Christchurch Botanic Gardens celebrates the beauty of the city's favourite haven, loved by all for over 150 years.
Created by artist and photographer Denise Hunter, Friends of the Botanic Gardens have declared the book "a long-awaited tribute to our beautiful gardens and a significant resource for our visitors."
The book is a photographic essay that follows a meandering route through the Gardens and includes trees or significance, sculptures and a look at the changing seasons.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 160

Dimensions: 255 x 285 mm

Publication Date: 14-01-2014

Christchurch Botanic Gardens celebrates the beauty of the city's favourite haven, loved by all for over 150 years.
Created by artist and photographer Denise Hunter, Friends of the Botanic Gardens have declared the book "a long-awaited tribute to our beautiful gardens and a significant resource for our visitors."
The book is a photographic essay that follows a meandering route through the Gardens and includes trees or significance, sculptures and a look at the changing seasons.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 160

Dimensions: 254 x 280 x 11 mm

Publication Date: 12-12-2013

This book should be read by all young New Zealanders. It is a story of uncommon bravery and sacrifice made in an earlier time and which, who knows, they may one day be called upon to emulate.The story of Bomber Command has been told many times, but rarely has it been painted as vividly as this accounting of Artie Ashworth's experiences. The strain of flying over the most heavily defended cities in the world, night after night for years, will be obvious to any reader.This was also a time when the development of aero-engines and aircraft as in its infancy and navigation was largely by clock and compass.
It is a tragedy that after effects of malaria should cut short such a promising career as Artie's.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 301

Dimensions: 147 x 210 x 19 mm

Publication Date: 30-11-2012

Management of New Zealand's environment needs to be based on sound knowledge.
Natural resource managers and policy makers now have at their fingertips the first comprehensive assessment of the state of ecosystem services - the benefits people obtain from nature - in this country.
More than 100 of New Zealand's leading scientists and academics have penned the 36 chapter for the new 540-page book.
Ecosystem services are categorised as 'provisioning', such as food, timber and freshwater; 'regulating', such as air quality, climate and pest regulation; 'cultural' such as recreation and sense of belonging; and 'supporting', such as soil quality and natural habitat resistance to weeds.
Editor John Dymond says the book was produced to improve understanding of the functioning of New Zealand's ecosystems.
Watch a video about the book here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh8yiLAZULE&list=UUM2UxABcyNTxMiIQNXgvNMg&feature=c4-overview

Bind: paperback

Pages: 540

Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm

Publication Date: 31-01-2014

12 Years a Slave, soon to be a huge new Hollywood film (February 2014 release), is the harrowing true story of Solomon Northup who was kidnapped and sold into slavery, enduring unimaginable degradation and abuse until his rescue twelve years later.
Tricked by two men offering him a job as a musician in New York State in 1841, Solomon Northup was drugged and kidnapped. His life in jeopardy, he was forced to assume a new name and fake past. Taken to Louisiana on a disease-ridden plague ship, he was initially sold to a cotton planter. In the twelve years that follow he is sold to many different owners who treat him with varying levels of savagery; forced labour, scant food and numerous beatings are his regular fare. Against all odds, Northup eventually succeeds in contacting a sympathetic party and manages to get word to his family. The ensuing rescue and legal cases are no less shocking and intriguing than the rest of the tale. Northup's meticulous first-hand recordings of slave life provide a true-life testament to tremendous courage and tenacity in the face of unfathomable injustice. A new film premiering in 2014, featuring Brad Pitt and Benedict Cumberbatch, and directed by Steve McQueen, is sure to introduce this amazing story to a new audience.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 300

Publication Date: 17-01-2014

'I would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel' The Sunday Express Born into an aristocratic family at the end of the Victorian age, Stephen Gordon is so named by parents who had longed for a boy. So begins a life of contradiction and isolation. Attracted to girls and women from an early age, Stephen's masculine appearance is accentuated by her preference for men's clothing and unfeminine mannerisms. When her first, burgeoning affair is cut short by social scandal, she moves to London and becomes a writer. When war breaks out she volunteers as an ambulance driver on the Western Front, and falls hopelessly in love with a comrade. The subject of considerable media attention and legal action since its first publication in 1928, The Well of Loneliness can be considered a semi-autobiographical treatment of the personal and familial struggles of the author set against the epoch-defining events of the Edwardian era and the First World War. It remains startlingly affecting today and its treatment of sexuality and gender issues continues to inspire study and debate.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 400

