Roger Evans faces each day on his dairy farm in Shropshire with a wonderful mixture of dry humour, sharp observation and a delight in the natural world and the animals around him. This latest book of his popular diary entries takes his fans through the weeks of the past two years and covers his beloved farm dogs, his cattle, his friends at the pub. He struggles through all weather, survives the ups and (mainly) downs facing everyone in the dairy industry and he encounters several unexpected events along the way. Very funny, uplifting and a joy to read.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 192

Dimensions: 138 x 216 mm

Publication Date: 02-09-2016

HEARD ISLAND, an improbably remote speck in the far Southern Ocean, lies four thousand kilometres to the south-west of Australia—with Antarctica its nearest continent. By 1964 it had been the object of a number of expeditions, but none reaching the summit of its 9000-foot volcanic peak ‘Big Ben’. In that year Warwick Deacock resolved to rectify this omission, and as-sembled a party of nine with impressive credentials embracing mountaineering, exploration, science and medicine, plus his own organisation and leadership skills as a former Major in the British Army. But first they had to get there. Heard had no airstrip and was on no steamer route; the only way was by sea in their own vessel. Approached from Australia, the island lay in the teeth of the prevailing westerlies of the ‘Roar-ing Forties’and ‘Furious Fifties’. One name, only, came to mind as the skipper to navigate them safely to their destination, and safely home—the veteran mountaineer turned high-latitude sailor H. W. ‘Bill’ Tilman, already renowned for his ‘sailing to climb’ expeditions to Patagonia, Greenland and Arctic Canada, and the sub-Antarctic archipelagos of Crozet and Kerguelen, to the north-west of Heard Island. He readily ‘signed on’ to Warwick Deacock’s team of proven individuals and their well-found sailing vessel Patanela. In this first-hand account, as fresh today as on its first publication fifty years ago, Philip Temple invites us all on this superbly conducted, happy and successful expedition, aided by many previously unpublished photographs by Warwick Deacock. ‘The Skipper’—a man not free with his praise—described the enterprise as ‘a complete thing’. PHILIP TEMPLE was born in Yorkshire in 1939, educated in London, and emigrated to New Zealand in 1957. Prior to this expedition he had climbed extensively in New Zealand and West New Guinea. Since 1972 he has followed a career as an author of both fiction and non-fiction, often writing books about mountains and exploration. He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2005 for ‘services to literature’ and gained a LittD degree in 2007. He lives in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 232

Dimensions: 216 x 216 mm

Publication Date: 01-08-2016

Be Who You Are is the story of Anna Simms’ personal Reiki journey. The words “Rei’ and Ki’ are thought to originate from ‘Raku-Kei’ and are from the Japanese language. Raku is the vertical energy flow through the body and Kei is the horizontal energy flow. ‘Raku-Kei’ is the art and science of self-improvement used by ancient Tibetan llamas dating back thousands of years. Reiki (pronounced Ray-key) means Universal Life force and is a system of natural healing which involves the lay-on of hands and distant healing. As Anna Simms says: “It was nearly 30 years ago when I discovered Reiki. I was living in Hong Kong and due to go into hospital for major surgery. It was also the year I decided I would compete in the Dragon Boat races, so I wanted to heal quickly.” Dragon boating seemed impossible, but someone mentioned Reiki. Anna saw a practitioner, made a surprisingly rapid recovery from her operation and competed in national and international Dragon Boat competitions that year on Hong Kong Harbour.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 72

Dimensions: 148 x 210 mm

From soup cans to car crashes, the early work of Andy Warhol is reconsidered in this illustrated collection of essays from a wide variety of scholars, writers, and artists. Andy Warhol embodied many of the paradoxes of postwar America. Emerging as a successful commercial artist during the heyday of Madison Avenue, Warhol was obsessed with consumer objects and the production of fame. His early work reveals his fascination with Hollywood stars, everyday household products, disasters, car crashes, and the Kennedy assassination. In this provocative and stimulating collection of essays, Warhol and his art illuminate the utopian promise and the dark side of what Henry Luce called “the American Century.” Stuart Morgan considers the public and private Andy Warhol; Barbara Kruger looks at the polarized responses to his work; Richard Prince offers a wry comparison between himself and his more famous predecessor; and other writers, artists, and scholars contribute their own thoughts and reactions to Warhol the man and artist. Illustrated throughout with a wide ranging series of illustrations of Warhol’s famed and lesser known works, this collection brings into clearer focus the artist’s personal struggles to make sense of the world he inhabited.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 300

Dimensions: 230 x 305 mm

Publication Date: 01-06-2017

This book explores how Georgia O’Keeffe lived her life steeped in modernism, bringing the same style she developed in her art to her dress, her homes, and her lifestyle. Richly illustrated with images of her art and views of the two homes she designed and furnished in New Mexico, the book also includes never before published photographs of O’Keeffe’s clothes. The author has attributed some of the most exquisite of these garments to O’Keeffe, a skilled seamstress who understood fabric and design, and who has become an icon in today’s fashion world as much for her personal style as for her art. As one of her friends stated, O’Keeffe “never allowed her life to be one thing and her painting another.” This fresh and carefully researched study brings O’Keeffe’s style to life, illuminating how this beloved American artist purposefully proclaimed her modernity in the way she dressed and posed for photographers, from Alfred Stieglitz to Bruce Weber. This beautiful book accompanies the first museum exhibition to bring together photographs, clothes, and art to explore O’Keeffe’s unified modernist aesthetic.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 230 x 270 mm

