Until the age of twenty, Donald McIntyre hoped to play for the All Blacks, and was on his way to achieving that aim. As a young man, however, he acknowledged his exceptional voice and opted for a career in singing. After leaving New Zealand and arriving in London, McIntyre set his sights on the world of opera. His spectacular musical life saw him conquering the stages of two London companies in the 1960s and 70s: Sadler’s Wells and ROH Covent Garden. His increasing command of Wagner roles brought him to the notice of Richard Wagner’s grandson Wolfgang Wagner, and in 1967 he made his debut appearance in Lohengrin. For the next seventeen years he sang in every Festival cycle and became the first “British” musician to sing the role of Wotan in Wagner’s mighty, four-opera Ring. Recognised for nearly three decades as the definitive Flying Dutchman, McIntyre also starred in the Bayreuth Centennial Ring in a production by Patrice Chéreau that completely revolutionised Wagner opera, and shot him to lasting fame, and in 1992, a knighthood. In this fascinating memoir “Sir Don” looks back over a huge slice of operatic history and his role in it. Mixing fun and gossip with judgement and insight, he brings to life a teeming gallery of the world’s most famous musicians – singers, conductors, directors, teachers, designers, sponsors … all the movers and shakers in the opera world of two generations. Edited by music professor and well-known New Zealand Wagnerian and radio personality, Heath Lees, this book is a fitting monument to Sir Donald’s magnificent half century in opera.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 240

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 19-05-2019

Fourteen-year-old Beatrice Thomas lives with her widowed mother and younger sister Tilly in a small country town overshadowed by the events of World War One. Many of the local boys, including Beaty's friend Caleb, are away fighting. When Beaty has to leave school, she gets a job as a telegram girl at the Post and Telegraph Office. It's a hard job, especially when she has to deliver news of war casualties. She must convince the telegram boys, and herself, that she's up to the task, at a time when women's roles were limited. Meanwhile, Caleb's letters turn darker as his initial enthusiasm fades and reality takes over. Rumours of peace start to spread, but Beaty continues delivering telegrams through the Armistice, the peace celebrations and the dreadful influenza epidemic. Soon she's running the Post Office almost single-handed. Then Caleb's letters stop arriving.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 288

Dimensions: 128 x 198 mm

Publication Date: 20-03-2019

Every morning, so far, I’m alive is about what it’s like to live in a world where shaking a stranger’s hand, catching a taxi or touching a door handle are fraught with fear and dread. This memoir charts the author’s breakdown after migrating from New Zealand to England: what begins as homesickness and career burn-out develops into depression, contamination phobia and OCD. Increasingly alienated from all the things that previously gave her life meaning and purpose – family, work, nature, literature – the author is forced to confront a question once posed by the young Virginia Woolf: ‘How is one to live in such a world?’ In this fiercely honest memoir Wendy Parkins, a former English professor, explores what it means to belong and feel at home, and how we are shaped by our first environments, both familial and physical. Describing the gradual process of recovery – as well as its reversals – it shows that returning to health can be about rediscovering how we came to be who we are, without becoming trapped by our narratives of origin. Like coming home, recovery is never quite what we expect it to be, however much we long for it. Beautifully written, intensely moving and threaded with self-deprecating humour, Every morning, so far, I’m alive is about claiming the right to tell our own story and learning to embrace the risks that the messy unpredictability of life always entails.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 220

Dimensions: 150 x 230 mm

Flight, song, darkness and light, history, fable and furniture. From the botanist to the birdcage, from rescue to ruin, Helen Bascand's fifth poetry collection charts a tilting world with her customary elegance, wit and intelligence.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 94

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 01-12-2018

Autobiography of New Zealand dance legend Sir Jon Trimmer, whose timespan and durability as a performer is unique in world ballet. The first part, a narrative, follows Jon’s journey - The fledgling years of New Zealand Ballet founded by Poul Gnatt Training at London’s Royal Ballet School International performance with Sadler’s Wells, Australian Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet Dancing alongside Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev A career with Royal New Zealand Ballet, and his knighthood The second part gives a whole quota of tips for emerging dancing, including dancing for males, retaining fitness, character dancing, and ways of making a career out of dance.

