Our New Zealand nonfiction section features books and eBooks about travel, history, law and more. This list updates when we add new titles to our collection.
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Book
"A selection of artworks depicting flowers, from the Gallery's collections."--Provided by publisher.
After living overseas for forty years an expatriate returns to New Zealand for the 2011 Rugby World Cup to report on matches and travel around the islands. But Return to Rugby Land is about more than the games and the scenery. Sport's place in societ...
‘Forgotten Philanthropist’ — these two words summarise this book. Robert McDougall was one of Christchurch’s most generous benefactors. His gift to Christchurch in autumn 1928 of the art gallery that bears his name is, in today’s monetary terms, the ...
Gordon McLauchlan continues his bestselling Short History series with an in-depth look into the history of the farming industry in New Zealand. From the early migrant farmers and regional produce trading, to the revolution of refrigeration - opening up...
"Where are the best mountain bike rides in New Zealand? With more than a thousand to choose from, this book is our definitive answer. We have distilled three decades of mountain biking, track building, research and exploring into a guide to the best of...
Graham Hannah was that rare diamond, a Waikato businessman more at home in a sarong than a suit. He shimmers in this gritty memoir which takes root in Yorkshire, the home of his childhood. He honed his sales skills selling Bon Brushes door to door and...
A photographic exploration of the life of one of New Zealand's favourite native birds, the tui. Rex Auty has captured the tui in his garden as they eat, fly, play and fight, and has a section dedicated to the beauty of their feathers. There are images...
Colonial Akaroa was surprisingly cosmopolitan with enclaves of speakers of Maori, English, French and German. Migration and ship-jumping further added to the cultural mix. Shipping kept Akaroa and other Banks Peninsula settlements in contact with the...
"The day my mother told us she could see a dog in the garden we knew something was amiss. When the diagnosis of Lewy Body Dementia followed, we were shocked and deeply saddened. So began our quest to find out more. How would this illness progress? How...
The flow of troops, goods and fuel was critical to the success of the Allied war effort during the First World War. The danger faced at sea by the crews of the Mercantile Marine was recognised by the issue of the Mercantile Marine War Medal. This boo...
"The country’s leading, independent travel guide specialising in six new regions. It’s packed full of interesting people to meet, things to do, places to go and food to eat; don’t leave home till you’ve seen the country."--
Spending the kids’ inheritance. Growing old disgracefully. Life begins at 50. You see these catchy phrases on bumper stickers, tea towels and even t-shirts, but all jokes aside, there is one thing we all know – no matter how old our driver’s license says...
eBook
Philip Soutar died at Ypres in 1917. Before becoming a soldier, Soutar's life revolved around his farm at Whakatane, where he lived with his Maori wife Kathleen Pine in an?as-you-please marriage, uncelebrated by a clergyman'. Matters of the Heart introduces...
More laid-back Kiwi humour from the team that devised the bestselling Sh*t Towns of New Zealand.
In Fuelling Dissension, Jane Young weaves together the historical, political, social, economic and environmental strands that underlie the struggle between coal mining and conservation. At the same time, she clearly and concisely explains the basic facts...
"Our Village Kitchen was cooked up by a group of parents to raise funds for the local primary, Raumati South School. The aim was to create a book which captured the heart and soul of the school and community, with Kiwi classics alongside internationa...
These brief poems come to us in a singular voice, deceptively deft and simple. They are capable of song, wit and mystery. Elizabeth Nannestad writes of these poems: They are all about movement around some pivot that appears for the moment to stay the...
"Using departmental archives ... traces the history of social security policy in New Zealand from the introduction of the old-age pension in 1898 ... up to the recent benefit cuts & the superannuation referendum of 1997. It explores both the major in...
Keith Sinclair's The Origins of the Maori Wars is a fascinating account of the Waitara purchase and the cause of war in Taranaki in 1860. The seeds of conflict were sown in the earliest days of European settlement in New Zealand, when colonists arrived...
It considers the effect of the wars on the Maori people of Waikato, Taranaki, and Hawkes Bay, and draws heavily on Maori sources. Special emphasis is given to leaders Te Whiti and Tawhiao. Sinclair writes a challenging and eminently readable book. It...
