New Zealand Books

A surprising thing about Mr Haigh's book is the small number of villians. He concludes not that 'James Hardie knew' about the ultimate effects of asbestos, but that 'they should have known'. In its old existence as a successful asbestos company providing a popular product, the company's senior managers were tardy in keeping up with advancements in knowledge of asbestos. But they were not malicious men hiding a dark secret: they walked the factory floors themselves, could be generous to sickening workers, did not - like some of their American peers - lie to their employees and in some cases ultimately died of the blue dust too. While narrating all this Mr Haigh introduces us to many people from James Hardie's past, the progress of medical science, the business environments of the ages of the twentieth century, a tale of commercial risk and company transformation and the history of a remarkable natural resource. And he tells dolorous tales of the cruel course of asbestosis and mesothelioma on unsuspecting people.

The villainy comes later, during the age of 'shareholder value', with sharp dealing by senior managers of a company that had, in all its day to day operational aspects, completely moved on from the days of asbestos. These chapters can be heavy to read, laden with actuarial accounting, contracts and board communciations. But it is a credit to Mr Haigh's efforts that they are not too dense for the business-layman: he keeps his tale moving. Here we see the intersection of governments, law, unions and business, as well as personalities that Mr Haigh sketches deftly.

One of the pleasures of reading anything by Gideon Haigh is his wealth of anecdotes from outside his immediate subject and his lightly worn erudition: he throws the odd latin phrase in here and there, and quotes Ibsen. He can tell a good story, wring pathos from us, and bring out a 'moral of the story' concisely. The only books on cricket I am ever likely to pick up will be by Gideon Haigh.

The court case against Hardie's ex directors is still going on and we must sincerely hope that Hardie flourishes, at least for another few decades, but Asbestos House is not an incomplete story. Coming to the end of Mr Haigh's book, we feel we have followed much the most interesting part of James Hardie's tale.

I loved this book immensly.
I was lucky enough to actually met Justin in person at a Fun 4 Kids childrens festival in Warrnambool. He told stories to my group and read parts of Astrid Spark out. He told us the story of his last name.
His grandfather was a doctor and in actual fact his real surname is DEATH! So Justin's grandfather was called 'DR DEATH'. So no customers would go to him because of his fearful name. So needing business he changed his name to Dr. D'ath so that his name wasn't so scary! So his grandfather passed it on to him.
Justin was great entertainment and I have recommended Astrid to alot of my friends including my Book Club. Everyone is hooked on Justin and always love telling their family and freinds the great DEATH - D'ATH story.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants a great laugh.
P.S. I love that Justin writes with footnotes!

Wilson wrote the book on occasion of the second centennial of the Australian Federation. He is a conservative British-Australian historian. His objective is twofold: Giving an introduction to the crucial events and periods of Australian history, while, at the same time, demystifying some of the legends that dominant post-modern historiography has created. Wilson offers chapters on political, cultural and social history, as well as on aspects of modern day Australian life. The author is highly critical of leftist approaches. With the full authority of a well-read historian whose classical education sharpened the view for the real issues, Wilson marks the follies of deconstructivist thinking. At the same time he avoids cheap simplifications and instead disects the crucial underlying principles of Australian history. This might seem a bit unfashionable these days. But the insight gained from this book of medium length is profound. His book is highly entertaining, nevertheless, and his description of the peculiar traits of down-under culture is full of sympathy for the object of his studies. Wilson's book is recommended to everyone interested in a no-nonsense, anti-relativist introduction to Australian history and society. Despite the fact that is more than ten years old it remains one of the best works in the field.

Several countries Australia, South Africa, Canada and the UK all knew of nuclear weapon program as they were involved in the nuclear program from the earliest stages. Later as the bomb program progressed, it became clear that the US were intending to monopolize this weapon and there was little hope that they were going to get it from the US. Ultimately all came up with different solutions to the situation.

Here we find a fascinating account of Australia's political history from about 1944 to the late 1960s.


During WW2, Australia swung from an extremely pro-USA position to a pro-British. This pro-British outlook increased long after the war. Yet this is quite strange as during this period Britain power and influence did not justify this policy change. Part of the reason for this might be as this book states is that Australian governments seeing itself as a small country surrounded by large populated countries in a region without firm guarantees she could rely on from the US and Britain, thought that having a nuclear weapon would be the answer to their defence problems.

Okay so knowing that Britain wanted a bomb, the Australian government thought that the best hope of getting a bomb was though Britain. So they followed Britain so-called fourth empire policy.

Although commonly seen as a British bomb, in fact Australia gave considerable aid to Britain in the development and expected to share in the product.

