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

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

Come for a quiet, peaceful walk through the New Zealand bush and see it through a child's eyes. Meet trees that talk, watch shadows chasing each other, find strange creatures slithering through the grass, hear the birds sing in the clear air. Learn about the the mighty Kahikatea trees as told by Grandad and Grandma Kahikatea who have lived in the bush for over 600 years. This delightful rhyming story is illustrated throughout with beautiful photographs and will encourage children to explore reserves in their area to see what they can discover.

Pages: 40

Dimensions: 210 x 260 mm

Publication Date: 01-01-2011

Frantically galloping under fire across the devastation of No Man's Land on the Western Front, the men of the Otago Mounted Rifles rode their way into New Zealand's military history at Messines in 1917.
Featuring nearly 400 photographs, illustrations and maps, The Troopers Tales records the history of the regiment from the 1860s to the present day, and tells the fascinating personal stories of many previously unknown New Zealand soldiers.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 382

Publication Date: 01-03-2012

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

The Three Mile Bush straddled the road between Greytown and Masterton, settled in 1854. In 1856 the Wellington Provincial Council decided to establish a new settlement on the road through the area, soon to be renamed Caterton. The Look Of Caterton tells of the town's and district's beginnings and progress over the last 150 years. The informative text marks the milestones along the decades from the early sawmilling era to today's bustling service town, but the story is principally told through a collection of photographs that instantly capture the look and ethos of each period. 108 pages 171 x 241 mm

Pages: 112

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 01-07-2007

DoP 2009, NZ Masterton's Queen Elizabeth Park sits on a 'publick reserve' set aside when the town was first surveyed in 1854. It has hosted the town's stockade, the district's first Pastoral Show and, for a period in the 1920s, the world's fastest time for a mile run on a grass track. Gareth Winter, archivist and garden writer, traces the development of the park and its associated reserves, including the town cemetry, from its days as a rough paddock leased for grazing to today's expansive reserve. Along the way he tells of the man who dug his own grave, of the hunt for the corpse with a missing hand, the town's near-fatal fling with early ballooning and the thousands who gathered in the park for the many civic ceremonies held there. It tells how the park has developed and changed over the years, to meet the changing leisure needs of the community, while retaining the sense of a Victorian park, complete with towering trees.

Pages: 312

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 30-11-2008

Pages: 334

While researching nineteenth-century Christchurch newspapers for another book, historian Geoff Rice was struck by the diversity of crime in early Christchurch, and the amount of detail in the court reports. Fascinated by what he was reading, he became diverted from the task at hand and set about writing this book instead: about crime and punishment in the first 25 years of Canterbury settlement.
The stories are drawn from newspaper reports, with further detail added from police records and the court minute books. The events are contextualised by Professor Rice's extensive knowledge of the times. It is not an academic study; nor is it a work of fiction. Rather it is an attempt at evidence-based reconstruction of crimes and courtroom proceedings, opening a window on the lives and deeds of ordinary people who lived in this place over 140 years ago.
History is usually written by the winners, and it is rare to hear the voices of ordinary folk from the remote past. Yet such were the shorthand skills of 19th-century newspaper reporters that courtroom testimony and cross-examinations were often captured verbatim, especially in the more sensational murder trials. Reading these reports one can almost hear the voices of the past. We catch glimpses of cabbies, shopkeepers, clerks and housewives going about their daily work, with descriptions of homes or workplaces, and the occasional fight in a pub.
The stories are often dramatic and even sensational, sometimes horrifying, sometimes amusing, often rather sad. Their crimes mirror the difficult realities of colonial life.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 228

Dimensions: 152 x 228 mm

Publication Date: 15-10-2012

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