Publication Date: 09-02-2014

A mysterious veiled woman slips into the home of the secretive Judge Ostrander in the town of Shelby. The people of the town rush after her to protect their respected judge but in the confusion and furore that follow, a servant of the house dies. In the solemn atmosphere succeeding this drama, the veiled woman refuses to show her face, insisting on telling her story from under her swathes of purple veil. Her name is Deborah and she is the widow of a convicted murderer, a man sentenced to death many years before by Judge Ostrander. She took her young daughter and fled the town in shame when it happened, changing their names and ignoring the past. Now she must confront the truth. By a strange twist of fate Deborah's daughter is engaged to be married to Judge Ostrander's estranged son. She has only just learned of her father's conviction and execution but with steadfast integrity refuses now to sully her prospective husband's reputation by letting him marry the daughter of a murderer. Deborah is determined therefore to prove her husband's innocence and she believes the judge who convicted him is the one person in the world who can help. Reluctantly he allows her to stay in his home as a maid while she carries out her mission. But does the judge have something to hide? And if her husband was innocent, who is the guilty party? These are questions that Deborah must answer if she is to redeem her husband's reputation and secure her daughter's lasting happiness. But a secret so long buried cannot be uncovered without serious repercussions - Dark Hollow is a truly a compelling and classic tale of hidden guilt, honour and remorse.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 240

Publication Date: 09-02-2014

Have you ever wondered who fired the first British shot of World War One? Or who claimed the glory of downing the Red Baron?

Who was the first WW1 soldier to receive the Victoria Cross? And what has Winnie the Pooh got to do with it all?

Telling the stories of the battles, the aircraft,the weapons, the soldiers, the poets, the campaigns and the many heroes, Norman Ferguson delves deep into the history of the ‘Great War’. Through anecdotes and statistics, and drawing on letters, speeches and official reports, this comprehensive miscellany is a compelling guide to the war that transformed and marked forever the course of twentieth-century history.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 256

Dimensions: 116 x 182 mm

Publication Date: 06-01-2014

In 1975, the young Parisian photographer Brigitte Lacombe met Donald Sutherland and Dustin Hoffman at the Cannes Film Festival; these new acquaintances would go on to open doors for her. That same year she was hired as a photographer for the filming of Fellini’s Casanova. Since then, Lacombe’s famous images have reflected a who’s who of Hollywood cinema. This collection spans a masterfully choreographed array of photographs Lacombe took—all the way from the sets of 1970s cinema classics to film milestones of the new millennium, including Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men, Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. Conveying a certain intimacy without unmasking any mystery, Lacombe’s images capture classical beauty in a way that is fresh and exciting.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 96

Dimensions: 270 x 360 mm

Publication Date: 14-01-2014

In a prison, igloo, or treehouse, on top of a mountain, or under the stars what's the next stop? Architecture and leisure meet in this glimpse into the craziest places to stay while on the road. The new ideas, transformed spaces, and new interpretations of lodging in Extreme Hotels all prioritize fun. Compiled within are 40 of the most exciting and unusual "overnights" in Europe, from converted lodges, art gallery hotels, geodesic domes, eco pods, and a bustling lounge hostel on a converted houseboat to a one room lodging extended in mid-air within the shell of a functioning wharf crane. Each hotel is described in terms of its architectural and design ingenuity, placed in context on a map of Europe, and introduced with key details including address, phone and fax numbers, date of establishment, and number of rooms and suites. Illustrated beautifully, the volume appeals to both the adventurous tourist and the armchair traveler.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 208

Dimensions: 172 x 242 mm

Publication Date: 14-01-2014