All the health conscious seek insights that will lead to a long life... ... so if you want to know what is going to kill you, I can tell you. Perhaps not literally—all rules have exceptions, but if you are in reasonable health and live in the Western world, you are unlikely to die of infection. Malnutrition, almost certainly not. A car crash is possible, but unlikely. If you fulfil the destiny of most affluent humans in this epoch, you will die of your immune system. You may be lucky enough to enjoy good health until the very end of your days, but the odds are against it. As you get older, the chances go up that something big, like a stroke or cancer, will drag down your quality of life. Well known healthy options, like eating coloured plants, and exercising, suppress big diseases. In large part they work by keeping the immune system in balance. A further option in the longevity, anti-inflammatory tool kit, and a major theme of this book, is the developing science of ‘functional food’. Functional foods, also known as nutraceuticals (and bioactives, and super foods) are foods, and edible novelties, like leaves and seeds, that are almost drug-like in their capacity to suppress inflammation. Seeking them out is indispensable for a maximum longevity strategy. If you’re already leading a healthy lifestyle, there’s still more you can you do to fight sickness and disease. This is the story of inflammation and health—what goes wrong as we age, and what you can do about it.—Dr R Mulgan

Bind: paperback

Pages: 256

Dimensions: 153 x 229 x 14 mm

Publication Date: 18-03-2019

The inspirational memoir of an extraordinary All Black, with a forward by Keith Quinn New Zealand rugby union player Neven MacEwan played 52 matches for the All Blacks from 1956 to 1962, including 20 internationals and two South African provincial matches as captain. In this frank and inspiring memoir, Neven talks about his early life, and his extraordinary success as a rugby player. A lock and number eight, Neven represented Wellington at a provincial level, before achieving the ultimate in New Zealand rugby—wearing the revered All Black jersey. His contemporaries included Tiny White, Don Clarke, Wilson Whineray, Kelvin Tremain, Colin Meads and Ian Clarke. But this is not just a memoir of rugby achievements; Neven talks frankly about the difficulties in his life ‘when the crowd stops roaring’ and the reality away from the rugby field. There are immense challenges, including being charged by New Zealand Police for theft, a suicide attempt, and his battle with alcoholism. But there is also hope, triumph and new beginnings in this candid memoir, with Neven going on to give back and help numerous others who have lost their way. All Black, school teacher, shipping travel agent, public relations officer, prison chaplain, husband, father and grandfather, When the Crowd Stops Roaring is an insightful biography of an extraordinary New Zealander, both on and off the rugby playing field.

Bind: paperback

Publication Date: 05-04-2019

In early 1928, during a time of pioneering, long-distance flights, two New Zealand pilots set off from Australia on the first attempted aerial crossing of the wild Tasman Sea. Amid fervent hope, government interference, a spirit of patriotism, wide newspaper coverage and family pride, John ‘Scotty’ Moncrieff and George Hood, along with their non-flying partner Ivan Kight, dreamed of closer British Empire ties, a safer New Zealand and a shot at aviation glory. The disappearance of their aircraft Aotearoa remains one of Australasia’s great flying mysteries. Bill Conroy has researched this fascinating and tragic story for more than three decades. In the first full-length examination of Moncrieff and Hood’s flight, he recounts the conception, planning, execution and aftermath of the project which enthralled both sides of the Tasman.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 176

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 22-02-2019

Who is whimsical, witty and wonderfully weird? Kiwicorn! Now your favourite colourful kiwi is available in gorgeous, soft-toy form. This boxed set includes 1x plush Kiwicorn toy (21cm h x 17cm w x 15cm d) and 1x Just Like Kiwicorn mini board book (14pages, 10cm h x 10cm w)

Bind: stationery

Dimensions: 190 x 250 x 175 mm

Publication Date: 20-01-2019

Families, language, fear, loss, food and the victories that can come slowly. These are at the heart of this collection of poems by people who have come to New Zealand as migrants or refugees. "More Of Us" provides a glimpse into the experiences of this diverse group of people, which includes those who made New Zealand their home decades ago, and newcomers still finding their feet. And here they all are, speaking in their own distinctive voices. The companion book to "All Of Us", a collection of poems published by Landing Press in 2018.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 92

Dimensions: 150 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 17-01-2019

For twenty years, Shane Cotton has been one of New Zealand's most acclaimed painters. His works of the 1990s played a pivotal part in that decade's debates about place, belonging, and bicultural identity. In the 2000s, however, Cotton headed in a spectacular and unexpected new direction: skywards. Employing a sombre new palette of blue and black, he painted the first in what would become a major series of skyscapes vast, nocturnal spaces where birds speed and plummet. New York poet Eliot Weinberger meditates on Cotton's 'ghosts of birds'. Justin Paton plots his own encounters with Cotton's work, across six years in which the artist was 'finding space'. Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow confronts the haunting role of toi moko tattooed Maori heads in the paintings and in her own past. Meanwhile, IMA Director Robert Leonard argues that Cotton is a cultural surrealist exploring 'the treachery of images'.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 192

