Biography (243)

Paikea : The Life of I.L.G. Sutherland

ISBN: 9781927145432

Author: Oliver Sutherland    Publisher: Canterbury University Press

Ivan Sutherland was the first Pakeha scholar to recognise that Maori New Zealanders are not brown-skinned Pakeha but heirs to their own cultural beliefs, custom...


Ivan Sutherland was the first Pakeha scholar to recognise that Maori New Zealanders are not brown-skinned Pakeha but heirs to their own cultural beliefs, customs and practices.
Born in 1897, Sutherland was a brilliant scholar who studied at Victoria University College and Glasgow University before returning to Victoria to work under his mentor, Professor Thomas Hunter. He shared Hunter's liberal convictions and engaged in various progressive community initiatives, including establishing New Zealand's first children's psychological clinic, attacking the rise of the eugenics movement, helping launch the Wellington Film Society, and campaigning for public radio. During the 1930s he was part of a young group of lively intellectuals including John Beaglehole, Horace Belshaw, R.M. Campbell and W.B. Sutch.
His commitment to social psychology drew him into the world of Ngati Porou, where Apirana Ngata became his second mentor and a life-long friend. Dismayed by what he considered to be undeserved criticism of Ngata in the report of a 1934 commission of inquiry into the Native Affairs Department, Sutherland published The Maori Situation, denouncing Pakeha 'racialism' and affirming his commitment to a bicultural New Zealand. Later he master-minded and edited The Maori People Today, published as New Zealand celebrated the 1940 centennial.
In 1937 Sutherland became professor of philosophy at Canterbury University College, appointed at the same time as Karl Popper, with whom he had a difficult relationship. Nevertheless the two worked together spearheading a committee dedicated to bringing Jewish war refugees from Hitler's Germany into New Zealand.
After several decades working tirelessly to gain Pakeha tolerance and understanding of Maori aspiration, Sutherland died unexpectedly aged 54. This impressive biography reveals Ivan Sutherland as a sensitive, compassionate man, and an enthusiastic and far-sighted advocate for Maori self-determination.
As a mark of respect for Ivan Sutherland, Ngati Porou gave him the name of one of their legendary tipuna: Paikea.


Bind: hardback


Pages: 480


Dimensions: 152 x 228 mm


Publication Date: 21-10-2013


Tags: Biography   New Zealand
$65.00
Things Have Been Pretty Lively: The Great War Diary of Melve King

ISBN: 9780958261739

Author: Neil Frances    Publisher: Wairarapa Archive

DoP - November 2008, NZ Private Melville King of Carterton was a tiny part of New Zealand's huge manpower contribution to the Allied armies in World War One. Hi...


DoP - November 2008, NZ Private Melville King of Carterton was a tiny part of New Zealand's huge manpower contribution to the Allied armies in World War One. His diary, recording what he did and what he saw, reflects the military service of an ordinary young man half the globe away from home and in extraordinary circumstances. His perceptive and detailed view of the Great War adds an important 'voice' to the New Zealand understanding of that tragic and crucial event. Melve King's words are supported by additional text explaining facets of his army life and the major campaigns and battles of the New Zealand Division on the Western Front. Melve faithfully recorded many of the Wairarapa men he served with and these are detailed in an extensive personnel index.


Pages: 232


Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm


Publication Date: 09-11-2008


Tags: Biography   New Zealand   Military
$30.00
Ripped Apart : A City In Chaos

ISBN: 9780473215392

Author: Bob Parker   

Ripped Apart is Mayor Bob Parker’s personal story about the earthquakes that devastated Christchurch. Bob’s tireless and unflappable communications gained h...


Ripped Apart is Mayor Bob Parker’s personal story about the earthquakes that devastated Christchurch. Bob’s tireless and unflappable communications gained him superstar status around the world.
He so impressed the American TV network, NBC, it broadcast to the world that New York, after 9/11, had Rudy Giuliani. Christchurch, after the earthquakes, had Bob Parker.
A Christchurch mother said: “For eight days I lived in my house under a table with my children because we were so scared. The only thing that calmed us was Bob’s voice on the radio. We trusted him”.
Within a few months of his triumphs the tide turned. The Minister of Earthquake Recovery, Gerry Brownlee, dubbed him “a clown”; his council was dysfunctional; and Government, not the council, controlled the city’s rebuild.
Ripped Apart reveals the arguments, indecision, petty jealousies, power struggles and policies that occurred before, during, and after the crises. These are balanced with glimpses of dedication, courage, compassion and a unique vision. It is a story about people behind the scenes and events that saw Christchurch Ripped Apart, not just physically, but politically and emotionally.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 240


Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm


Publication Date: 01-02-1970


Tags: Biography   History   New Zealand
$39.99 $9.99
Daughter of Bluebird

ISBN: 9780957295124

Author: Gina Campbell    Publisher: Great Northern Books

Gina Campbell, last surviving member of a remarkable dynasty, will forever be most closely associated with the fatal attempt by her father to break the water sp...


