He married Alison Whyte at St John's Church, Latimer Square, in Christchurch on 20 March 1948[1] and after a period in the army he began working in advertising.

[2] In 1959, Brathwaite wrote his first book, Fear in the Night, a novel set in the Pacific during the Second World War, in which a New Zealand air crew try to repair their bomber and get it airborne again before an approaching Japanese patrol arrives.

The three novels The Flying Fish, The Needle's Eye and The Evil Day, written between 1964 and 1967, are a trilogy set during the New Zealand Wars of the nineteenth century.

[4] He wrote over 30 books, including many travel guides to New Zealand, and numerous radio plays.

[2] In the 2001 New Year Honours, Brathwaite was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature.