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

Long-listed for Ngaio Marsh Best Novel 2018 Their Taonga: Ngai Tahu’s ancient and sacred treasure. Everybody covets it. When it is stolen, the ancestors start wreaking havoc. The curse destroys people’s lives. Boats are overturned, babies die at birth, throats are slit. It must be returned to appease the ancestors. It has drawn Countess Margarita Szechnyi and Boyland the Collector, otherwise known as the Butcher of Warsaw, together into a web of murder, intrigue, love and deceit. Inspector O’Rorke is pushed into the case, along with his good friend Colonel Henry Jamieson and Henare Greaves as they attempt to return the Taonga to its rightful place. Starting in the secret caves of Murihiku in New Zealand’s South Island in 1883, then travelling to South America, on to London, then over to the Greek Isles, this book keeps the reader intrigued right through to the gripping climax. This is the sixth in Edmund Bohan’s gripping series of Inspector O’Rorke novels.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 200

Dimensions: 152 x 234 mm

Publication Date: 15-05-2017

In the aftermath of the invasion of Parihaka in November 1881, Inspector Patrick O’Rorke is appointed by the government to investigate allegations of police brutality laid by the influential Maori politician Hoani Te Pae. Before he leaves Christchurch for Wellington to begin, O’Rorke is called to the house of the well-to-do Albert Howard, following the seemingly routine theft of a valuable item from his collection. Undeterred by the hostility and obstruction of the Wellington police to his Parihaka investigation, and the fact that he finds himself increasingly becoming a pawn in a battle between two warring political factions, O’Rorke is determined to get to the bottom of the incident. And when Albert Howard is murdered, he uncovers a chilling link between the two enquiries. Edmund Bohan’s Inspector O’Rorke novel is set, like the others, in a vividly re-created colonial New Zealand. A skillfully woven blend of fact and fiction, it takes its protagonist from an elegant Thorndon mansion to the fetid slums of Ghuznee Street, from a downtown bordello to the houses of Parliament in a compellingly told tale of political and personal intrigue. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Edmund Bohan An accomplished biographer and novelist, Edmund Bohan was a finalist in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 1995 and again in 1999. His O’Rorke series of historical novels includes The Opawa Affair, The Dancing Man, The Matter of Parihaka, The Irish Yankee, A Present for the Czar and The Lost Taonga. A seventh, A Suitable Time for Vengeance is forthcoming in October this year. An honours graduate from the University of Canterbury, Bohan has 18 published titles and has also written and published historical non-fiction, given radio talks, written short stories and numerous articles. For 25 years he was one New Zealand’s most successful singers in Britain.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 192

Dimensions: 152 x 234 mm

Publication Date: 15-07-2017

From the days even before Christchurch was settled its cathedral has been the focus of ferocious public debate: Where should a cathedral be built? How would it be paid for? Should it be built in wood or stone in an earthquake-prone country? Who should oversee the building? It took far too long to build and its financial position has often been perilous. In recent times there have been fresh quarrels over a visitors’ centre and whether ratepayers should help to pay for necessary earthquake strengthening. And, when the building was left almost in ruins, should it be demolished and rebuilt or should it be restored? And, most important of all to the people of Christchurch, to whom did it really belong? It has been a tranquil and lovely place of devotion and worship, and a venue for the celebration of civic, national and international events. Thousands of tourists have walked its aisles and climbed its tower. It has won fame for the beauty of its music. Along with the Avon/Ōtakaro River, its silhouette appears on all the city’s official signage. Christ Church Cathedral has stood in its square for close to a century and a half. Acclaimed historian Edmund Bohan tells the full and fascinating story of this beloved building, from its begin-nings in an embryonic settlement to its resurrection after disaster. In a lively, approachable text – well-illustrated throughout – he outlines the cathedral’s remarkable past and brings to life the equally remarkable people who have worked and worshipped there. He details the triumphs and the troubles, and looks to a future in which this instantly recognisable church will once again stand as the safe and welcoming heart of the city to which it belongs.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 352

Dimensions: 153 x 234 mm

Publication Date: 14-09-2022

When a distinguished New Zealand businessman is murdered in London, Detective Inspector O’Rorke is once again called in by Scotland Yard to help find the killer. But O’Rorke is soon enmeshed in the secrets of the past involving the chaos of the Crimean War thirty-four years previously and the murderous activities of the young revolutionaries who called themselves the Society of the White Rose. The dramatic events of those days shaped the lives and determined the fates of all who survived and now, the Society of the White Rose, more powerful than ever, is led by two of O’Rorke’s most unforgiving and ruthless enemies. Bogdan Lynskey and Count Zoltan Bathory have returned to London not only to assassinate the Austrian General Carl-Heinz Lorenz but to finally destroy O’Rorke himself. As O’Rorke tries to focus on the task at hand, whispers from the past grow louder, the circles of intrigue continue to swirl and alliances splinter, leading him to distrust even those who seem to be his closest colleagues. With danger now threatening his very household, O’Rorke’s return to New Zealand takes on a new and unwelcome urgency.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 240

Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm

Publication Date: 06-09-2023