Gina Campbell, last surviving member of a remarkable dynasty, will forever be most closely associated with the fatal attempt by her father to break the water speed record in his astounding boat. In that sense she is indeed the 'daughter of Bluebird' and has played a ceaseless role in the boat's restoration. In this absorbing autobiography she talks about:

Her life with Donald Campbell as father, early-day 'celebrity', and holder of many world records on land and water.
Her personal life three failed marriages, a suicide attempt and finding happiness in later life, only to have it snatched away; her power-boating career and setting two women's world water speed records in 1984 and 1990.
Her reaction to her father's death while attempting to set a new world water speed record on Coniston Water in January 1967.
Her complete shock at the discovery of Bluebird and Donald Campbell's body by divers in 2001.
Her decision to authorise the removal of the boat and Campbell's remains from the lake despite widespread opposition.
The decision to restore Bluebird and house her in the Ruskin Museum on Coniston Water. Her dream of once again seeing and hearing Bluebird on the lake.


Bind: hardback


Pages: 286


Dimensions: 160 x 240 mm


Publication Date: 01-09-2012


$49.99 $19.99
Brief Lives: John Milton

ISBN: 9781843919261

Author: Richard Bradford    Publisher: Hesperus Press

William Shakespeare and John Milton are the two most important poets in English. Shakespeare’s achievements are unchallengeable and secure. Milton can make a ...


William Shakespeare and John Milton are the two most important poets in English. Shakespeare’s achievements are unchallengeable and secure. Milton can make a far more controversial claim to eminence. He wrote the only poem in English recognized as an epic, Paradise Lost, a poem which challenged the beliefs and presuppositions of all of its readers. As a literary writer, his political and historical significance is unique; he was at the centre of the most traumatic period of modern British history, and this left an imprint on his writings.
Richard Bradford addresses two key topics in this short account of Milton’s life and work: the parallels between Paradise Lost and the events in England of the mid-to-late-seventeenth century; and the question of whether Milton’s writings reflect his sense of despair at man’s apparent failure to make the best of our world after the Fall and is thus the first testimony of his religious doubt.

Fascinating for both the general reader and for academics, Richard Bradford brings new understanding to the life, times and works of one of Britain’s most significant writers.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 120


Publication Date: 22-02-2013


Tags: Biography   Classics   History
$29.99
The Road to En-dor

ISBN: 9781843914631

Author: Elias Jones    Publisher: Hesperus Press

I was filled with the growing hope that my door to freedom lay through the Ouija. And first and foremost in pursuance of my plan, I aimed at inveigling the Comm...


I was filled with the growing hope that my door to freedom lay through the Ouija. And first and foremost in pursuance of my plan, I aimed at inveigling the Commandant into the spiritualist circle and making him the instrument of my escape. The news that there existed a buried treasure which the Turks were seeking gave me an idea of how to do it…

Captured during the First World War, Lieutenant E.H. Jones (a Welsh officer in the Indian Army) and Lieutenant C.W. Hill (an Australian serving in the R.A.F.) were prisoners of war at the Yozgad prison camp in Turkey.
Duty-bound as officers to attempt escape, Jones sensed that what had previously been the harmless fun of fooling around with a homemade Ouija board could be turned into something much more productive. Playing on the credulous nature of their captors, Hill and Jones weave an incredibly elaborate plot, hatched to plan their escape. Acting as mediums for the Ouija board, they attempted to convince their captors that they were gradually descending into insanity – which, had it been true, would have seen them repatriated.
A true story of bravery, dedication and extreme hardship, this book is a fascinating insight account of a daring escapade, a narrative that deserves to be brought back into the public eye.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 160


Publication Date: 26-04-2013


Tags: Biography   Military
$27.99 $7.99
A la Mod

ISBN: 9781849533997

Author: Ian Moore    Publisher: Summersdale Publishers

Comedian, mod and professional grump Ian Moore has had enough.
Tired of being unable to park anywhere near his cramped house in a noisy town he doesn’t ...


