In these small stories, Frankie McMillan balances transgression and wit, showing a cast of unmoored characters with her signature warmth and compassion. Bursts of vivid, poetic writing blur the line between reality and surrealism as she explores all kinds of wandering: children wander, adults drift into unexpected relationships, and footholds can never be certain. Water, too, meanders like a river in the collection, a powerful presence linking disparate lives: the girls raised by swans swim towards what they hope is a better future in the West, a grandmother swims naked in an isolated bush lake, Magdalene’s behaviour on the fishing boat is under scrutiny by her sisters, while the taniwha Kaiwhakaruaki looms over lovers hiding under a wooden dinghy on the beach. In settings as unexpected as a European post-war circus or an inflatable pool in suburban Aotearoa, the enduring bonds of family, real or imagined, take centre stage. Frankie McMillan has given us a collection that is poignant, revelatory and bitter sweet. Frankie McMillan is the author of five books of poetry and short fiction. Her most recent collection, ‘The Father of Octopus Wrestling’, was listed by The Spinoff as one of the 10 best New Zealand fiction books of 2019 and shortlisted for the NZSA Heritage Book Awards, and her 2016 collection, ‘My Mother and the Hungarians’, was longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. She has twice won the New Zealand Flash Fiction Day competition and has been the recipient of numerous awards and residencies, including the NZSA Peter and Dianne Beatson Fellowship (2019), the Michael King writing residency at the University of Auckland (2017), and the Ursula Bethell residency in creative writing at the University of Canterbury (2014). McMillan spends her time between Ōtautahi Christchurch and Mohua Golden Bay.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 128

Dimensions: 130 x 204 mm

Publication Date: 19-08-2022

Arthur Prior (1914–69), the founder of ‘tense logic', is regarded as New Zealand's greatest 20th-century philosopher. It is commonly believed that the philosopher J.N.D. Findlay lured a young Prior away from theology and his training for the ministry to the world of philosophy. However, as Prior’s letters to the poet Ursula Bethell and to his communist cousin Hugh Teague now make clear, he did not simply abandon theological study in order to immerse himself in philosophy – nor does it seem that it was a matter of his disbelieving in theology one minute and believing in philosophy the next. Until World War II, and, it appears, for a time afterwards, Prior seriously considered a career as a religious journalist, especially when travelling and living on the Continent and in England with his first wife, Clare Hunter. During these years, Prior wrote widely on theology and contemporary Christianity. In his correspondence with Ursula Bethell – who called him one of her ‘young progressives’ – and Hugh Teague, Prior discusses in detail his religious and theological thought and his personal beliefs and influences, including his shift from formal theological study into a world of journalism and philosophy. These previously unknown letters, which cover the years from 1936 to 1941 and his time in Dunedin, Wellington, France and London, chronicle a substantial part of a fascinating period in Prior’s development, both theologically and philosophically. Prior’s letters have been transcribed and annotated for this volume by early Prior scholar Mike Grimshaw. An essay by Mike Grimshaw and an introduction by Prior expert Jack Copeland provide further context, including a brief introduction to tense logic.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 236

