Unveiling New Zealand History

by Ji Hye Bing and Seok Jun Bing

ISBN 978 1 927160 07 7

Price: NZ$60.00

About the book - from the authors

'This book will take you back to when New Zealand was first created till the signing of the Treaty. With fun illustrations and Koruru as your narrator through the whole book, learning history will be a brand new, fun experience'.

The style is perhaps best described as a 'comic book'. The illustrations are colourful and entertaining. The text is succinct but covers the early history of New Zealand in a serious and memorable way. The book is suitable for students and tourists who wish to learn more of this country and remember its story. Many full time New Zealanders will find the book informative too! The book is a quality production and would make a nice gift.

Taming the Tiger

A Personal Encounter with Manic Depression

by Michael Morrissey

Price: NZ$39.00 plus pack and post

ISBN 978-1-877332-96-8

About this book

This is the story of one man's experience of manic depression. Award-winning author Michael Morrissey gives the reader a frank account of his journey through two serious bipolar episodes.  Despite the seriousness of the illness, he tells his story in a riveting and lively manner.

Michael's manic delusions include a fantastical get rich diet scheme intended to make him the richest man in the world and enable him to save very endangered species on the planet; levitating from the lawn; and being the Messiah - alas no miracles performed. While in Malaysia, he tries to give an inappropriately irreverent speech at a Chinese Wedding and on arriving back in Auckland succeeds in saving 4000 books from pulping. Later, he spent time in a psychiatric unit where he reports, “Everyone inside seems mad except yourself.”

Fellow sufferers will find a compassionate understanding of what they are going through, just as Michael found encouragement from other writers. This book should be compulsory reading for psychiatric professionals to help them understand how they should regard and care for their patients. The general reader will find much of the story amusing and revealing. Some will find their attitudes towards mental illness radically challenged.

This is a well written and original story which deserves a wide readership. Michael has succeeded in taming his ‘Tiger’ and he shares his struggle in an honest and moving way.

Michael Morrissey has published twenty books of poetry and fiction and has a lifetime's experience as a writer. This book is probably his most important work so far.

To see further information about this book
Please follow this link

The Cathedral Builders of Holy Trinity Parnell

by Frank Wright

Price: NZ$25.00

ISBN 978-1-927160-06-0

About the Book

This is the story of the building of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand.  The story begins with the purchase of the land by Bishop Selwyn in 1842.  Bishop Cowie was thwarted in his efforts to begin building on that land and St Mary’s was built opposite and became the cathedral of the diocese for nearly 100 years.  In 1957 the foundation stone of Holy Trinity was laid owing largely to the generous bequest of Miss Horton.  The story of Holy Trinity and the story of St Mary’s are intertwined.  In 1982 St Mary’s was brought across the road to be an integral part of Holy trinity.  In the mid 1990s the nave was completed.  Both the nave design and the relocation of St Mary’s were the inspired insights of Professor Dick Toy.  Controversy has been part of the process.  Frank Wright tells the story with the emphasis on the people involved.  It is a moving account of a great  project which gives the Anglican church in Auckland a centre of unity and belonging, and which provides a witness to the Christian Gospel and its relevance.

Koe Kau To'a Na'anau Poletau

Valiant Volunteers: Soldiers from Tonga in the Great War

by Christine Liava'a

ISBN 9781877332920

Price: NZ$80.00 plus pack and post

About the Book

At the beginning of the Great War, 1914-1918, the British Empire rallied to Lord Kitchener’s call to arms. British men in Tonga, a protectorate of Britain, although never part of the Empire, heeded his call and enlisted in the Australian and New Zealand forces. Some Tongan men joined them.

This book, Koe Kau To`a Na`anau Poletau - Valiant Volunteers- Soldiers from Tonga in the Great War, lists the names of these men with their military details, family information, awards, and their deaths. Many photographs are included. An overview of their service and a chronology of events are also given.

Koe Kau To`a Na`anau Poletau continues Christine Liava’a ‘s series of genealogical and historical books dealing with those who served in the Great War from the Pacific region, which began with Qaravi Na’i Tavi- They Did their Duty- Soldiers from Fiji in the Great War.

She has produced a valuable source of information about individuals and families in Tonga, New Zealand, and Australia, which will be of great interest to genealogists, military historians, and others with an interest in the history of Tonga.

For further information, please follow this link.

Strangers at Home

by Wendy Baker

ISBN 978 1 927160 00 8

Price: NZ$40.00

About the Book:

Returning to New Zealand after four years in Papua New Guinea Wendy Baker and her family happily reintegrate to the New Zealand lifestyle. But the years on the missionfield have taken an unseen toll. There is a spiritual crisis looming. The excitement of their new life and a warm welcome into a  Pentecostal church mask their unease for a while, but as the novelty of a suburban lifestyle wears off Wendy is forced to confront the emotional time bomb ticking under the surface. Cracks are appearing in her Christian faith. John has other mysterious troubles of his own.  In desperation Wendy comes up with a plan that will either solve her problems once and for all, or blow her world apart.   
           

Wendy Baker has an attractive sense of humour and tells her story with energy and openness.  The very readable, entertaining narrative carries readers along through the struggles, set backs and victories of an ordinary Kiwi family to an unexpected climax. It is an enjoyable and revealing read.

To read an excerpt from this book please follow this link.

Ramon Opie QSM: Distinguished New Zealand Tenor

A Memoir and Family History by his Daughter

Elizabeth Noffke

Price: NZ$80.00

ISBN 978 1 927160 015

About the Book

Elizabeth Noffke tells the story of her father Ramon Opie.  Ramon was a well known tenor and a leading figure in the New Zealamnd music scene from the 1940s to the 1980s.  Elizabeth tells of her father's upbringing in an orphanage, through the trials of combining manual work with a singing career; she tells of his family life and of her own relationship with her father.  The book provides an interesting record of the New Zealand music scene in the post war years and on into the second half of the 20th century.  Interestingly, Ramon was unable to read music.  He had a prodigious memory and was able to memorise a musical score, even in a foreign language.  Elizabeth rounds off her story with an account of the family roots in Cornwall.  The book is lavishly illustrated with photos of historical interest.
                    Elizabeth Noffke teaches piano in Auckland and has done for many years.  As a younger woman she often acted as her father’s accompanist at his many engagements.

Cicero's Philippics: History Rhetoric Ideology

edited by Tom Stevenson and Marcus Wilson

Price: NZ$82.00

ISBN 978 1 877332 56 2

About the Book:

After the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BC, Mark Antony took control of Rome. Before the end of the year Cicero had taken on the leadership of the opposition in the Senate to Antony and his policies. The speeches made by Cicero against Antony, later published under the title Philippics, mounted a sustained attack on the way Antony exercised and abused his position of power.

As historical sources the Philippics were often neglected and disparaged during the 20th century, but they have recently attracted renewed scholarly interest for their political significance and as models of Roman and especially senatorial oratory.

The time when the speeches were delivered coincided with the early public career of the future emperor Augustus. Many of the ideas and much of the political vocabulary of the Philippics continued to resonate in the cultural life and imperial ideology of the Augustan principate.

This volume collects papers by a series of specialists in the field of Ciceronian studies who have set out to reconsider the historical impact of the Philippic speeches and their later significance in Roman culture.

Delivered at a crucial point in the painful political transition from the Roman Republic to the imperial system, the Philippics are the final speeches of Rome’s greatest orator at the peak of his powers. He paid the price for the political stance he took in the speeches with his life.  

For further information, and/or to buy the book online

Please follow this link to Cicero's Philippics page