Books 16 April 2025 Paul Etheredge, History Group Convenor
Derek Leask, Atlas of the New Zealand Wars Volume One 1834 – 1864
Early Engagements to The Second Taranaki War 384 pages 290 x 240cm AUP
Expected release, 10 April 2025. Recommended price $90.
The second volume will cover 1864 – 1884. In all, the Atlas will have five
decades of maps and plans created by British and Colonial soldiers. It covers
Maori accounts, but Maori made few maps and sketches and the British and
Colonials recorded little of Maori only engagements.
Current discussion of the wars tends to present them as war between British and
Maori. An important feature of the Atlas is that it explains how divided Maori
were. Queenites fought alongside the British in the Northern War, against the
Kingites in the mid 1860’s and Te Kooti, Titokowaru and Te Whiti between
1868 and 1884.
For an interview with the author: https://natlib.govt.nz>events 29 April 2025
RNZ Book Reviews Nine to Noon: Thursday 10 April Paul Diamond – includes
positive comments by Belich and others.
On a negative note, I understand that despite the large format, it is difficult to
read the writing on the maps and sketches – a reading glass may help.
Richard Fidler, The Book of Roads and Kingdons: From the wonders of
Imperial Baghdad to the darklands at the ends of the earth
ABC BOOKS Harper Collins Publishers, Australia 2024. First published
2022. 334 pages of text in a clear and easily readable sized font.
An entertaining and easy read. The author covers the rise of Islam and
centering on Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate and its Caliphs,
follows travellers and mapmakers who reported on the surrounding lands,
Byzantium, Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire, Roger II of Sicily, Tang
China, India, East Africa, an embassy to the Bulgars that met the Volga
Vikings, Genghis Khan and the Mongol destruction of Baghdad and the death
of the last Abbasid Caliph.
Available in Waipa District and Hamilton City Libraries in paperback and
eBook. They have other titles by Fidler. Internet search ‘Richard Fidler’ for
details of his books. Ghost Empire on the story of Constantinople is also in the
Libraries.
Caroline Burt & Richard Partington Arise, England Six Kings and the Making of the English State
Faber & Faber, London, 2024. Hardback. ISBN 978-0-571-31198-9. 628 pp. 8
unnumbered pages of colour plates.
Available Waipa Libraries in hardback. On order Hamilton City Libraries as
eBook and paperback (publication April 2025).
An academic work covering the six Plantagenet kings (King John to Richard II)
who ruled England from 1199 to 1399. Unfortunately, it does not have a map of
the Plantagenet Empire and its neighbours. Find one on the internet and copy.
Final paragraph of the Introduction:
“This rich and in certain respects unique source material permits us not only to
tell the story of England in real detail, but also to understand and paint often
intimate portraits of some of the leading political actors even beyond the strict
realm of politics. It was these figures, real people, not pasteboard caricatures,
who drove either deliberately or accidentally the developments that took place
in our period. Their characters, motivations, actions and responses were
complex and at times contradictory. They were not the good and bad kings of
historical commonplace. This book will show their stories, with all their drama,
intrigues, personal triumphs and tragedy, are inextricably interwoven with the
grand narrative of the emergence of the English state.”
Wendy Moore, Jack and Eve: Two Women in Love and War.
Atlantic Books London, 2024. Hardback. ISBN: 978 1 83895 809 1
E-Book ISBN: 978 1 83895 810 7
Waipa District and Hamilton City Libraries in hardback. Hamilton has softback
on order with subtitled Two suffragettes in Love and War.
Search: TLS, Goodreads and others to get the sales pitch.
To me, the value of the book lay in the placing of these and other major figures
in the social structure of and significant events in hierarchical, patriarchal,
misogynist Victorian and Edwardian England both during and after WWI. As
well as the two protagonists Vera Holm (Jack) and Evelina Haverfield, born
Honourable E Scarlett (Eve), there are the leaders, Millicent Garret Fawcett and the Pankhursts, of the divided women’s suffrage movement and Elsie Inglis,
surgeon, the leading figure in the formation and operation of the Scottish
Women’s Hospitals during WWI.