Jones was born in
Lower Hutt in 1955, and attended
Hutt Valley High School and
Victoria University of Wellington. Despite fulfilling the requirements of a political science degree, Jones was unable to graduate from university at the time due to library fines owing; he eventually completed his course of study and graduated in 2007.[1][2] He was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Victoria University in May 2009.[3]
Jones's older brother is property investor and former politician
Sir Bob Jones.[4] He also has three older sisters.[5]
Jones' partner is Australian writer
Carrie Tiffany.[1] He has two sons and a daughter.[5] One of his sons, Avi Duckor-Jones, was the winner of the first season of reality television show
Survivor NZ in 2017.[6] His other son,
Sam Duckor-Jones, is an artist and poet.[6][7]
Literary career
After leaving university and spending time travelling overseas, Jones became a sports reporter at
The Evening Post, and began writing fiction.[1][5] His first novel, Gilmore's Dairy (1985), was a satirical novel about a young man growing up in a small New Zealand town, and was followed by Splinter (1988), a novel set in Lower Hutt with two primary narratives (one about an early immigrant and the other about a magazine editor). Like his later work, these two early novels blended suburban realism, black comedy and originality.[8]
In 1988, Jones was the recipient of the
Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship.[9] In 1991 he published a short fiction collection, Swimming for Australia (1991), which was shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Award for Fiction.[8] In 1994 he curated an exhibition which illustrated the concept of Saturday in New Zealand life. The work was a collaboration with photographer Bruce Foster and held at the
National Library in
Wellington. The work was published as The Last Saturday and included historical photographs, contemporary photographs by Foster and an essay by Jones.[8]
In May 2003, a theatrical adaptation of Jones' novel The Book of Fame was presented at Wellington's
Downstage Theatre.[10] It was adapted for the stage by
Carl Nixon, New Zealand novelist and playwright.
Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance (2002)
Napoleon and the Chicken Farmer (2003)
Everything You Need to Know about the World by Simon Eliot, illustrated by Timon Maxey (Four Winds Press, 2004); US title, Everything You Need to Know About the World (2007)
^"2004 Awards". New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. Wellington, New Zealand: Booksellers New Zealand. 28 September 2011.
OCLC182896192. Archived from
the original on 2012-05-28. Retrieved 29 July 2012.