Philip Holden: Station Country

By GILBERT WONG

This edition republishes in one book Holden's two previous works on what is the New Zealand equivalent of the Wild West. Not that we're talking cowboys and Indians here, but "west" in the sense of the landscape and the way these people make a living on the land in beautiful and isolated countryside.

Holden roams through both islands and while the Central Otago scenery is a guaranteed winner, his accounts of Te Awaiti station on the Wairarapa coast and the Mangatu Blocks north-west of Gisborne show that the "station" outlook and life are not limited to the legendary McKenzie Country.

Holden writes with an ease and jocularity that perfectly capture his subjects, who are in the main men of the land.

Hodder Moa Beckett

$49.95