Comedian, mod and professional grump Ian Moore has had enough.
Tired of being unable to park anywhere near his cramped house in a noisy town he doesn’t like, he hatches a plan to move his wife and young son to a remote corner of the Loire Valley in search of serenity and space.
Several years later, Ian finds himself up to his neck in bilingual offspring, feral cats, promiscuous horses, dysfunctional spaniels and needy hens; he’s wrestling with electric fences, a foreign language, a mountain of animal waste and a wife who collects livestock like there’s a biblical flood on the horizon, all while trying not to dirty his loafers.
But despite the ups, downs and increasing demands of Ian’s showbiz career, the Moore family persevere in true Brit style to create a unique, colourful and ultimately rewarding life in their new home – à la campagne and à la mod!


Bind: paperback


Pages: 320


Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm


Publication Date: 06-05-2013


Tags: Biography   Travel
$24.99
Trying

ISBN: 9781849533980

Author: Mark Cossey    Publisher: Summersdale Publishers

‘Here again, Mr Cossey?’ asked the young Spanish embryologist, shooting me a welcoming smile as I followed him down the corridor. He had recognised me by si...


‘Here again, Mr Cossey?’ asked the young Spanish embryologist, shooting me a welcoming smile as I followed him down the corridor. He had recognised me by sight and that wasn’t good. I was now the one thing you don’t want to be in a fertility clinic. A regular.
Martha wanted a baby. Mark wanted a baby.
What’s the worst that could happen?
In four years of baby-making boot camp, Mark and Martha face The Calendar, the joy of sober, scheduled sex, hostile cervical mucus, IUI and IVF. Through a combination of ignorance and outrage, Mark survives ejaculating into a small jar, stabbing his wife, having his sperm turned pink and group sex with whales. Written with genuine laugh-out-loud humour and complete honesty, Trying is a noholds- barred welcome to the world of the infertile written by a man who has lived through it all and come through with his ultimate dream realised – his own family. It says a lot when you can call two years of sleepless nights a happy ending.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 288


Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm


Publication Date: 06-05-2013


$24.99
The McIlrath Letters

ISBN: 9780956429308

Author: David McIlrath    Publisher: Killyleagh Branch Of The North Of Ireland Family History Society

Here is a series of sixty-four letters, carefully preserved by Mary McIlrath in Killinchy, Co. Down, N. Ireland.

They detail the progress of Mary’...


Here is a series of sixty-four letters, carefully preserved by Mary McIlrath in Killinchy, Co. Down, N. Ireland.

They detail the progress of Mary’s great uncles, the two McIlrath brothers who emigrated in 1860 to New Zealand, and describe their work and achievements over fifty-five years. Historically and genealogically valuable are the frequent references to other emigrants from Killinchy and surrounding district whom they frequently met there. The news, messages and greetings included in the letters of the McIlrath brothers were sure to have been read and circulated to relatives, friends and neighbours, drawing that community at home closer together as well as closer to the one on the other side of the world. Re-reading these letters today, with their deeply personal style and content, it is easy to imagine that our ancestors are writing to us from the past.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 143


Dimensions: 210 x 210 mm


Publication Date: 01-04-2009


Tags: Biography   History   New Zealand
$35.00 $19.99
L'Amour Actually

ISBN: 9781849534192

Author: Melanie Jones    Publisher: Summersdale Publishers

The woman was one of those irritating expat types who felt she owed it to the world to impart on her all her superior knowledge of life in France. I realised th...


The woman was one of those irritating expat types who felt she owed it to the world to impart on her all her superior knowledge of life in France. I realised that if I didn’t stop her now, she’d be bending my ear all the way to Bergerac.
‘Actually,’ I said, leaning in toward the woman, ‘I’m planning to integrate my way into the boxers of the first good-looking Frenchman I see. Can’t think of any better way to learn the language myself. You wouldn’t happen to know the French for "fancy a shag?" would you? Voulez-vous coucher avec moi just seems a bit nineteen-seventies these days.’

After one particularly bad day at work, advertising executive and confirmed city girl Melanie Jones decides to give up her old life in search of something new and simpler in South West France. With little knowledge of the country, even less of the language and just the memory of a disastrous school French exchange and a few day trips to Calais, she embarks on her adventure with a suitcase full of optimism and not a little bit of naivety. After all, how different can life in France be?
After a series of adventures with skirt-ripping tractors, handsome twin farmers, celebrity not-quite-beens, unusual toilets and a bonkers ex-pat community, all topped up, of course, with lashings of rosé, Melanie begins to discover that her new life in France isn’t quite what she’d thought it would be.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 352


Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm


Publication Date: 04-06-2013


Tags: Biography   Travel
$24.99
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