Daughter of Gloriavale: My Life in a Religious Cult by Lilia Tarawa

$15.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

When Lilia's parents fled the cult and its dreadful secrets, Lilia and her many siblings were wrenched away from the only life they knew. Lilia struggled to adapt to life on the outside. Would she be damned to Hell for leaving? How could she learn to navigate this strange place called 'the world'? And w ould she ever find out the truth about her grandfather and the cult that had shaped her life? ...Show more

Southern People - A Dictionary of Otago Southland Biography by Jane Thomson (ed.)

$65.00 NZD

Category: Biography

Oscar Garden: An Tale of One Man's Love of Flying by Annamaria Garden

$25.00 NZD

Category: Aviation | Reading Level: near fine

One day in 1930, a man walked into a department store in London and bought an aeroplane. Having just learned to fly, Oscar Garden dreamed of flying to Australia. In his newly purchased aeroplane, he did just that. This adventure and myriad others this risk-taker embarked on are recounted in this book. O scar's love of flying saw him joy riding to many places in the world, including New Zealand, South Africa, and up through Africa to Palestine. While based in London, he joined British Airways and Imperial Airways flying flying boats across the Empire. Finally, he came to rest in Auckland, New Zealand, after delivering the Awarua, the second of New Zealand's flying boats, used during World War II for communication and travel, reducing New Zealand's isolation. He became Chief Pilot of TEAL, the New Zealand airline, for half of the war years and beyond, and eventually resigned due to serious disagreement over management and political agendas. This biography describes Oscar Garden's fascinating journey through these episodes. ...Show more

An Outsider Looks Back - Reflections on Experience by Ormond Wilson

$30.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Frontiers: A Colonial Dynasty by Simon Best

$30.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Two airmen of Māori descent lie buried together on a hilltop in Dorset, England. They are the grandson and great-grandson of a whaling captain who entered New Zealand waters in 1835, and who became one of the leading pioneers of European settlement in Wellington. The story’s main thread covers the four generations involved, and touches on early whaling off New Zealand and in the Pacific, European trading along the East Coast, the settlement and expansion of Wellington, the Thames gold rush and the first sheep stations in the Inland Patea. In 1883 the whaler’s natural daughter, her mother a local Māori, inherited her father’s wealth and moved with her husband to England, living in some of the country’s grand houses. Her eldest son became one of the world’s first aviators, winning a posthumous Victoria Cross over France in 1915. His son, also a noted pilot, was killed at the height of the Battle of Britain ...Show more

Lust for Land: James Henry Coleman : His Life, His Fortune, His Descendants by A.J. Coleman

$30.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Record of J H Coleman's life from arrival in New Zealand in1859 until his death in 1928 aged 94; acquisition of pastoral land in Hawke's Bay; very early sittings of the Maori Land Court in Hawke's Bay; Royal Commission into land dealings, particularly concerning the Heretaunga block (James escaped); the making of his fortune; his commercial and philanthropic activities; the lives of his four privileged step-children; division of his wealth; the lives his own children and grandchildren. ...Show more

Horncastle's Hero or Hell Raiser by Graeme Horncastle

$15.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: near fine

The Horncastle family is prominent in the New Zealand business world, but their ancestors are far less well known. This new book explores the life of Charlie Jacobsen, grandfather and great-grandfather of generations of Horncastles who, often from humble beginnings, have achieved success in many fields including building, hospitality, fishing, retail, property management and advertising. "Old Charlie" Jacobsen led an extraordinary life of adventure and mayhem - gold miner, fisherman and launchmaster in the remote French Pass and Marlborough Sounds, and the first in New Zealand to discover uranium, in 1955. He had the proverbial nine lives and used up most of them. Spanning the 1880s to the 1960s, this book provides a snapshot of life in New Zealand and an often hilarious background to one of New Zealand's most interesting families. ...Show more

Louise Sutherland: Spinning the Globe by Bronwen Wall

$14.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Series: New Zealand Cycling Legends | Reading Level: very good

Louise was a small woman with a big heart. She knew virtually nothing about bicycles, except what really mattered, and so became a cycling legend without winning a single race. Instead Louise Sutherland planned her own route - one that was far longer and rougher than any Tour de France. She was the firs t person ever to cycle right across Brazil, through the Amazon Jungle. The day she arrived in Brazil in 1978, government officials told Louise that her plan was "Quite impossible!" The Trans-Amazon Highway, connecting one side of Brazil with the other, had just been bulldozed and passed through remote areas inhabited by "primitive" people and wild animals. The idea that this petite woman from New Zealand could ride a bicycle slap bang through the middle of such wilderness was "absolutely crazy". But Louise wasn't any ordinary cyclist. She had already pedalled through 50 countries and solidly believed in the best of human nature, especially in indigenous peoples - around the world she had found them to be the most hospitable. In fact, she was sceptical of modern civilisation. Travelling alone, her small stature and humble mode of transport presented no threat to anyone. And loneliness didn't worry her: "I was never lonely while I was cycling. I had my bicycle to talk to." ...Show more

High Country Family by Betty Dick

$20.00 NZD

Category: Agriculture | Reading Level: very good

The Cradle of Erewhon - Samuel Butler in New Zealand by Joseph Jones

$25.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Keeper of the Sheep by Mary Catherine Goulter

$85.00 NZD

Category: Agriculture | Reading Level: very good

The Life and Times of Sir George Grey KCB by William Lee Rees and Lily Rees

$50.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good