
Ngaio Press
39 Dublin Street, Martinborough
New Zealand
(Postal address:
PO Box 153, Martinborough 5741, NZ)
Phone:
+64-6-306 8502
90-year old advice to authors by
Sir Allen Unwin
Click
the ship to access our database of ships and their passengers
which arrived at Port Chalmers in the first four years of the Otago
Settlement, between 1848 and 1851.
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ABOUT US
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Ngaio Press
is a boutique publisher specialising in quality books
about New Zealand and New Zealanders. To find out more,
including prices and how to order, click on the links or
book covers below: |
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ARCHITECTS
AT THE APEX
Geoff Mew's new
look at New Zealand architecture through the
lives and major works of the top 50
architects who practised here between 1840
and 1940. How were the architects selected?
Why they were great? What was their family
background? Their noteworthy buildings are
here in over 400 photographs, drawings and
postcards. Some
of the architects are still famous; others,
particularly from the early to
mid-nineteenth century, are less known but
still remarkable. Most were based in
Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington or
Dunedin, but a few stood out in smaller
centres.
FROM
THE BANDSTAND
Wellington
pianist/trumpet player Kevin Clark looks
back over 65 years to the changing and
sometimes bizarre worlds of jazz, dancebands,
composing, recording, broadcasting and
musical academia. A valuable contribution to
Kiwi cultural history that chronicles
cultural shifts in our social history
including the end of the six o'clock swill,
the rise and fall of booze barns and dine &
dance, and the decline of community hall
'socials' with their kegs of beer, plates of
savs and raffle draws.
SOLD
OUT
ROAD
FROM ROSEHALL
Mike Munro’s semi-fictional account of the
1850s emigration adventures of a young
Scottish Highlander who quits an
impoverished rural croft to seek his fortune
on the Victorian goldfields, before settling
in New Zealand. Extensively researched, this
novel combines real-life with the flavour of
Scottish emigration to Downunder – the
anguish, the hopes, the dread and the
excitement.
SOLD
OUT
WHEY TO GO
The development of whey protein concentrate
is New Zealand's biggest waste to riches
success story. Beginning in the early 1970s,
we led the world in the magical new
technology of dairy ultrafiltration to turn
huge amounts of surplus whey byproduct from
casein and cheese plants into specialised,
highly tailored and valuable food
ingredients. Written by the scientists,
technologists and marketers who pioneered
the revolution, it is a fascinating story
about how industrial innovation really works
in practice.
SOLD
OUT
A
VICTORIAN LADY'S JOURNEY TO NEW ZEALAND
Jane Wheeler, from
rural Western Australia, went on a voyage of
discovery in 1901, when she sailed with her
husband and sister from Fremantle to
Auckland, then travelled south to Rotorua
and the thermal wonderland. Along the way,
Jane kept an extensive and literate travel
journal in which she described the voyage,
the stopovers in Melbourne and Sydney, and
her experiences of what was them known as
Maoriland. She makes keen observations on
Rotorua's natural wonders and the local
Maori.
SOLD
OUT
GOING
ABROAD (NOW
IN THIRD PRINTING)
Illustrated social history about early
migrants to the Free Church of Scotland
settlement in Otago, NZ, in the mid 19th
century. Going Abroad has become a
standard reference for people researching
their roots in Otago and Southland, plus the
life they left behind in Scotland and the
nature of sailing ship voyages to the ends
of the earth.
SOLD
OUT
PIANO
IN THE PARLOUR
Pianos were in huge
numbers of New Zealand front parlours
through Victorian and Edwardian times and
into the 1920s. Central to home and
community entertainment, they also stoked
the flames of love for courting couples.
Written by historian and musician John
MacGibbon, Piano in the Parlour is
a richly illustrated social history that
looks affectionately at a time when pianos
were the home entertainment system and most
cherished domestic possession in New Zealand
and many other countries. The book includes
words and music for 17 typical parlour
songs.
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LAST
SHEPHERD
Anecdotes and observations from five decades
in the wool industry by former Wool Board
chief executive Roger Buchanan. Roger worked
in many parts of the industry from wool
scouring to international marketing and
negotiating as a senior executive in wool
grower organisations. He offers penetrating
analysis of wool’s rise and fall, and
vividly describes highs, lows and
fascinating incidents from his experiences
in China, Japan, South Asia, Russia, UK,
Europe and the Middle East.
MEET
ME AT BEGG'S,
by historian Clare Gleeson, tells the story
of Charles Begg & Co Ltd, or Begg’s as it
was better known. Founded in 1861 and
trading until 1970, Begg's had branches in
most New Zealand towns and cities.
Synonymous with music, the company retailed
and manufactured instruments, published
sheet music, promoted overseas artists and
supported music in all its facets. It
brought overseas innovations and technology
to New Zealand by way of gramophones,
radios, televisions and a myriad of other
electrical appliances. One of the New
Zealand's liveliest and best illustrated
business histories.
DESERT
SURGEONS
New Zealand's Mobile
Surgical Unit in the Western Desert in World
War II brought treatment of the injured
right up near the battle front, pioneering
ideas that were taken up by field medical
units in other Allied armies. And they got
into some dramatic scrapes with Rommel's
troops, who held them in high regard.
Researched and written by Michael Shackleton,
a surgeon himself, who did similar work in
Vietnam.