"Dragon Talk is Fleur Adcock's first new collection in ten years. It shows a sparer, more concentrated style, while continuing to reflect her preoccupations with family matters and with her ambivalent feelings about her native New Zealand"--Back cove...
"This collection of essays by Māori experts examines issues involving the Treaty of Waitangi, Māori culture, Māori health and the environment. It analyses particular disciplines through the Māori concept of Mana Tangata - Empowering People, and offers...
Bestselling memoir of a true Kiwi hero whose can-do attitude is changing lives in the third world. Sir Ray Avery's story from childhood neglect to scientist, leader and philapthropist is riveting. Sir Ray Avery was the inaugural Kiwibank New Zealander...
"First of a series to be published on research into the state of New Zealand's institutions and sectors of endeavour. This first book in the series focusses on Maori and social issues; the second will focus on Maori and educational endeavour. Each es...
By 2051 the ethnic Maori population will almost double in size to close to a million, or twenty-two percent of the total New Zealand population. Even more dramatically, by 2051 thirty-three percent of all children in the country will be Maori. This s...
"This submission asks, “do we really need another law?” We look at the reasoning behind the call to ban smoking and vaping in vehicles when a person aged under 18 is present. Is there sufficient evidence that such a law is necessary? Will this law, on...
In January 2005, 24 year-old Natasha Hayden was murdered at New Zealand's picturesque McLaren Falls. Four months later, Scott Russell Hill was at McLaren Falls filming an episode of the hit TV psychic detective show, Sensing Murder. Sensing Natasha is...
The Hauraki Gulf has some of the best fishing spots in the country, that can be enjoyed all year round. Expert fisherman Bruce Duncan has identified 150 fishing Hot Spots - the best locations in the Hauraki Gulf to land that perfect catch! This book provides...
"As a boy Quin Turton's stutter made his life difficult. He avoided situations that required speech, by playing sport especially rugby league, whenever possible. He grew up in Huntly where local men and boys were passionate about the game. His partic...
"When he died in 1938, Captain William McKillop was recognised as the last local master mariner to have captained a square-rigged whaleship. His career had spanned many phases, including sealing, whaling, fishing and coastal trading in New Zealand an...
Cook's Ark is a fascinating account of the animals that sailed with Captain James Cook to the South Pacific, with particular reference to New Zealand. It offers a novel insight into an aspect of Cook's voyages rarely touched on by other authors: the ...
"Fred Barrett was raised on a King Country sheep farm, and spent time shepherding on both the east and west coasts of the North Island, before sheep farming on his own account in the King Country and Waikato. He has had additional farming interests i...
Breath-taking landscapes, photos of dairies and local pubs, old buildings and rural scenes, a beach on a stormy day, a remote place in the bush or high country combine to portray a vivid portrait of the real New Zealand. Arranged not by area, but by theme...
"NZ surf the collection volume 2 is a surfing book that any Kiwi who sets foot on fibreglass will identify with and want. The surf stoked grom, the corporate cruiser, the hipster long boarder.--Publisher.
Lonely Planet Discover New Zealand is your passport to all the most relevant and up-to-date advice on what to see, what to skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Behold Rotorua's bubbling geysers, hike past aquamarine bays and sparkling glaciers,...
"Ian Rockel's third collection of poems meditates on family and other intimate relationships, and although never morbid, has many reflections on the state of the planet and on mortality itself"--Back cover.
A literary journal showcasing creative writing from contributors in and from Aotearoa New Zealand.
Former Listener columnist Denis Welch branches into poetry personal and political, with a splash of satire.
"In this new volume, Lloyd Geering presents previously unpublished talks and lectures which will interest a wider audience than was originally intended. The first examines the relevance of Christian perspectives in a post-Christian global era, and asks...
"In the autumn of 2010, a little-known New Zealander called Joe Schmidt took over as head coach at Leinster. He had never been in charge of a professional team. After Leinster lost three of their first four games, a prominent Irish rugby pundit speculated...
