Bruce Jesson

Bruce Edward Jesson (1944 - 1999) was a left wing journalist, author and political figure in New Zealand. Bruce Edward Jesson was the son of Victor John and Edna Cavell (nee Taylor) Jesson and the great-grandson of an immigrant from Leicestershire,UK He was educated at Christchurch Boys' High School (where he read Darwin's Origin of Species while a "lab boy" in the biology laboratory and became an atheist) and the University of Canterbury, where ... more

Bruce Edward Jesson (1944 - 1999) was a left wing journalist, author and political figure in New Zealand. Bruce Edward Jesson was the son of Victor John and Edna Cavell (nee Taylor) Jesson and the great-grandson of an immigrant from Leicestershire,UK He was educated at Christchurch Boys' High School (where he read Darwin's Origin of Species while a "lab boy" in the biology laboratory and became an atheist) and the University of Canterbury, where he gained a Bachelor's degree in law. He worked briefly as a law clerk, but refused to swear allegiance to the Queen, and was never admitted to the Bar. He had two daughters, Linley Kay (Botanist) and Rebecca Ngaire. As a student in the 1960s, he was initially attracted to the Communist Party of New Zealand which tried to groom him to be the party's lawyer. The CPNZ had been the first communist party in the world to side with China in the Sino-Soviet split. However, Jesson, being an independent thinker, soon struck out on his own, writing a... less