Bind: paperback

Dimensions: 165 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 30-06-2018

Ray Woolf - Singer, actor and television host • Ray came to New Zealand as a 17-year old pop singer from London • He joined the wave of young New Zealanders in the likes of C’Mon and Happen Inn on New Zealand’s only television channel • He fronted Ray Woolf and the Avengers • He entertained a lot of us as a host of Play School television kids show • He broke new ground hosting Two on One, The Ray Woolf Show and The New Ray Woolf Show • He has appeared in a host of television dramas, including Shortland Street, Marlin Bay, and Nothing Trivial • He had a role in movies, including King Kong and The Insatiable Moon • He has starred in musicals, such as West Side Story and Blood Brothers • He’s still around as everyone’s favourite crooner • What a career! The book covers both Ray Woolf’s career highlights and his performing secrets.

Bind: paperback

Dimensions: 170 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 20-12-2018

This fascinating biography of Charles Rooking Carter connects the English Victorian world and colonial New Zealand, particularly Wellington and the Wairarapa. It also, through Carter’s colonial ‘gaze’ reflected in his writings, draws out the contrast between the old world of Europe and the new antipodean world.From humble origins in England, Carter emigrated to Wellington in 1850 where he worked as a builder, contractor and architect, becoming a foremost contributor to the town’s development of harbour reclamation and public buildings. In the Wairarapa he promoted the settlement of working settlers on the land, was acknowledged for his work by having the town of Carterton named after him, and founded a large estate on the Taratahi Plain. Elected to political office, he served the province of Wellington and the Wairarapa well, assisting in Wellington becoming the capital of New Zealand in 1865. When he returned to London he continued to promote New Zealand’s interests. Carter’s considerable legacy included his generous philanthropic support of Carterton, in particular the establishment of the Carter Home, his donation of the fabulous Carter Collection of books to the Colonial Museum (Te Papa), and his bequest to the Carter Observatory in Wellington.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 328

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 28-10-2018

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

“I am reminded of what Harold Nicholson wrote about London during the Blitz: the same uncertainty as to what horror was going to happen next…” – Michael Palin Always an acute observer of people and the environment, in this new book Rosie Belton once again uses her diarist style to capture with intimacy and immediacy the events as they happened around her, in this case the earthquakes experienced by the people of Canterbury. Nothing could have prepared her, she says, for the severity of the quakes, starting with the first one in 2010, and then the ongoing disruption over the next six years: the grinding reality of living through so many months of shaking and the after-effects. Like many creative individuals, Rosie found that writing about those terrible events as they unfolded developed into a coping mechanism. And now, the result of her careful record-keeping and reflections can be read and appreciated by so many others whose lives have been affected by similarly large- scale natural disasters. It also makes excellent reading for anyone with an interest in knowing more about what it can be like to live in a seismically active country. Dedicated to all who face and survive unwanted change, Living with Earthquakes helps us, as well-known author and actor Michael Palin said after reading Rosie’s writings, ‘to comprehend the incomprehensible, conveying the mixture of bewilderment, hope and desperation very effectively’.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 156

Dimensions: 150 x 208 mm

Publication Date: 06-03-2019

A French Marist priest, Father Antoine Garin was sent to run the remote Mangakahia mission station on the banks of the Wairoa River. Living Among the Northland Māori is Garin’s diary recording his experiences from 1844 to 1846 as he gets to know the Māori in the region. The diary provides vivid accounts of contemporary events, as Garin came dangerously close to the action of the Northern War, and wrote of such prominent figures as Hōne Heke and Kawiti as they opposed the new colonial authorities. Above all, the diary is an intimate record of life in a Māori community in which Garin describes the close relationships he formed with his new neighbours – from his young followers and local families to the chiefs who offered him protection while he lived among them. This is the first full English translation of Garin’s surviving Mangakāhia journals and letters. Frank, open-minded and often humorous, Garin’s diary is a major contribution to the early history of European settlement in Aotearoa and a compelling insight into Māori customs, values and beliefs of the time.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 620

Dimensions: 190 x 258 mm

Publication Date: 29-03-2019