Dimensions: 300 x 395 mm

Pick up virtually any textbook on vertebrate evolution and you will find mention of the curious reptile known as tuatara (Sphenodon). The special evolutionary status of tuatara as the last of the rhynchocephalians - one of the four orders of living reptiles - is unquestioned. Wild members of the sole living species are now restricted to a few dozen remote islands around the New Zealand coast, where for several centuries they have been observed and studied by humans. But are tuatara really unchanged 'living fossils', or close relatives of dinosaurs, as sometimes portrayed?

This is the first detailed monograph for decades about this enigmatic reptile, and the first to be illustrated in colour throughout. The evolution, natural history and conservation of tuatara are covered in comprehensive detail, providing a valuable resource for the specialist yet in a style accessible to a wide readership. The special place of tuatara in Maori and popular culture is also considered. Tuatara have survived alongside humans for more than 700 years, though with their numbers much reduced; what are their future prospects in a globally changing world?

Bind: hardback

Pages: 600

Dimensions: 190 x 258 mm

Publication Date: 20-08-2014

Over six to seven hundred years, Maori burned about one third of New Zealand’s ground cover. In the following 70 years, and at a devastating rate, European settlers burned about another third as they cleared and ‘improved’ the land. All too frequently, burn-offs became uncontrollable conflagrations that swept through thousands of hectares, destroying cattle, fences, homes and livelihoods, and burning mills and much-needed timber. Townsfolk, blanketed in dense, acrid smoke needed lights at midday; ships, unable to pick up landmarks, sat marooned in harbour – yet the burning, as in other frontier societies, remained unabated and largely unquestioned. It is against that background that Helen Beaglehole sets the fascinating and previously unexplored history of how settlers’ random and careless burning led, in 1921, to legislation that still underpins New Zealand’s official policy on wildfire. She explores the huge public education campaign that sought to convince all sectors of the public that mindless burning had to be restrained, and traces how increasingly sophisticated fire-fighting technologies, coupled with developing knowledge of weather and fire behaviour, were used to prevent, contain and extinguish fire. Finally she looks at the early Forest Service employees who in effect became the nation’s first rural firefighters, their skills honed in the vast controlled burns of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, and describes the regime established after the Service’s demise and the issues faced today. As with Helen Beaglehole’s two books on New Zealand’s lighthouses and lighthouse keeping, Fire in the Hills is grounded in detailed and extensive research. Information from historical records is incorporated with material from interviews with past and present rural firefighters and administrators, bringing vividly to light the times, the people and the problems they faced. Some 200 photographs further broaden our historical understanding.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 324

Publication Date: 01-07-2012

Barry Cleavin has played a significant role within the New Zealand arts scene since the 1960s. In his prints he maintains a consistently individual approach, with a style that is immediately recognisable yet ranges from lightly humorous parody through to caustic social comment. In Cleavin's world nothing is what it seems: Lateral Inversions invites viewers to explore other ways of seeing and understanding, prompting a wider consideration of our fragile and often absurd existence.
Lavishly illustrated with over 120 colour plates, Lateral Inversions draws from Cleavin's vast output to present a major representative survey of his prints and drawings from 1966 through until 2012. Over more than five decades Cleavin has developed thematic groupings, created visual echoes and provided contemporary twists on age-old traditions. Selected works are presented within the context of Cleavin's wider oeuvre, but they are also placed within their social and historical background, demonstrating the range of Cleavin's talent and providing significant new insights into his work and thematic concerns.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 288

Dimensions: 170 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 18-11-2013

From childhood on, we’re barraged by messages that it’s sad to be old. That wrinkles are embarrassing, and old people are useless. Author and activist Ashton Applewhite believed them too—until she realised where this prejudice comes from and the damage it does. Lively, funny, and deeply researched, This Chair Rocks traces Applewhite’s journey from apprehensive boomer to pro-ageing radical, and in the process debunks myth after myth about late life. The book explains the roots of ageism—in history and in our own age denial—and how it divides and debases. It examines how ageist myths and stereotypes cripple the way our brains and bodies function, looks at ageism in the workplace and the bedroom, exposes the cost of myth of independence, critiques the portrayal of olders as burdens to society, describes what an all-age-friendly world would look like, and concludes with a rousing call to action. Whether you’re older or hoping to get there, this book will shake you by the shoulders, cheer you up, make you mad, and change the way you see the rest of your life.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 224

Dimensions: 138 x 216 mm

Publication Date: 07-03-2019