights our senses and tugs at our heartstrings. Give us rooflines that echo hills and alpine ridges, I said, give us façades that ripple like the river, stamp natural patterns into concrete, give us light and warmth. 

My hopes have been rewarded. Look at the Bus Interchange’s ‘Port Hills’, the Deloitte building’s ‘waves’, a parking building’s ‘snowy slopes’, Te Pae’s ‘braided river’, Tūranga’s ‘harakeke’, the combinations of glass, metal, wood, concrete, and brick. I tip my hat to architects and clients able and willing to give us more than ticky-tacky boxes. 

Perhaps more personally, Scott channelled his interest in understanding the human condition, and how it impacts society, through writing fiction. As soon as he could write, he wrote, illustrated, and bound his first short story collection, Lost. 

“When I was 14 or 15, I was given a typewriter for Christmas. I used it to write my first incomplete novel which was about a 747 travelling from New York to London and in the process travelling back in time to 1888 and the time of Jack the Ripper. 

“It had a Nazi plot; I bumped off Queen Victoria; and the protagonist turns out to be his own grandfather. That’s where things started to unravel for me. The logic was challenging. I’d write whenever I could, including during breaks in the school day.” 

Over the years, Scott wrote more than 20 short stories, a couple of novellas, and at least three unpublished novels. His short stories tended to focus on what happens between people – friends and lovers – and they often have male protagonists, fictional blokes who are coming out around the same time of life that Scott, himself, came out. 

His stories hold truths that are both beautiful and harsh, often leaving the reader with a perspective they may not have otherwise encountered. His fictional men are bruised and bashful, broken and beautiful. His short stories have appeared in places like Landfall, takahē, Persephone’s Daughter, and Pure Slush. 

At the time of his death, he was rewriting a very promising novel titled Bosker. Taking place in 1905 Pōneke Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, the story addresses the political and social climate at the time as experienced through the eyes of a young Pākehā chap and his growing love for a male Japanese migrant. 

Scott was a prolific writer and thinker and always had something on the go. He said that he liked to “build up a head of steam, pace around, then get writing around mid-morning and try to write until midday. I like to picture where the story is going and I do heaps of research to make sure it’s accurate.” 

This was true for everything from a precise turn of phrase to the way a particular medicine was packaged and advertised back in early 1900s New Zealand. 

Our conversations took place over the course of the last six months of Scott’s life. He said that it was strange being on the other side of an interview. Then he took a bite from a square of raspberry slice and said, “I’m more of a savoury person. I love risotto, spag-bol, potato top pies with tomato sauce with just a sprinkle of pepper. They’re the best.” 

Scott is survived by his parents, Ken and Dianne; his sister Tracey Blackley; and nieces Isla and Lucia.