Tuai: A Traveller in Two Worlds by Alison Jones; Kuni Jenkins

$45.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

In early 1817 Tuai, a young Ngare Raumati chief from the Bay of Islands, set off for England. He was one of a number of Maori who, after encountering European explorers, traders and missionaries in New Zealand, seized opportunities to travel beyond their familiar shores to Australia, England and Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They sought new knowledge, useful goods and technologies, and a mutually benefi cial relationship with the people they knew as Pakeha. On his epic journey Tuai would visit exotic foreign ports, mix with teeming crowds in the huge metropolis of London, and witness the marvels of industrialisation at the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire. With his lively travelling companion Titere, he would attend fashionable gatherings and sit for his portrait. He shared his deep understanding of Maori language and culture. And his missionary friends did their best to convert him to Christianity. But on returning to his Maori world in 1819, Tuai found there were difficult choices to be made. His plan to integrate new European knowledge and relationships into his Ngare Raumati community was to be challenged by the rapidly shifting politics of the Bay of Islands. With sympathy and insight, Alison Jones and Kuni Kaa Jenkins uncover the remarkable story of one of the first Maori travellers to Europe. ...Show more

Hello Darkness by Peter Wells

$40.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

It's now a year exactly since my urologist told me I had an aggressive cancer that was incurable. I was rushed into hospital and thus began a year of chemotherapy, radiation and all the ups and downs of a sickness that arrived in my life with the noise and terror of an old fashioned train. During that t ime I wrote about my experience on my Iphone, on Facebook, and I received in return an explosion of aroha on that most cynical of mediums - the internet. There was advice, commentary, encouragement, accompaniment. The posts became the basis for Hello Darkness. I made something out of nothing if near-death experiences can be said to be nothing. I learnt a lot. I am a different ... ...Show more

A Way Home by Jillian Sullivan

$39.99 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

When life as she knew it ended, with her marriage over and her last child off into the world, writer Jillian Sullivan set out to fulfil a long-held dream of building a strawbale house. She settled in a small community in Central Otago, and A Way Home tells the story of how she eventually managed to buil d her new home. With her son-in-law Sam as her builder and mentor, and she as the apprentice, Jillian describes the process of having to learn how to use tools, how to be strong and to be safe and, more importantly that there is no such thing as can¿t. The house that arises through this memoir is a physical testament to the rebuilding of a life, of finding your place in a community, and of the unexpected joyousness in joining with others on a building project. People come from all over New Zealand to help ¿ from Nelson, Auckland, Queenstown, from next door and from the next valleys. There are poets and artists, a magician and finance analyst, grandmothers and grandchildren, old friends, new friends and strangers. Each person brings their unique skills and gifts and leaves with new ones. The house absorbs their creativity and kindnesses. A Way Home reflects on our need for home, for community, and for finding a way to live sustainably in this rapidly changing world. The story evokes life in a harsh climate in a small village, the struggle to overcome lack of skills and strength, and to move past loneliness and loss to find a place to call home. This is an affecting story, quietly inspirational and beautifully told by a deft and skilled writer. ...Show more

Sam Hunt: Off the Road by Sam Hunt; Colin Hogg

$50.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

Thirty years after Hogg and Hunt collaborated on the now-legendary Angel Gear: Off the Road with Sam Hunt, the pair have decided to throw caution to the wind and proceed without doctors' certificates, to create an older, possibly wiser twin to that earlier book. A backstage pass to the private side of o ne of our most public people, Sam Hunt: Off the Road is a wild, hilarious, no-holds-barred book about the non-stop life and poems of a man New Zealand thinks it knows, until now. Part conversation, part story-telling, part poems, it's also a book about friendship, solitude, love, death, self-destruction and endurance. With photographs and poems, some old, some new. ...Show more

We Can Make a Life by Chessie Henry

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

Hours after the 2011 Christchuch Earthquake, Kaikoura-based doctor Chris Henry crawled through the burning CTV building to rescue those who were trapped. Six years later, his daughter Chessie interviews him in an attempt to understand the trauma that led her father to burnout, in the process unravellin g stories and memories from her own remarkable family history. Chessie rebuilds her family's lives on the page, from her parents honeymoon across Africa, to living in Tokelau as one of five children under ten before returning to New Zealand, where her mother would set her heart and home in the Clarence Valley only to see it devastated in the 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake, and the family displaced. Written with the same love and compassion that defines her familys courage and strength, We Can Make a Life is an extraordinary memoir about the psychological cost of heroism, home and belonging, and how a family made a life together. ...Show more

Alone in the Tasman: Tony Allan's True Story of Survival at Sea by Les Hill

$38.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

The longest-known survival on the Tasman Sea in a life raft. After competing in the Solo Tasman Yacht Challenge 1974, Christchurch man Tony Allan was sailing back to New Zealand from Mooloolaba when his boat, Rebel II, capsized two days into the journey, leaving him adrift in his life raft for 20 days. Alone in the Tasman, as told to Les Hill, is an inspiring story of survival as Tony battled through nightmares, hearing voices, loneliness, and absolute vulnerability. Tony's is the longest-known survival on the Tasman Sea in a life raft. ...Show more

Labour, Faith & Favour by Mary Ellen O'Connor

$30.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

The Audrey Story

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

Finding the Mountains: An Older Woman's Guide to Skiing by Peeta Wellsford

$19.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

Rants in the Dark: From One Tired Mama to Another by Emily Writes

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

Popular blogger Emily Writes gives words of encouragement to sleep-deprived parents everywhere.With two small boys, both non-sleepers, Emily finds herself awake in the wee small hours night after night. Her writing is often done then, and she offers her own often hilarious and always heart-warming exper iences to other exhausted parents. She describes the frustrations as well as the tender moments of real parenting, as opposed to what you thought it was going to be like, or what well-meaning advice-givers tell you it shouldbe like. A must-have for all new parents and parents-to-be. Emily's blogs have been wildly popular, as have her on-line columns with New Zealand Woman's Weeklyand The New Zealand Herald. ...Show more

That F Word: Growing up Feminist in Aotearoa by Lizzie Marvelly

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

A wake-up call and a battle-cry for all Kiwi women Lizzie Marvelly tells the story of New Zealand's feminist roots, then traverses the modern landscape, tearing apart areas of gender imbalance and pervading attitudes to Kiwi women. In particular, Lizzie examines how men have been brought up with certain values - the rugby, racing and beer mentality we know all too well. Lizzie grew up an ardent Chiefs and All Blacks fan, but a wiser head now recognises that there are still endemic issues for society to address. Lizzie speaks about her own first-hand experiences with sexism and male misconduct, while also offering advice to young girls on how to take full control of their lives. ...Show more

Godley by Terry Kinloch

$70.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

A comprehensive biography of General Sir Alexander Godley, presenting for the first time a fair and balanced look at his time as commander of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) and II ANZAC Corps during World War I. While Godley is generally remembered as being a poor field commander, Terry Kinl och argues that he was in fact a capable one who had little or no ability to influence the failed battles at Gallipoli and Passchendaele that he is often seen as responsible for. Kinloch also presents, for the first time, a detailed account of Godley's long pre- and post-World War I career in the British Army. After the war Godley returned to the British Army, eventually reaching the rank of general before retiring in 1933. During his 48-year military career, he also served on operations in Rhodesia and South Africa, as a mounted infantry instructor, in the post-war British occupation force in Germany, and as the Governor of Gibraltar. ...Show more