Simon Acland

Simon Acland grew up on a sheep station in the High Country of South Canterbury, New Zealand. His first radio broadcast was at the age of six when he recited a poem he had written on Children’s Hour on New Zealand Radio’s 3ZB. He attended the local village school until he went away to boarding school in Christchurch. While still at secondary school he broadcast again, for Children’s Hour, on pets. A subject about which he knew very little. After dropping out of university he worked as a cadet reporter for the Christchurch Star, the local evening newspaper, and then continued as a reporter until travelling to England, by sea, in 1962.

After doing a series of jobs including a very brief spell as waiter for a catering company and a more lengthy time as a paint salesman for Berger Paints he then studied at an Anglican Theological College, Westcott House in Cambridge England before being ordained in Manchester Cathedral in 1967. He ministered in parishes in Manchester, Christchurch New Zealand and Singapore before being appointed Chaplain to his old school Christ’s College in Christchurch. After Christ’s College he was vicar of an inner city church and wrote a weekly column, ‘The Vicar Writes’, for the Star Newspaper. Simon returned to work in the Diocese of London in 1985.

From 2000, Simon broadcast on New Zealand National Radio, ‘People and Places’, which became ‘Simon Acland’s Thoughts from Abroad’. These were short talks broadcast on Bank Holidays and during January (New Zealand’s summer holiday period). When asked how he thought his thoughts Simon said, ’When most people travel they take photographs. I am the world’s worst photographer. I take a note book. And I do listen in to people’s conversations and I observe what’s going on and I make notes about what I think. That’s where the thoughts come from.’ Elizabeth Alley, one time Features Manager at Radio New Zealand, wrote of Simon’s broadcasts ‘Collectively, they inform, often amuse, always interest and sometimes provoke us into broader thinking. Most of all, they are human vignettes of universal meaning which help us make sense of our own place in an increasingly complex world.’

In 2003 Simon developed, from his broadcasts, with Eliza Thompson directing, a ‘One Man Show’, ‘Hello! Where are you from?’ which he quickly changed to being a ‘Talk’. ‘I’m not an actor. With a ‘One Man Show’ people have a high expectation of top rate entertainment, and rightly so,’ Simon said. ‘With a talk there’s a preparedness to be bored so anything above boredom level gets good marks. I was especially pleased when New Zealand’s most popular playwright, Roger Hall, gave me 11 out of 10!’

Since then Simon has given his talks, including ‘Hello! Where are you from?’, ‘The New Zealander’, ‘Thinking Aloud’, and ‘It’s part of the Ageing Process’, in different centres in New Zealand, and, in London, at the Chelsea Festival, the Dover Street Arts Club and at the White Bear Pub Theatre in Kennington.

Simon has lived in Kennington for the past twenty years and is Honorary Assistant Priest at St Agnes Church, Kennington Park, where he is a parishioner.