Civilisation: Twenty Places on the Edge of the World

by Steve Braunias

Overview

In small-town, suburban New Zealand, with its seemingly average people, can be found many stories of lives, loves, aspirations, and, sporadically, a dark secret or two. As reported by a much-followed columnist and awarded journalist, these rich, fascinating, and occasionally disturbing stories of settlements follow people living throughout New Zealand, from Kawakawa in the north to Mosgiel in the south, and Samoa and Antarctica overseas. Funny, moving, and at times terrifying, this book provides a platform from which New Zealand reveals itself and proves that rarely are people and places as they first appear.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781877551352
Publisher:	Awa Press
Publication date:	04/01/2013
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Steve Braunias is the editor-in-residence at Wintec School of Media Arts in Hamilton, a writer for many primetime TV series, and a regular panelist on TVNZ7’s The Good Word. He is the recipient of a Montana Book Award and more than 20 journalism awards as well as the author of several books, including Fish of the Week, Roosters I Have Known, and Smoking in Antarctica.

Table of Contents

1 Hicks Bay: A Brief History of Meat

2 Pegasus: Newest Zealand

3 Waiouru Operation Desert Rose

4 St Bathans: Wind

5 Ohinemutu & Whakarewarewa: How to Cook a Fish Head

6 Hauraki Plains: Country Roads

7 Miranda: Birdland

8 Scott Base: Smoking in Antarctica

9 Apia: Neighbours

10 Mt Roskill: Welcome Home

11 Wanganui, Whanganui: In Absentia

12 Mercer: Fog

13 Winton: The Goodness of Swedes

14 Tangimoana: Lament of the Ocean

15 Mosgiel: Looking for Trouble

16 Wanaka: The Stories of Others

17 Greymouth: The Pike River Mine Disaster

18 Collingwood: Lenny, Denny, Buttons and Tink

19 Wainuiomata: Lost City of Fitzroy

20: Maromaku Valley: The Ballad of Stan

Editorial Reviews

"In this funny, moving, sometimes terrifying book, our country reveals itself; people and places are never as they first appear. Full of astonishing phrases, insights, and provocations, Civilisation is like a series of great New Zealand novels bound up in one extraordinary book."  —Emily Perkins, author, The Forrests

"Steve Braunias could be a character in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, traipsing to places like St. Bathans and Mercer, inviting himself into homes to seek out those little nuggets. More often than not, he finds them."  —Wallace Chapman, radio and television host, Back Benches

"Provocative, literate, disrespectful . . . eminently readable."  —Press

"Steve Braunias shares with us the intimacies of people's lives, their thoughts and beliefs, the values of their communities, and so the deep meanings of places. . . . A writer the whole world would like to hear about."  —Jonathan Lorie, author, The Traveller's Handbook

From the Publisher