Author overcomes near death tragedy to triumph

Encircled Lands is the second book by Dame Judith Binney to win the supreme award. Photo / Richard Robinson

Historian Judith Binney has won New Zealand's top book award, eight months after almost losing her life in an accident.

A week after launching her research on the "lost history" of the Tuhoe tribe, Dame Judith was hit by a truck while crossing Princes St in Auckland and suffered serious head injuries.

Last night, her book Encircled Lands was recognised as the New Zealand Post Book of the Year, and the best non-fiction book.

In an ironic twist, the award was presented by Arts Minister Christopher Finlayson, who is also Minister of Treaty Settlements.

In May, he turned down Tuhoe's request for ownership of Urewera National Park.

Encircled Lands delves into the first 100 years after European contact, when Urewera was a savage wilderness in Pakeha eyes and a "sheltering heartland" for Maori.

The work illuminates a fact all but forgotten by everyone except the Tuhoe - the terms of peace in 1872 included provision for autonomy.

Dame Judith's commitment to documenting Tuhoe's quest for self-government earned her the name Tomoirangi o Te Aroha (a little cloud of rain from heaven) among the iwi.

With an output of one major book every 10 years, the 70-year-old is renowned for exhaustively researching and pulling together the complex strands of Maori oral tradition.

It is the second time Dame Judith has won the supreme award.

In the fiction category, novelist Alison Wong won with her first novel As the Earth Turns Silver, beating more established writers Fiona Farrell and Owen Marshall.

Hastings-born Wong was described as a "powerful new voice" by the judging panel. Her novel has been shortlisted for the Australian Prime Minister's Literary Award, a prize previously won by J.M. Coetzee, among other greats.

The most closely contested award - the illustrated non-fiction prize - was won by Al Brown, co-owner of Wellington's Logan Brown restaurant and a keen fisherman.

His book Go Fish also won the People' Choice Award.

In a field made up completely of South Island poets, Brian Turner from Central Otago took the poetry prize for his collection Just This.

What the judges said

New Zealand Post Book of the Year and General Non-fiction Award winner:

Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820-1921 by Judith Binney (Bridget Williams Books)

"Exhaustive ... comprehensive ... illustrates why the history of the Urewera and its people continues to resonate." - Paul Diamond, judge.

Fiction Award winner

As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong (Penguin Group (NZ))

" ... a delight to look at and hold, as well as deeply moving to read." - Charmaine Pountney, judge.

Poetry Award winner

Just This by Brian Turner (Victoria University Press)

"The journey from the first poem to the last is a revelation." - Elizabeth Smither, judge.

Illustrated Non-fiction Award and People's Choice Award winner:

Go Fish: Recipes and stories from the New Zealand Coast by Al Brown (Random House NZ)

" Colourful images pour from the pages ... For a cookbook, a remarkable page-turner." - Neville Peat, judge.

Find out more
www.nzpostbookawards.co.nz