SOLD
OUT
PLAYING
AGAINST THE WIND
Besieged by
communists and vampires; apprehensive about
the Bomb and the Cold War; in constant
trepidation that his family was about to
implode; and trying to prepare himself for
sporting glory on a postage stamp of
backyard grass, Neville Martin’s Wellington
childhood and adolescence was never going to
be an easy ride. Playing against the Wind
provides a glimpse of a Wellington (and a
world) long gone. The stories are at once
nostalgic, sometimes touching – but above
all, funny.
SOLD OUT
FOR
THE DURATION
Lt Bruce Robertson
left in January 1940 with the first echelon
of Kiwi volunteers and served in Egypt,
Libya and Syria before being captured at El
Alamein. He endured prison camps in Italy
and Germany before being liberated by the
Americans in April 1945. Robertson wrote it
down with great skill when it happened and
his diaries and notebooks have now been
transcribed and illustrated. One of
the more perceptive personal accounts of
Kiwi service in World War II, from both
active service and POW points of view.
SOLD
OUT
YOUR
FAMILY'S HISTORY: research, write and
publish it.
Expanded from lectures given by John
MacGibbon at the National Library of New
Zealand and Otago University. A great
starter for new researchers, and valuable
advice and information for people who want
to move to the next stage: writing and
publishing their family's story. Third
revised edition.
SOLD
OUT
KHAKI
ANGELS
While others dived for cover, the
bravest of the brave went in.
Brendan O’Carroll’s new book pays tribute to
the courageous ‘Khaki Angels’:
stretcher-bearers and other Kiwi frontline
medical people who put others before self in
two world wars, serving in Gallipoli,
Europe, North Africa, Greece, Italy and the
Pacific. Khaki Angels also looks at
general wartime medical matters: field
organisation, what caused death and
injuries, what the injuries were like and
how they were treated.
... and we meet some heroes.
SOLD
OUT
MAORILAND
STORIES
First published in 1895, these short stories
were written by Alfred Grace, a member of
the celebrated Maoriland School of Writing
that flourished between 1896 and 1915. These
writers' romantic treatment of the Maori
people helped shape New Zealand’s culture in
the early twentieth century. This
near-facsimile edition includes an extended
essay by Dr Anne Maxwell which discusses the
author and his stories, placing them in
their historical and cultural context.
SOLD OUT
SHEPHERD'S
PROGRESS
Scottish shepherds and their border collies
are woven into the legend of New Zealand’s
high country sheep stations. James Elliot
was one of these and he ended up managing a
large group of sheep runs in Central Otago
for New Zealand's great Victorian and
Edwardian mercantile partnership, Ross &
Glendining. A profusely illustrated book
that is part family history, part farming
history and part social history.
SOLD OUT
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ALL
FORMED UP
The story of Wellington Returned and
Services’ Association (RSA) from its
beginnings in 1916 until 2007. Of the many
RSAs in New Zealand towns and cities,
Wellington has been the most broadly
influential because its capital city
location meant it worked closely with the
national organisation. Until a history of
NZRSA is published, this is de facto a
history of the RSA in New Zealand.
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JAYCEE
In its heyday, Jaycee
was one of New Zealand’s liveliest service
organisations and contributed greatly to our
social infrastructure. Every community has
amenities built or aided by the Jaycees and
they also trained leaders for roles in
politics, local government and business.
This readable and well-illustrated book
remembers the fun times and the more serious
times, while making an important
contribution to New Zealand history and the
international study of service
organisations.
SOLD
OUT |
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BARCE
RAID
The famous and exciting Long Range Desert
Group raid on Barce airfield and town in
WWII, from both Allied and Italian sides in
the action. Written by foremost LRDG
authority Brendan O'Carroll, this
full-colour, heavily illustrated hardback
will enthral general readers and Special
Forces enthusiasts alike.
SOLD
OUT |
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A
DRIVEN MAN
Missionary
Thomas Grace in New Zealand, 1850-1879:
controversy, danger, and battling for Maori
causes. New Zealand at the time of the Land
Wars, through the eyes of a fearless critic
– an important information source for anyone
interested in interactions between settlers
and tangata whenua.
SOLD OUT
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BEARDED
BRIGANDS
The
legendary Long Range Desert Group in North
Africa during World War II, in the
celebrated diaries & photos of Trooper Frank
Jopling.
SOLD
OUT
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WOOL: A history of New
Zealand's wool industry
The definitive story
by Bill Carter & John MacGibbon of New Zealand's
sheep and wool industry from colonial times to
the present day. A major work of New Zealand
history.
STRUAN'S
WAR
WWII battles, recreation
and sightseeing in North Africa and Palestine –
photos and diaries of a New Zealand Division
gunner who was as talented with his camera as he
was with his pen.
THE
MAGIC HOUR
John Giacon, prolific magazine writer and one of
New Zealand fishing's great raconteurs, shares a
lifetime's experience in the sport in one of the
most charming fishing books of recent years.
SOLD OUT
UP
THE BLUE
North Africa and Italy in
WWII: Roger Smith's Kiwi classic about the
people, the places, the fighting and the
psychology.
CHRISTINA'S
STORY
Life in the New Hebrides as a New Zealand
Presbyterian missionary's wife, 1938-1956.
NOT a tale of piety and conversion.
SOLD OUT |
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