Biography (243)

Family Business : An Italian-New Zealand Story

ISBN: 9781927145333

Author: Vincent Moleta    Publisher: Canterbury University Press

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...


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


Tags: New Zealand   Biography   History
$45.00
Good Luck to All the Lads: the Wartime Story of Brian Cox 1939-43

ISBN: 9780473139490

Author: Peter Cox    Publisher: Nationwide Books

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 b...


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


Tags: Biography   Military   New Zealand
$39.99
Bill's Story: A Portrait of W. A. Sutton

ISBN: 9781877257704

Author: Pat Unger    Publisher: Canterbury University Press

Three years after the artist's death, W. A. Sutton: A Retrospective was held to celebrate the opening of the new glass-bright Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o...


Three years after the artist's death, W. A. Sutton: A Retrospective was held to celebrate the opening of the new glass-bright Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, in 2003. Thousands of visitors to the exhibition were bowled over by Bill Sutton's artistic skill and his vision of Canterbury. Bill's Story goes behind the artist to discover the child, the student, the tutor, the citizen, the well-mannered bohemian. The book is derived mainly from Sutton's extensive archives, and from the author's personal knowledge of the artist. We meet his pioneer grandparents, who hailed from England and Northern Ireland, and his parents and brother in their modest family home in Sydenham, Christchurch. Pat Unger portrays an attentive son, a steadfast friend and erudite academic, a resolute administrator and a multi-skilled professional artist. First published March 2008.


Pages: 252


Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm


$39.99
Beyond Cook's Gardens : A Writer's Journey

ISBN: 9780473163327

Author: Norman Harris    Publisher: Last Side Publishing

Pages: 200


Tags: Biography   New Zealand
$29.95
Tales From The Tail End

ISBN: 9781849532136

Author: Emma Milne    Publisher: Summersdale Publishers

Pages: 320


Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm


Publication Date: 01-03-2012


Tag: Biography
$24.99
Singing Historian : A memoir

ISBN: 9781927145319

Author: Edmund Bohan    Publisher: Canterbury University Press

Historian, biographer, novelist, broadcaster, lecturer and international singer Edmund Bohan is the author of 18 books, including biographies of Edward Staffor...


Historian, biographer, novelist, broadcaster, lecturer and international singer Edmund Bohan is the author of 18 books, including biographies of Edward Stafford, James Edward FitzGerald and Sir George Grey; the general histories of New Zealand: The Story So Far and Climates of War: Conflicts in New Zealand 1859-1869; and the O'Rorke series of historical novels. The Stafford and Grey biographies were Montana Book Award finalists. During his long singing career - much of it based in Britain - he sang more than 170 different major choral, operatic and orchestral works, and broadcast regularly. This light-hearted memoir, richly anecdotal and enlivened with pen-portraits of memorable personalities - musical, literary and academic - chronicles with wit and a sharply observant eye a lifetime of achievement as singer and writer. Following childhood in wartime Invercargill inside a close-knit family, he enjoyed schooldays at Christchurch Boys' High School and defining years at Canterbury University. After teaching for a period he left for Sydney and then London, establishing a career as a versatile 'general practitioner' of singing, mainly in concerts but enjoying memorable times with Benjamin Britten's English Opera Group and Kent Opera. A tour home with the NZSO prompted a permanent return as the end of 1987, where he resumed his 19th-century studies. He has concentrated on writing since then; though he continued to play character roles for Canterbury Opera, Wellington City Opera and the State Opera of South Australia for another dozen years. A dedicated family man, he now tends his Opawa garden - and plans new projects.


Pages: 228


Publication Date: 01-06-2012


Tags: New Zealand   Biography   Music
$30.00
Robbie: Rugby Warrior, The Autobiography

ISBN: 9781905080106

Author: Robbie Hunter-Paul    Publisher: Great Northern Books

Robbie Paul was Super League's first superstar, a player who transformed the sport with his brilliance on the pitch and larger than life persona off it. He was ...


Robbie Paul was Super League's first superstar, a player who transformed the sport with his brilliance on the pitch and larger than life persona off it. He was the inspirational heart of a Bradford team who dominated rugby league's new summer era, with Paul the face and driving force of the Bulls for more than a decade.
He arrived from New Zealand as a skinny 18-year-old and developed into a world class talent who took Wembley by storm when he became the first player to score a hat-trick of tries there in a Challenge Cup final. It was the launch pad for a career that included a cross-code move to Harlequins as rugby union went professional, more than 30 league appearances for his beloved Kiwis and captaining Bradford to Super League and World Club title honours.
Artist, musician, media commentator, Paul was no ordinary rugby player. Born of a proud warrior race, his inspirational journey through the trials, tribulations and triumphs of a trophy-laden career is the very essence of the joy of rugby.
Paul's compelling story in his long-awaited autobiography is embellished by his own unique High Performance guide on what it takes to be a better player, mentally, physically and professionally, based on his 18-year playing career and rugby marketing and strategic role today.


Bind: hardback


Pages: 254


Dimensions: 160 x 240 x 24 mm


Publication Date: 01-09-2012


$49.99
Hoof-Beats Through My Heart

ISBN: 9781906122447

Author: David Edelsten    Publisher: Merlin Unwin Books

'They have been the signposts at crucial turnings in my life.\nSo writes author David Edelsten as he looks back on the horses he has owned or ridden throughout ...


'They have been the signposts at crucial turnings in my life.\nSo writes author David Edelsten as he looks back on the horses he has owned or ridden throughout the years, as a shy and awkward boy, a young soldier, for pleasure or for work as a sporting journalist for Country Life, The Field, and Horse Hound.\n\nNo sentimental account, this; David writes with concise and delicate understatement as he records the important moments, big and small, where his horses have played their part in his world.\n\nIt is a personal account, but it will strike a chord with all who have shared a genuine, give-and-take partnership with a horse which has influenced their lives for the better in some unforgettable way.


Pages: 127


Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm


Publication Date: 01-12-2011


Tag: Biography
$19.99
The Brewer's Tale: Memoirs of a Master Brewer

ISBN: 9781906122171

Author: Frank Priestley    Publisher: Merlin Unwin Books

Born next-door to a pub in 1940, Frank Priestley went on to spend a life steeped in brewing, drinking and the enjoyment of beer. From a young apprentice, he wo...


Born next-door to a pub in 1940, Frank Priestley went on to spend a life steeped in brewing, drinking and the enjoyment of beer. From a young apprentice, he worked his way up to become a master brewer at the famous Castle Eden brewery. Frank shares with the reader his fascination for the way brewing is done, and he weaves in anecdotes about his diverse colleagues, his skilled working life and the unique beers that the individual breweries produced. His tale covers the years from 1959 to 1979 and he left when the traditional brewing industry in Britain reached one of its lowest ebbs. But Frank is now delighted to see the revival of interest in good beer and he ends the book with a brief round-up of some of the best pubs in England where he has had the pleasure of drinking a pint. His story is informative, lively and heart-warming.


$34.99
The Seven Lives of Lady Barker

ISBN: 9781877257810

Author: Betty Gilderdale    Publisher: Canterbury University Press

This compelling biography of lady Barker is a fascinating account of a Victorian woman who, through the course of her life, lived in England, India, New Zealand...


This compelling biography of lady 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 personal life and resulted in huge domestic upheavals.
Lady Barker wrote 18 books, and is perhaps best known for "Station Life in New Zealand", which was republished by Vintage in 2000.
The Seven Lives of Lady Barker, published here for the first time in paperback, is a full account of the rich and turbulent life of this extraordinary woman.


Pages: 312


Dimensions: 152 x 228 mm


Publication Date: 01-06-2009


Tags: New Zealand   Biography
$45.00
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