The story of the All Blacks campaign for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, with insightful analysis and full commentary. What happened to the All Blacks at the 2019 Rugby World Cup? They were aiming for their third title in a row. A win would have capped a decade...
Kate Newby's works celebrate the moments in which they are created and presented; at the same time, they are open to change. Drawn from impressions collected when navigating cities and landscapes, her sculptures and interventions foreground process: traces...
"When she started writing, the author, Nicole Stock, had a very specific type of cookbook in mind. One that was as unassuming as a Penguin paperback, but would become a lifelong partner in the kitchen because the recipes were startlingly, wonderfully...
"Merge is a cafe and community, run by the Lifewise Trust on Auckland's Karangahape Road. It's a place where people are welcome regardless of where or how they live. Anyone can drop in for a free cuppa or an affordable meal. Here stories are often shared...
"Whenua Hou Codfish Island, largest of Rakiura's satellite islands, is best known as a wildlife sanctuary, with kākāpō, the critically endangered parrot, centre stage. But the Foveaux Strait island has an even greater claim to fame - as the first foothold...
"Suzanne Turley - one of New Zealand's most sought-after landscape designers - has created many of the country's most desirable private gardens, all set against the spectacular backdrop of the natural environment. From the pristine Pacific beaches of...
All our monsters are mirrors. And when Mary Shelley’s monster — built from her life rather than her pen, born out of biography instead of blood — outlives its mother, that monster goes looking for a substitute. But all the monster really knows of women...
Freshly updated in 2019, [this] third edition ... is a lively history of early childhood education and care in Aotearoa New Zealand in the postwar era. The book follows on from Discovery of Early Childhood (1997, 2013), which traced the origins of...
"In 1995, the Warriors invaded the Australian Rugby League premiership - the first overseas club to be admitted - in a blaze of publicity and hype the likes of which New Zealand sport had never seen. The Warriors have taken their fans on a wild rolle...
"Warren Gatland is one of the world's most renowned and intriguing rugby coaches of the modern era, leading Wales to four Six Nations titles, three Grand Slams and two World Cup semi-finals and masterminding two history-making tours as Head Coach of ...
"Through the stories of [twenty] women, [this book] brings [a] ... voice to the globally relevant topic of migration. More people are likely to be migrating now than at any other time in history, and this is set to increase as climate change and poli...
At what point does the will to survive on the battlefield give way to bloodlust? The battle for Crete was at once the most modern and the most ancient of wars. For a week Australian and New Zealand forces were relentlessly hammered from the skies by ...
The name Captain James Cook is one of the most recognisable in Australian history - an almost mythic figure who is often discussed, celebrated, reviled and debated. But who was the real James Cook? This Yorkshire farm boy would go on to become the fo...
"There were many Melvin Days, but the term ‘Artist’ encompasses all of them. During a career spanning seven decades, he produced some of the most intellectually astute, yet often visceral, paintings in New Zealand art history. Born in Hamilton in 1923,...
"The place of the Treaty of Waitangi in public policy has undergone radical changes over the past few decades in response to debates on the role of the Treaty in New Zealand's development. In this publication, the foremost Māori thinkers provide insights...
"This history of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero details all the events of [his] life from about 1775 to his death in 1860, including his status as Lord of the Waikato and the famous battles and conflicts with other tribes, the raising up of Pōtatau as the [first]...
Many of the poems in Dunstan Ward's second collection are set in France, where he has lived since 1973. Some look back to his New Zealand childhood, others are aphoristic or commemorative. In his Landfall Online review of Ward's ?rst collection, Beyo...
"[This book] showcases 125 of the best photographs ever assembled of the countries' most spectacular reptiles and frogs.Twenty-five of the best photographers specialising in herpetology each submitted five of their most awe-inspiring images, culminating...
Andrew Chapman is one of Australia's foremost rural documentary photographers. He has been taking pictures of woolsheds and other elements of the wool industry in Australia and New Zealand for the best part of 40 years. The first volume of Woolsheds,...
"Is our identity more of a composite than we realise? We often think of ourselves as formed from our core values or our DNA, but in Social Media, Mary Macpherson explores identity as a creation of the interactions we have with others: friends, family...