Dimensions: 152 x 228 mm

Publication Date: 31-10-2018

‘A front-row seat to running’s most inspiring and historic moments, with New Zealand in a major role.’ Nick Willis MNZM, two-time Olympic medallist, New Zealand record-holder 1500 m ‘Roger’s account of the global rise of women’s running is the best I’ve ever seen. I’m honoured that my win in the New York Marathon and Lorraine Moller’s in the Avon Marathon are central to his story.’ Allison Roe MBE, winner and record-breaker, Boston and New York City Marathons ‘Roger Robinson is uniquely placed to write this riveting memoir. Throughout the running revolution he’s been a world-class runner, commentator, broadcaster and writer. It is an insider’s view of running – intimate, persuasive and informative.’ Lloyd Jones, Hon DLitt, award-winning New Zealand novelist, Man Booker Prize finalist About The Book: Roger Robinson has been witness to many great moments in the history of running, and to those when running made history in ways beyond sport. As an excited child at the post-war London Olympics, an ardent spectator following the drama of Peter Snell and Murray Halberg at Rome, stadium announcer at the transformative Christchurch Commonwealth Games, TV commentator when Ben Johnson got busted, and more recently as a journalist reporting live on the Boston Marathon bombings, Robinson was there. In a unique cross-over of literature, history and autobiography, Robinson tells of running in Berlin at the moment of German reunification and in New York’s Central Park the day the Twin Towers fell; he is on the TV microphone for Kenya’s first major running victory; and has to find words to help a stadium crowd mourn for the lives lost in the Christchurch earthquake. ‘When Running Made History’ is a superb depiction of the modern running movement. It provides a compelling, close-up account of the American running boom, the defiant emergence of women’s running, the glorious dawn of Africa’s ascendance, the sport’s redefinition of ageing, and its important role in environmental conservation. Robinson lets us run alongside as history is made by Emil Zátopek, Abebe Bikila, Ron Clarke, Dick Tayler, Allison Roe, Paula Radcliffe, Nick Willis, Meb Keflezighi and 85-year-old superstar Ed Whitlock. Robinson brings to life the days when running shaped the world, and shows why so many millions love to run and why running is worth loving. About the Author: Roger Robinson, now Emeritus Professor, is remembered as an outstanding teacher of English at Canterbury and Victoria universities, and by a wider public as stadium announcer at the Christchurch and Auckland Commonwealth Games, and an acclaimed commentator for TVNZ. His books include ‘Katherine Mansfield: In From the Margin’, the ‘Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature’ and ‘Heroes and Sparrows: A Celebration of Running’.   Praise for the US edition of When Running Made History (Syracuse University Press, 2018): ‘Among the countless books on athletics and running that I have reviewed over the past 60 years, this seminal book is one of the very best. Readers will be enthralled by this eloquent, knowledgeable, humorous, poignant work by a wonderfully descriptive writer.’ Mel Watman, Athletics International, UK

Bind: paperback

Pages: 328

Dimensions: 150 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 22-02-2019

Mt John University Observatory is New Zealand's only professional research observatory for optical astronomy. John Hearnshaw, a past director of the observatory, has delved into the observatory archives to write this engaging account of Mt John's fascinating history. Alan Gilmore, the recently retired observatory superintendent, has added to this with his personal recollections, having worked at the observatory for more than 34 years. Fifty years ago, in 1965, Mt John University Observatory was founded at Lake Tekapo in the Mackenzie Basin to take advantage of the favourable conditions for astronomy. Telescopes were installed, and in 1981 a lighting ordinance helped protect the site from light pollution. Astronomical research had been thriving on Mt John for 40 years when astro-tourism started to take off, largely due to the venture company Earth & Sky. Today Mt John is both a research observatory and a mecca for stargazing astro-tourists, who come to see the pristine landscape and the amazing dark night skies. It is one of the most beautiful astronomical observatories in the world, but also a place with an often turbulent history, having been rocked by personality battles, funding shortfalls, student demonstrations and on one occasion, a destructive fire. In spite of all that, its scientific work has been an outstanding success, and Mt John's research work, especially in stellar astronomy, is known and respected around the world. "Mt John - The First 50 Years: A celebration of half a century of optical astronomy at the University of Canterbury" is richly illustrated, with more than 180 figures, many of them outstanding landscape and nightscape photographs taken by the acclaimed Tekapo photographer, Fraser Gunn.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 216

Dimensions: 303 x 232 mm

Publication Date: 16-03-2015

Reprint 2023 Charlie Douglas ranks as one of the great early European explorers of New Zealand. From 1867 to 1916 the Scottish-born Douglas lived on the west coast of the South Island, spending most of his time exploring, surveying and mapping the coast, the bush and the mountainous inland regions, in hazardous conditions, often for little or no pay. Many years later the noted mountaineer and writer John Pascoe rediscovered and preserved many of Douglas’s writings and sketches. The original book he wrote out of these has long been out of print, but Charlie Douglas’s accounts of discovery and recording difficult country continue to fascinate. Douglas recorded much of the geography and topography of South Westland, its ecology and conservation, at a time when this was scarcely known. He also demonstrated the determined qualities of Pakeha pioneering in New Zealand. As with the original edition, about a third of this book is devoted to an account of the life of Charlie Douglas, and about two thirds to his writings, which have been only lightly edited. Errors have been corrected, new information added, new illustrations added (including many in colour), people identified and the text re-edited for modern readership. Graham Langton’s revised edition of Pascoe’s 1957 book was first published in 2000 and reprinted with minor corrections in 2004, and with further corrections and a new cover design in 2016. It will continue to appeal to all with an interest in the New Zealand outdoors, nature and conservation.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 348

