Liam Mulvin loves his job as a country postman. For decades he has crossed farmyards, moors and fields to deliver the mail to his appreciative rural customers. As he goes about his work, Liam shares, in a series of short essays, the country characters he comes across, the unexpected dilemmas and dramas he encounters. He muses about the unusual wildlife behaviour he stumbles across, he battles with the weather and he delivers the mail come what may. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book in which to dip in and out – or to devour in one sitting. It is a refreshing celebration of a rural community which functions best when knitted together by those, like Liam, who go that extra mile.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 192

Dimensions: 138 x 216 mm

Publication Date: 04-09-2017

If you had told Helen two years ago that she would be getting up at 6 a.m. on Sundays to swim in a freezing reservoir and spending her Saturday nights unshowered and covered in mud in a pub, she would have spat out her champagne. But when everyone around you starts settling down, what else is a glamorous party girl to do but to launch herself into the world of endurance sport? For someone who didn’t even own a pair of flat shoes (and definitely no waterproofs), Helen would soon find she had a lot to learn. Join Helen on her hilarious and soul-searching journey as she swaps a life of cocktail bars and dating for the challenges and exhilaration of triathlons, trail runs, obstacle races, long-distance cycles and ocean swims… and sets herself the seemingly impossible goal of qualifying as a Team GB triathlete.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm

Publication Date: 09-02-2018

If you’re a mum who wants to run, there’s nothing stopping you! When busy mum Leanne Davies set up a social media group for her and a couple of friends to encourage one another to go running, she never imagined it would quickly become a nationwide network of thousands of women, all sharing a passion for the sport and a penchant for colourful compression socks. Gathering the very best of the advice and tips from the Run Mummy Run network, Leanne and co-writer Lucy have created this comprehensive beginner’s guide to running that includes sections on: From starting with a Couch To 5k plan to building up the confidence to race Fitting in running around work and family life Overcoming barriers to exercise How to keep on running when motivation wanes, and much more! Not just your average practical go-to, this book is filled with down-to-earth advice, training schedules and inspirational stories that’ll help you to be fit, healthy and happy.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm

Publication Date: 12-01-2018

“Shall I shoot?”… “No don’t shoot”… I’m going to shoot”… “Don’t shoot!”. Rapid fire yelling within the confines of a vehicle stuck in the middle of stalled traffic, facing an unknown person wearing a full burqa peering into the car. Inches away from the driver’s face, a large hand pressed against the window. “We didn’t know if they were male or female or what was about to happen, but we were absolutely sure that if we shot this person, the crowd, including the armed policemen nearby, would turn on us and there’d be no escape.” In 2004, Lieutenant Colonel William Blaikie shipped out to Afghanistan, to head up a team dedicated to rebuilding the country after the war. As part of the New Zealand Defence Force, his skills lay in intelligence and communications – his mission was to form a team, develop and implement plans to work with USA and Coalition partners to help get Afghanistan back on its feet. Bill experienced situations that were beyond tense, often facing life and death situations and decision making that required deep and quick thinking, based on not always having enough information at hand. On his return home to New Zealand, his journey through coping with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder began, and the nightmares were not limited to sleep time. Everything has remained at life and death levels for Bill, and this book details how he and his wife Nancy have worked through suicide attempts, getting help, and finding answers to what is an epidemic level challenge for military personnel everywhere. “No amount of training can prepare you for what happens in your head after the uniforms are off and the guns are packed away.”

Bind: paperback

Pages: 164

Publication Date: 11-11-2017

Charting his unlikely route from humble beginnings on a tough Bridgend estate and working on building sites to the top of world rugby as a Grand Slam winner and Test Lion, Lee Byrne's autobiography sheds new light on one of the brightest talents to grace the Welsh game. Byrne talks frankly about the joy of playing at the highest level for Scarlets, ospreys, Wales and the Lions, as well as his off-field antics. He gives an insider's glimpse into Welsh rugby under Warren Gatland and the tactics and psychology employed. He reveals for the first time the true story behind the end of his international career and his struggles with depression following his forced retirement from the game after injury, and discusses his dyslexia, a condition he only recently discovered he has. A rugby memoir unlike others in its remarkable emotional range and its power to make readers laugh but also cry. Byrne's account of the aftermath of Jerry Collins' death makes for particularly moving reading.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 192

Publication Date: 23-10-2017

"I believe we need to quit the approach in which we quietly come in through the frilly pink curtains and talk about suicide carefully so as not to cause upset or offend anyone. I'm saying we should fire up the bulldozer, smash it through the wall and start yelling: "Let's talk about suicide and how much it suck"". This book is the story of the tragic death by suicide of Paul Lynch's brother Brett and the devastating effect it had on his family. It is also a powerful plea for us to face up to suicide as an issue and acknowledge that the way we're dealing with it at the moment isn't working. "If my story can prevent a person, or people, from leaving their family and friends to deal with the aftermath of their suicide and all that goes with it," says Paul Lynch, "then I will consider that to be a success".

