New Zealand Books : NZ Biography

'We live by the sea, which hems and stitches the scalloped edges of the land.'

Renowned writer Patricia Grace begins her remarkable memoirs beside her beloved Hongoeka Bay. It is the place she has returned to throughout her life, and fought for, one of many battles she has faced-

'It was when I first went to school that I found out that I was a Maori girl . . . I found that being different meant that I could be blamed . . .'

As she shows, her experiences - good and bad, joyous and insightful - have fuelled what became a focus of her life-

'I had made up my mind that writing was something I would always do.'

ISBN: 9780143775614
Publication date: 04/05/2021
Price: $40.00
Author: Grace, Patricia
Format: Hardback

Biography of G.F. von Tempsky - folk hero, soldier, adventurer, artist and musician. Von Tempsky in Prussia, Central America, travels in Mexico, Californian gold rushes and the New Zealand Maori-European Land Wars of the 1860s.

45 full page colour plates and illustrated catalogue raisonne of his art and scrimshaw work

Limited to 1250 numbered copies.

ISBN: 9780908578207
Price: $120.00
Author: Young, Rose, Curnow, Heather, King, Michael
Format: Hardback

Gareth Hogan is a man who has lived life in the fast lane. Having grown up in a motor-racing-mad household, he soon became hooked on drag racing and hot rods. This led to his becoming the first New Zealander to drive at more than 200 miles per hour, something he achieved at ‘Thunderpark’, Hastings in 1978.

Fast forward 30 years and Gareth was off to the Bonneville salt flats, this time to see his 1934 Ford Roadster set a record when it clocked 193 miles per hour.

While Garth’s life in motor racing is well documented, perhaps less known are his business achievements, his passion for vintage and warbird aircraft, and his involvement with the governing body of world motorsport – the FIA.

Go Fast or Go Home is the story of an extraordinary life, and it serves as a powerful example of how successful anyone can be, given sufficient drive and desire.

ISBN: 9780473528874
Publication date: 09/11/2020
Price: $49.99
Author: Tim, Hanna
Format: Paperback

The story of a global start-up plus a guide for turning your ideas into action.

The true story of how young entrepreneur Derek Handley conceived big ideas in New Zealand and launched them to the world, through a series of electric highs and crushing lows, before discovering what he was really put here to do. This book also includes a practical field guide for shaping your life dreams and goals and turning them into reality. It takes you inside the entrepreneurial mindset, covering energy and time management, filtering which projects to pursue, believing in yourself, redesigning habits and creating ideas that are uniquely yours.

'Really inspirational and a great read! It will help and inspire budding entrepreneurs and appeal to anyone who wants to map out their lives.' - Richard Branson

Buy this book if you want to:
Build a dream you're struggling to make happen
Start a company, project or idea but not sure how to
Quit your job to do something more meaningful to you
Do bold things you're too scared to do because of what others might think
Plan your life on a bigger scale but have no idea where to start
Discover what life you're here to live


ISBN: 9780143771548
Publication date: 19/06/2017
Price: $20.00
Author: Handley, Derek
Format: Trade Paperback

"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 time 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 person to who I was then. And so a year passes and today I am grateful to be in good health. I no longer walk with a stick. I am gardening at the moment. The terrible pain of my last radiation vanishes in a glow of anticipation. So what is Hello Darkness exactly? It's really my record of a remarkable year in which I found I had incurable prostate cancer that had metastised in my bones. I wanted my posts to express the minutest aspect of what I was feeling, seeing, experiencing.

I am - for better or worse - ruthlessly observant. There were highs, and lows. I felt remorse for some things I had done in life as I looked backwards. But I felt this strange, almost bewildering pleasure in being alive. I had this crazy optimism that kept me going each morning. The fact is I felt lucky to be alive. I think when you state a general truth, it had a startling effect. We live in such a f*cked-up world, truth is like a prism falling into a vat full of crap and that single drop changes what it comes into contact with and things become crystal clear.

Steve Braunias at The Spinoff posted my FB writings. The posts went viral. Then Hello Darkness won the 2018 Media Voyager Award for best personal essay. "Wry, acute and confessional, but most of all wise." Was I wise? All I was doing was trying to tell my truth.

Hello Darkness is full of colour photos and is my lively letter to the future, written under the shade of death but always grasping towards what's essential, true, real. That's what this book is: my report on experience, my personal diary made public. My survival guide. My truth.

ISBN: 9780473451622
Publication date: 01/03/2019
Price: $39.99
Author: Wells, Peter
Format: Paperback

Her Way is a collection of authentic stories of New Zealand female business founders succeeding in business here and internationally, doing so on their own terms, and with heart. Includes women from Auckland, Wellington, Christchuch, Nelson, Hawkes Bay, Havelock North and more. The personal stories these women share are real and inspiring - sharing the ups and downs, the trials and challenges, but also showcasing the successes achieved through a more 'inherently female' style of doing business. The traditionally classified 'feminine' personality traits such as caring, nurturing, kindness, sharing, helping others, collaborating, creating win-win deals, being mindful of our effect on others and on the environment, balancing family and business, and more, can be harnessed to create a better way of doing business. More and more businesses are enjoying significant commercial success through these values (both female and male led). Women featured include: - Lisa King, Eat my Lunch - Brianne West, Ethique - Anna Guenther, Pledge Me - Sue de Bievre, Beany - Jan Hellreigel, Musician, Songbroker, Airplane Music Services

ISBN: 9780473510763
Price: $39.99
Author: Thomas, Jacqui
Format: Paperback

The 2011 earthquake which shook Christchurch to its core led Lloyd Jones to investigate his own foundations and family past. And so begins a quest to revisit what has been buried by a legacy of silence. Piecing together his own memories with clues of what has been deliberately forgotten by his parents, Jones embarks on a journey of discovery - uncovering hardships endured and sorrows kept hidden. Grandparents never spoken of or met emerge from dusty archives as he unearths lives torn apart by tragedy and unspoken mysteries. Like the city that is exposed, Jones must come to terms with a history that is not one he may have imagined.

ISBN: 9780143569473
Publication date: 21/08/2013
Price: $38.00
Author: Jones, Lloyd
Format: Trade Paperback

Stand-up comedian Michele A'Court rekindles the passion, with a brilliant collection of 'How We Met' stories. How We Met is based on a collection of 'How We Met' stories - those lovely stories couples love to tell (and we all love to hear) about how they got together. The author's theory: that these stories of how couples meet - the romantic, absurd, serendipitous, convoluted, scandalous, breath-taking moments of connection - help to weave their lives together. Partly as 'proof' that they were meant to begin this couple-journey, and also because in each retelling they go back to those first falling-in-love feelings and rekindle the passion.The theory is based on a hunch, which itself is based on nothingmore than the author's observations of watching couples as they talk. Michele then tests her thesis out on a neuroscientist and a psychologist, and by the end of the book, has some useful things to say not only about how great love starts,but how it stays great.

ISBN: 9781775540939
Publication date: 19/03/2018
Price: $35.00
Author: A'Court, Michele
Format: Trade Paperback