Dimensions: 150 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 20-05-2016

Aotearoa New Zealand is renowned among biologists worldwide for spectacular ecological restoration work over the last 50 years, through advances in pest eradication and native species translocation. This book documents the development of these world-leading technologies. It uses examples from throughout the country, but has a special focus on one island group – the Mercury islands off Coromandel, of which Ahuahu (Great Mercury Island) is the largest. The story is told through the eyes of pioneer conservation biologist David Towns, who was there from the start. It is a story of triumphs and setbacks, of opportunity and innovation, of teamwork and emerging bicultural collaboration. Today, all seven islands of the Mercury group are free of mammalian pests, providing a haven to native plants and animals. This book is the story of how that was made possible.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 384

Dimensions: 210 x 280 x 15 mm

Publication Date: 16-01-2023

Woven from the sharp and tensile strands of memory, many of the poems in this collection return to the primal pains of neglect and damage in childhood. Emotional memory is anchored in the specific detail of an era – the selection is laced with dreams of flight and memories of West Coast town rituals, places and people – and fans out to draw on local and international history, exploring with wit, anger, imagination and grief the ways in which Aotearoa still carries the wounds of colonisation and class. Confronting the ghosts of bereavement and loss, in this gripping and powerful collection Holman leads us from remembrance and elegy, in all their guises, to a kind of ‘spring of the soul’. Poetry and song have their own healing gifts: here, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman calls on their potency to set the mind free.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 168

Dimensions: 145 x 200 mm

Publication Date: 01-02-2017

Zeus – or Jupiter in his Roman manifestation – could shake Mount Olympus with the nod of his head, and send thunder and lightning across the heavens. Perseus was given winged boots with which he could fly. The gods and heroes of the Greeks and Romans were powerful. Yet they were also complex, subject to human emotions and relationship troubles. The 87 artefacts and eight essays in this richly illustrated catalogue offer an insight into their complex world, a world that is in some ways familiar, but in others very distant from our own. ‘We Could Be Heroes’celebrates the stories of their adventures, disputes, conflicts and love interests and is published to accompany the inaugural exhibition at the Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities in 2017. Many beautiful, rare and valuable artefacts are on display in this first significant exhibition of the Logie Collection after the devastating Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. The exhibition also marks the return of the University of Canterbury to its first home in the Christchurch Arts Centre, the original site of Canterbury College. Gary Morrison is a senior lecturer in the Classics Department at the University of Canterbury. Penelope Minchin-Garvin and Terri Elder are co-curators of antiquities in the Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities at the University of Canterbury, the first museum of classical antiquities in New Zealand, and the new home of the James Logie Memorial Collection.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 204

Dimensions: 210 x 270 mm

Publication Date: 15-05-2017

In this fascinating and informative book, Margaret Maclagan and Anne Buckley - two specialists in children's language development - explain the subtle and extraordinary process in which children learn to talk and the very important role that parents and grandparents can play. Combining a comprehensive understanding of speech development with fascinating scientific facts - did you know that babies cry with an accent? - Talking Baby offers numerous practical suggestions and real-life examples of how parents can best help their children to learn to talk. The authors also provide many ideas for 'talking' topics, as well as ways to use the everyday things in life to encourage children's comprehension and speech. Drawing on their combined 40 years’ experience, the authors also address some of the more commonly asked questions by parents such as: * Why is it that my child can imitate a word accurately but continues to use the wrong pronunciation in his speech? * Do second and other children talk later than first children? * My 18-month-old child isn't saying anything. Should I be worried? * Is it better to use grown-up language to talk to young children than ˜baby talk"? * How early can I start reading to my child? * English isn't my first language. How can I help my children to speak it well? * My child is repeating words a lot, especially when excited- does this mean she's stuttering?

Bind: paperback

Pages: 192

Dimensions: 148 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 30-11-2019

In his down-to-earth and lively style, Mitchell, who experienced politics first-hand as a long-serving Labour MP for Grimsby, denounces the economic policy of the last three decades as “a long march down Dead-End Street” – a neoliberal experiment that has benefitted the rich and eroded the “good society” with its welfare state and governments’ commitment to the betterment of the people. He charts the development of a neoliberal creed, market-driven and with governments devoted instead to efficiency, cost-cutting and austerity at the people’s expense, and draws parallels between Thatcherism in the United Kingdom, Rogernomics in New Zealand, and all that came after them. Mitchell observes how neoliberalism has failed to deliver on its promises, including that of the “trickle-down” effect, resulting in much greater inequality in both countries. Ultimately, he finds useful lessons in its failure and possible pointers to a fairer society for all.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 116

Dimensions: 210 x 270 mm

Publication Date: 01-06-2017