Publication Date: 01-03-2017

Now available in a new edition, this lavishly illustrated volume draws on the latest research to present an exciting new interpretation of Albrecht Dürer, both as a man and as an artist. Albrecht Durer’s prints and drawings have inspired hundreds of artists, both during his life and after his death. Yet his talent as a painter and colorist, and his enthusiasm for the scientific world have not been widely appreciated. Durer’s influence was both international and intergenerational—indeed Picasso claimed to have been inspired by the 16th-century artist. Reproduced in stunning detail and including illustrations of Durer’s most famous prints and drawings, a catalog raisonne of his paintings, and biographical research, this book presents a Durer for the 21st century. Producing more self-portraits than any other artist of his day; mass marketing his best-selling prints; even inventing his own monogram logo; Albrecht Durer was commercially astute long before today’s generation of self-promoting and financially-savvy artists. There are 55 extant Durer paintings, of which 17 are in dispute. Using scientific research, this book puts all arguments to bed resulting in the definitive catalog raisonne of the paintings. Drawing on in-depth research, this book reveals the truth behind Durer and his art.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 300

Dimensions: 222 x 320 mm

Publication Date: 01-02-2017

A mother's incredible story of how she got 'mugged' by the Child Services system, how she got her kids back and the price she had to pay SHE FOUGHT THE LAW, AND THE LAW LOST Sue O’Callaghan was one of us. Just an ordinary mum, living an ordinary life, in a nice house with her husband and family. Ordinary, that is, until the day her husband took the children for a walk and never came home. Like any mother, she was worried: Had her family been in a terrible accident? Had they been the victims of a crime? Little did Sue know that her ‘loving’ husband and his parents had been corresponding for months behind the scenes with Child Protection Services and his psychiatrist, plotting a way to leave his wife and secure custody of their children in one fell swoop. They did it by fabricating mental illness—hers! It was all there—documented in writing for Social Services, chapter and verse—but she wasn’t ill! The diagnosis had been written by a psychiatrist who had never treated her. It got worse—officials told Sue they would seize custody of Sue’s unborn baby as well, and she was forced to give birth under guard. Taken is the incredible, gripping story of a young mother who had to fight the courts, Social Services and her husband to get her children back. Sue O’Callaghan went to the Gates of Hell. And won. An inspirational true story that reads like a thriller and feels like a movie. It really is possible to beat City Hall...Taken is a must-read for parents everywhere.."

Bind: paperback

Pages: 222

Publication Date: 14-11-2016

These angling stories will whet your appetite to be out on the river again. From one end of New Zealand to the other, these short chapters introduce the reader to some of our country’s fabulous wild waters and the cunning brown and rainbow trout lurking in them. With beautiful photographs of New Zealand’s back country rivers this could almost be a travel book as much as a set of fishing yarns. As author Tony and his wife wander from one river to another you will be introduced to the wild, untamed beauty of our nation. You will experience Tony’s love of nature and the tranquillity of the back country rivers as much as the thrill of landing some of those big trout. Written by the author of The Black Singlet Brigade and Boots ’n’ All, Wimps in Waders is a book for any-one who enjoys a lazy afternoon on a riverbank as much as the adrenaline rush brought on by the hunt for that worthy adversary, New Zealand’s well-schooled trout. Experiences gained in 50 years of fishing make for an enthralling read as Tony grows from a tentative spin fisherman to a fully-fledged angler. A chance encounter with another river bed angler led to Tony’s introduction to the local fishing club and as he confesses his membership led to growth in his skills. This can be noted from the explanations of fishing techniques and fly tying guidelines found throughout the book. These short stories explore some of our relatively unknown streams and are beautifully illustrated with full colour photographs.

Bind: paperback

Publication Date: 28-10-2016

This volume of Charles Brasch’s journals covers the years from late 1945 to the end of 1957, when the poet and editor was aged 36 to 48. It begins with his return to New Zealand after World War II to establish a literary quarterly to be published by the Caxton Press. The journals cover the first decade or so of his distinguished editorship of Landfall, a role that brought Brasch into contact with New Zealand’s leading artists and intelligentsia. His frank and often detailed descriptions of these people – including Frank Sargeson, A.R.D. Fairburn, Keith Sinclair, Eric McCormick, James Bertram, J.C. Beaglehole, Maria Dronke, Fred and Evelyn Page, Alistair Campbell, Bill Oliver, Toss and Edith Woollaston, Denis Glover, Allen Curnow, Leo Bensemann, Lawrence Baigent, Ngaio Marsh, Colin McCahon, James K. Baxter, Janet Frame, Ruth Dallas and many others – are among the highlights of the book. Unmarried and longing for intimacy, Brasch also writes with great candour about his relationships with Rose Archdall, Rodney Kennedy and Harry Scott, revealing a side of himself that has not been known about before. Central to Brasch’s life was the vocation of poetry. He writes movingly about his own work, and also about his love of nature and the outdoors, including lively descriptions of walking the Milford and Routeburn tracks. The book ends with his visit to Europe in 1957, which confirmed his sense that New Zealand had become for him ‘a centre & a world’. A lengthy introduction by Peter Simpson and other editorial apparatus guide the reader through this engrossing material.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 660

Dimensions: 170 x 245 mm

Publication Date: 01-05-2017

Meet the inspirational dogs who went from being rescued to becoming rescuer, in these incredible true stories. You'll read all about...* Toby, the golden retriever who performed the Heimlich manoeuvre to save his owner's life * Liam, the Lhaso Apso-Poodle mix who helped his owner battle an eating disorder * Hercules, the St Bernard who saved his owners from burglars on the first day he moved in * Alfie, the terrier who gave a bullied girl a new lease of life ...as well as many other canine heroes who came to their owner's aid - whether it was saving them from physical threats, or helping them to recover from mental illness, PTSD and bereavement. These remarkable dogs all repaid the love and appreciation that their owners displayed in rescuing them. Let these uplifting stories warm your heart, and show you that adopted dogs truly are man's best friend.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm

Publication Date: 11-07-2016