Fascinating, highly readable tales of travels in the troubled land of Afghanistan by award-winning New Zealand travel writer Ian Robinson.In 2008, Ian Robinson ventured into the hustle and bustle and dangers of the streets of many of Afghanistan's cities and towns, and also, alone on horseback, into the sparsely populated north-eastern regions of t.. More
The (almost) true story of a man Called Jack is about my father, John Frederick Lingard Fowlds. I decided to write this as a fictionalized memoir, combining the genres of fiction and memoir. By altering names and events, I could write about my family as ‘other’, enabling me to write more objectively of the personal events involved. The story r.. More
alarmist (pre 2020): Someone who exaggerates a danger and so causes needless worry or panic.alarmist (post 2020): Someone who justifiably raises the alarm about a global danger to Earth's biosphere.His research was urgent fifty years ago. Now, it’s critical.In the early 1970s, budding Kiwi scientist Dave Lowe was posted at an atmospheric monitoring.. More
A Life of Donald McLeanShortlisted for the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book AwardsShortlisted for the University of Melbourne-based Ernest Scott Prize for 2008This monumental work of scholarship is the first full biography of one of the key actors in the drama of 19 th-century New Zealand land dealing. It fills a gaping hole in NZ historiography, and .. More
A holidaying writer becomes entranced by the story of two great New Zealand eccentrics. First there is Franklin Bodmin, self-taught genius and inventor of the crinkled hairpin and the first modern carburettor, who became an entrepreneur in America, living out the dreams of success of an entire generation. Growing up in Invercargill, in the shado.. More
When John Summers moved to a small town in the Wairarapa and began to look closely at the less-celebrated aspects of local life – our club rooms, freezing works, night trains, hotel pubs, landfills – he saw something deeper. It was a story about his own life, but mostly about a place and its people. The story was about life and death in New Zealand.. More
From early childhood in post-war Blenheim to the remote regions of Bangladesh, from an English boarding school to 1960s Auckland, from Jordan during the civil war of 1969-70 to family homes full of children, this dazzling book traces the many shifts in Ian Wedde’s life.
Haunted by the ghosts of his restless German and Scottish great gr.. More
This eclectic memoir spans nearly 70 years, including over 50 years of medical experiences, and describes the intriguing journey of a doctor in a changing world. From working class roots in Glasgow, the author includes student adventures and travels, the rigours of postgraduate training, and the richness and variety of a peripatetic medical life. I.. More
Autobiographical memoir of John Terris QSM, radio and TV personality (1970s), local and central government (1970s-2000s), media commentator and licensed Anglican priest. The first volume of his autobiography, Being Who You Are, was published in 2004... More
A true ‘gone-fishing’ story of one man and a passion which endures to this day.Alain Jorion is the first New Zealander to have captured the ‘grand slam’ of game fishing, comprising a top-class specimen of each of the big game fish — the billfish slam of black marlin, blue marlin, striped marlin, shortbilled spearfish and broadbill swordfish, and th.. More
This compelling biography of Lady Mary Anne Barker is a fascinating account of a Victorian woman who, through the course of her life, lived in England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Mauritius, Australia and Trinidad. Momentous historical events of the period, such as the Indian Mutiny (Revolt) and the Zulu Wars, all directly impacted upon her p.. More
In this second collection of his best published stories, Derek Grzelewski writes of his journeys through New Zealand. He discovers in these small islands a land very much like a continent in the diversity of its spaces and places, and the people who live, work and play there.Along the way, Grzelewski ranges across subjects as rich and varied as the.. More
The VUP Home Reader is everything we’re working on at the moment—extracts of books which were published in February and March, books which are in the warehouse or on the water, final proofs and uncorrected proofs, manuscripts and work-in-progress—stretching into 2021. We offer it as company, as entertainment, as a promise.Stay safe and well.Stay ho.. More