Bob Brockie ed: The Penguin Eyewitness History of New Zealand

By MARGIE THOMSON

An idiosyncratic curio rather than a truly useful resource, this is an updated edition of Brockie's 1998 I Was There! His research has uncovered fascinating pearls from the famous (Abel Tasman, Joseph Banks, James Cook, Charles Darwin, Edmund Hillary, Robert Muldoon, Carmen, and many more) and more ordinary citizens such as Herbert Bird (The Mail Must Get Through) and Alex Hepburn (Annual School Picnic).

It's an inclusive approach to history, covering not just the obvious events - Gallipoli, the Napier earthquake, unemployed riots, the Springbok Tour, September 11 - but also the quieter goings-on, the responses of ordinary people to larger forces. Now, as in 1998, I was especially moved by Turning Point, 85-year-old Zita Edmund's account of coming round to life in a rest home.

Penguin

$34.95