To get to the front door of Rannoch, the Arts and Crafts-style house always described as a mansion, you drive down a private lane. The house is shrouded from view by dense planting. It says, like the houses of any very rich person, that this is a private place, a sanctuary. As you wind up the driveway, there are glimpses of sculptures, of the house. In retrospect, given what we now know about its owner, it seems to be a shadowy place, a place where ill-kept secrets were concealed. There is an air of the Gothic about Rannoch.
In 2011, I knocked on the front door and Sir James Wallace answered. I was there to talk to him for a newspaper profile. He almost never gave personal interviews. But he was friendly, in his austere, almost aristocratic manner. He had an old-fashioned, gentlemanly manner. I liked him. But you could not describe him as effusive.
Lots of awfully rich people are elusive. They can afford to be. Money gives you immunity from scrutiny.
He had just been knighted. He wore to his investiture his clan kilt. His gong was for services to the arts. His trust, the James Wallace Arts Trust Collection - now renamed the Arts House Trust gives about $2 million a year to various art projects.
If you knocked on the front door of Rannoch today, he couldn't answer. He's no longer home. He's serving two years and four months in Auckland's Mt Eden Prison after being found guilty of indecent assault against three men, and two charges of attempting to dissuade a witness from testifying. Perhaps fittingly, Mt Eden Prison is a Gothic pile.
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First-world problem
Harrowing tales of migrants attempting to enter the US highlight the political failure to fully tackle the problem.
Applying intelligence to AI
I call it the 'Terminator Effect', based on the premise that thinking machines took over the world.
Nazism rears its head
Smirky Höcke, with his penchant for waving with a suspiciously straight elbow and an open palm, won't get to be boss of either state.
Staying ahead of the game
Will the brave new world of bipartisanship that seems to be on offer with an Infrastructure Commission come to fruition?
Grasping the nettle
Broccoli is horrible. It smells, when being cooked, like cat pee.
Hangry? Eat breakfast
People who don't break their fast first thing in the morning report the least life satisfaction.
Chemical reaction
Nitrates in processed meats are well known to cause harm, but consumed from plant sources, their effect is quite different.
Me and my guitar
Australian guitarist Karin Schaupp sticks to the familiar for her Dunedin concerts.
Time is on my side
Age does not weary some of our much-loved musicians but what keeps them on the road?
The kids are not alright
Nuanced account details how China's blessed generation has been replaced by one consumed by fear and hopelessness.