"It's been 20 ... years, since SCAPE Public Art began to revolutionise the open spaces of Otautahi Christchurch - and public arts practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. This bold initiative stepped outside the gallery walls and into the city, to make con...
"We are tiny beneath the light charts the end of a marriage and the tumble of tiny moments that make up a life under stress, including the unexpected discoveries that can still bring joy - watching a child fly a blue kie or weaving words to make sense...
"We don't need your whataboutery and moral prevarication. It's time to stand up and own your own culpability, complicity and . . . but I joke. Sit thee down. Hoist up that unethical hamburger and deploy your face into it. Some people are part of the ...
"This book explains the struggle for free speech in England over several centuries and how it was an established right by the time that British law came to New Zealand in 1840. In the 21st century new forces have arisen to try to limit free speech on...
"I Thought We'd Be Famous is a line in the sand. It's a look back on Dominic's days pre chronic illness, and a new life of blood tests and cancer scares. It's about the dreams that rusted in the backyard and the ones he ended up living. It's about the...
"Chinese laundries fiorst spread in the 1880s and were an integral part of New Zealand's social fabric until at least the 1950s. How did they develop in towns from Southland to the Far North before slowly disappearing after the 1940s? Who ran them and...
"[This book] focuses on Imperial Forces in New Zealand, with particular reference to Auckland. Existing work has focused solely on the conduct of the New Zealand (Maori) Wars between 1846 and 1866. While this in itself is of undoubted significance, there...
A selection of poetry from the New Zealand poet.
Margaret Carr and Wendy Lee have often been asked for a follow-on practical companion to their seminal 2012 book Learning Stories; a complimentary book that provides practical advice for teachers who are embarking on a 'narrative assessments-for-lear...
All Who Live on Islands introduces a bold new voice in New Zealand literature. In these intimate and entertaining essays, Rose Lu takes us through personal history - a shopping trip with her Shanghai-born grandparents, her career in the Wellington te...
"'Eighty years ago, New Zealand's welfare state was envied by many social reformers around the world. Today it stands in need of urgent repair and renewal'. One of our leading public policy thinkers asks: What might the contours of a revitalized 'soc...
"A beautifully designed and photographed book for both cooks and gardeners alike, Bounty is a celebration of the first ten years of the Garden to Table Trust. While Garden to Table is primarily a food education programme for children, its broader aim...
Judging her first Landfall Essay Competition in 2018, Landfall editor Emma Neale was seriously challenged. The overall high quality of the 90 submissions made it impossible to choose. After a nails-bitten-to-the-quick struggle, she optimistically submitted...
When World War Two broke out, three theological students left their college in Auckland to the sound of bagpipes and volunteered to fight. Eddie Norman, aged 22 from Hawke's Bay, was one of them. A natural leader, his first experience of action was at...
"Neon Daze is a verse journal of the first four months of motherhood. As these poems trace the dramatic reconfiguring of one's world, they also upend genre and notions of linear time. Guided by radical honesty, grace, wit, and her distinctive command...
Covering 200 years of choral singing, Sing New Zealand encompasses all styles, genres and age groups. It begins with the meeting of Maori and European musical forms in what the author terms as the `birth of a new tradition' and describes the role of ...
On 28 November 1979 an Air New Zealand plane crashed into the lower slopes of Mount Erebus in broad daylight while on a sight-seeing trip to Antarctica, killing all 257 souls on board. This was New Zealand's greatest peacetime tragedy. Not only was the...
"Catch & Release is a compilation of renowned global jeweller Sir Michael Hill's doodled diary entries, snatches of inspiration and plenty of attempted wisdom. You'll find thoughtful musings alongside chaos and contradiction spread across over 400 pa...
New Zealand's native trees are truly remarkable. From the massive kauri, the third-largest tree in the world, the showy pohutukawas and ratas, and the ubiquitous cabbage tree to rare and endangered species found only on offshore islands, our glorious...
"Enjoy New Zealand at a relaxed pace! Our Marco Polo spiral guide takes you on inspiring day trips to the different regions of New Zealand, shows you the sights you shouldn't miss and the hidden gems that not everybody knows. The cafés, restaurants and...
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