Here the writer, I think tends to go overboard but he does make a good argument at least in part that several great national projects, such as the Snowy Mountains Scheme, the Woomera Rocket Range and the Australian National University, were based on the assumption that Australia would one day be a nuclear power. When Australia did upgrade their air force they made sure that it could be used for nuclear weapons!

Yet as time got on the Australians slowly were dropped partly as their security services were not up to international standards.

Finally the Australians were dumped by the British as Britain wanted to renew its partnership with the United States and also as the British needed access to the US technology to advance their own nuclear defence program.

So the Australian government had to depends on whatever guarantees they could get from the US as they were not willing to follow the South African path of secretly building a bomb.

"Australia -journey of a timeless land" is a great book about a surely great land. The texts by roff smith present all the territories of the continent, góing from the north to the west coast, the southern vineyards to the eastcoast. Smith writes about the historical development, the social and political status quo, every time in a interesting way, often using a personal point of view, areporters point of view. The aborigines-tragedy has room as has the cruels of Tasmanias prisons of the 18th Century Really marvellous and overwhelming are the photographs of national-geographic stuff-member sam abell. Great landscapes, the special light of morning or evening gives the land a structure. Abell is able to bring the feeling of space on a simple sheet. And he captures with his mostley wide-angle optics decessif moments, where time and space meet at an certain point. And I think, time and space, open space are specific for Australia, that i have not ever visited. Sam Abell is a great artist, more than a photojournalist. You should read his "stay this moment"-book also. This australia-book is worth every dolllar.

This a well written book covering the Royal Australian Air Force
from its origins as the Australian Flying Corps in World War 1 to
2001. The author expresses forthright opinions on politicians and
on senior RAAF officers.
As regards World War 2 he emphasises the significant contribution
made by Australian aircrew to the allied bomber offensive against
Germany and stresses the very high casuality rate.
He discusses the main aircraft types used by the force.
There are good photographs of significant players and aircraft.
All in all a most interesting book

This is a timely work on the Australian rodeo scene that charts some of the history and context of the rodeo circuit in Australia. North American cowboys will no doubt be familiar with the concept of the odd Australian cowboy who finds his way to competing in the US and Canadian circuits, just as the odd North American cowboys will compete in Australia from time to time over different seasons. Some readers will be familiar with the famous Australian bull 'Chainsaw' in the early 1990s who went on to sire rodeo champions the world over.

Although the development of rodeos in Australia received some of their inspiration from the American experience, Australia also has a strong bush culture of its own to lean upon. This bush culture includes the poetry of Henry Lawson and the paintings of Russel Drysdale to mention only two. And this bush culture is inhabited by 'drovers' - those who manned the big cattle and sheep drives, and 'stockmen' (cowboys) who worked on the enormous Australian properties (ranches). Bush folklore abounds with the exploits of real legends like RM Williams and semi-mythical figures like Banjo Patterson's 'The Man From Snow River' or 'Clancy of the Overflow'. Instead of Stetsons and long-coats the Aussie stockmen wore Akubras and Drizabones, and instead of desperadoes and outlaws we had 'bushrangers'.

Both the US and Australia have a similar history of pioneers and frontier life, explorers, gold-rushes, and the human wealth brought by immigrants from across the world. Both are young countries, and flagship democracies. Both countries celebrate their pioneer history, and the ongoing economic and cultural contribution and relevance of those who work the land.

This book is a welcome contribution exploring the most contemporary outlet for showing and competing bush skills and horsemanship.

Good analysis of an often neglected area of U. S. national secuity

This book axamines the position of non-indigenous Australians who are sensitive to the great injustices done to Aboriginal people by the European "invaders", but who love the land of their birth and want to belong to it in a way which is both meaningful and yet sensitive to Aboriginal culture.

No doubt some of this could also apply to other countries such as New Zealand, USA, Canada, etc.

Read's style is very contemporary, and he uses extensively the thoughts and experiences of a wide variety of today's Australians, both indigenous and non-indigenous.

A very readable and thought provoking book.

i'm a kiwi so i haven't spent a lot of time looking at this book, but i take students from the USA to NZ eary year so i buy them this book. basically i like to let the students have a few days to themselves to explore and perhaps become a little independant. this book is very useful for them, particularily the maps and the restaurant suggestions.

i think a lot of tourists see auckland as a waypoint, somewhere they are forced to land but dont want to stay. if you are planning to go to NZ i would recommend spending a few days in auckland as it is a pretty dynamic city with some great food and scenery. it is also small enough that you can get from kelly tarltons to motat in the same day (look them up in the book). i would definitely recommend this book to anyone planning to spend a few days in auckland.