Bind: paperback

Pages: 146

Dimensions: 130 x 200 mm

The perfect subject for a graphic novel, Frida Kahlo’s brief life was dramatic and romantic, tragic and painful. In this illustrated “biography”, Vanna Vinci captures the spirit of Kahlo’s world in boldly colored, minutely detailed illustrations. Blending facts and history with dreamlike and surreal sequences, Vinci creates an intimate portrayal of an artist who incorporated her life experiences into her art. Burning love and crushing loss, incredible joy and deep despair—these were all part of Kahlo’s life and part of the paintings that are some of the most celebrated art of all time. Filled with images that populated Kahlo’s work—monkeys and parrots, traditional clothing and lush gardens—Vinci imbues her text and drawings with an artist’s perception and sensitivity. The result is an evocative, fittingly passionate tribute to a legendary figure.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 160

Dimensions: 200 x 260 mm

Publication Date: 15-09-2017

The presence of a man-eating tiger in the impoverished rural community of Naini Tal spread fear and panic among the terrified locals. This tigress had already devoured over 460 victims by the time Jim Corbett was approached to track and kill her in 1907. These ten thrilling and moving tales are Corbett’s first-hand accounts as he expertly tracks and kills many tigers and two leopards which had become man-eaters, driven to this by injury or extreme old age. No one understood the signs of the jungle better than Corbett. A skilled tracker, Corbett preferred to hunt alone and on foot, sometimes accompanied by his small dog Robin. He derived intense happiness from his observations of wildlife and was an important conservationist as well as a tracker and ace shot. He empathised with the impoverished people amongst whom he lived, in what is today Uttrakhand, and he established India’s first tiger sanctuary there. Corbett’s writing is as immediate and accessible today as it was when first published in 1944. All Royalties from this edition will go to the Jim Corbett National Park.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 256

Dimensions: 138 x 216 mm

Publication Date: 05-09-2017

Bartolo Barnao first sailed into Wellington in 1902, aged 13, and began work in the fish trade. Eight years later he revisited Stromboli to marry the bride who had been chosen for him by the parish priest in his village. Bartolo and Giuseppa returned to New Zealand and raised their five children in Palmerston North and Wellington. In this fascinating book, Italian literary scholar Vincent Moleta traces the story of his grandparents’ childhood on Stromboli at the end of the 19th century; of Bartolo’s year as a cabin boy on a steam trawler sailing out of Napier; of his two years driving a cart of freshly caught fish through the night from Makara Beach to the fish market in Wellington; of the death in 1911 of the couple’s first child; of the family company set up by Bartolo and his brother Giuseppe, which came to dominate the fish trade in the central North Island. We learn of the enormous family rupture 1930 that saw Bartolo sell up and move to Wellington, settling in Island Bay and establishing, in the teeth of the Great Depression, Barnao’s Fish Market in Lambton Quay, which became a Wellington institution. Vincent Moleta paints a lively picture of life in Island Bay, New Zealand’s ‘Little Italy’, from 1900 to the 1960s: of the Catholic tennis club socials and the Fascist club meetings of the 1930s; of Italian weddings; of the New Zealand tour of the Italian grand opera company in 1949. He weaves these events and themes into a moving account of the family’s moments of joy and sorrow, taking their story up to 2004 and the death of his mother, Rosina Barnao Moleta. The book sheds light on a little-understood strand in New Zealand’s post-colonial history, and the rich culture the Æolian migrants brought with them

Pages: 304

Publication Date: 01-07-2012

240 x 170mm / 260 pages The Wartime Story of Brian Cox 1939-43 'Good luck to all the lads'. Brian Cox wrote those words in his diary on 26 August 1940, just before he and his mates from 9 Platoon of 27 (Machine Gun) Battalion experience enemy action for the first time in the Western Desert. Good Luck To All The Lads is the story of Brian Cox and his schoolmates from Nelson College and of 9 Platoon during the Second World War. This moving and fascinating book written by Brian's son Peter Cox, covers the men's time training in New Zealand and Egypt, the action they saw in Greece, Libya and the Western Desert. It is a memorial to the young men, many of them from Nelson College, who bravely served, and sometimes died, so far from home. Over 110 phots & maps.

Pages: 260

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 01-09-2008