Elisabeth de Waal

Set in Vienna in the 1950s, the novel follows five people returning to the city they lived in before WWII. It's a novel about exile, return and re-establishing a past life.

Gerald Durrell

The tale of a 1954 trip to South America to collect animals for a zoo. Gerald and his wife, Jacquie, are kind and caring to the animals and tremendously enthusiastic. An interesting glimpse into the past and the business of animal collecting.

Sally Carson

Written after the author visited a friend in Germany in the early 1930s. It tells the tale of a happy family against a background of economic hardship and political turmoil.

by Private Kelly

Private Kelly joined the army during WWII, became a paratrooper and was dropped in France. He spent the rest of the war in a POW camp and then was mistaken for a spy and arrested by the Russians. This is his story. Extraordinary.

Bruce Stronach

In the late 1920s, Stronach worked as a musterer at Molesworth Station. And this book is a wonderful, concise account of those days, brimming with enthusiasm. Fantastic.

Jane Smiley

"Acreage and financing were facts as basic as name and gender in Zebulon County." Lifelong farmer Larry Cook hands his farm down to his daughters, it is strangely out of character.

Lady Barker

First published in 1870, this is an account from Lady Barker of life on a Canterbury sheep farm in the Malvern Hills. It is easy to read, interesting and, at times, funny. Floods, storms, picnics, the routine of the sheep run, pig-hunting and other aspects of her life at the time. 

Mona Anderson

Mona Anderson recounts her life at the remote Mount Algidus Station. And she does so in warm, witty and engaging style .Published in 1963 this has been a consistent NZ favourite and the first print run of 7,500 sold out in just three days.