Richard Wolfe

Fittingly I read this book during my sojourn in New Zealand. Moa don't get much press outside NZ, as people look at the Dodo as The extinct bird to write about. It's a shame because Moa were magnificent creatures that deserve more exposure.

"Moa" mainly deals with Robert Owen, the man who took one look at a bone and immediately recognised it as belonging to an enormous bird. It's a none-too-difficult read, although one can't help but read it with head bowed, knowing it was us humans that killed off the Moa (and many other great species, like the Haast Eagle, the largest bird that could fly, and is referred to in "Moa").

Besides the sad plight of the Moa, my memory of the book was losing my library borrowed copy in a gym in Wellington, New Zealand and while the copy soon turned up back at the Wellington library, it was soaking wet and I had to pay for a replacement copy.… (mehr)

I love this book. When my friend, Paul, showed me his copy, I jumped on to Amazon.com and hunted down a copy. This one came by mail from one of my favorite shops in Takapuna, Book Mark. Sub-titled "Growing up in New Zealand", it contains a potted, pictorial history of my early life and my parents' life in 20th Century New Zealand. I will dip in and out of this book frequently, I'm sure. My wife is an English born, French educated, American citizen and she spent hours with it too. There are a lot of memories here. Some are pure New Zealand and some transport well to other British cultures. (I say that because that is really what we were in those days - British - probably still are to some extent. I know I feel a lot like that). Mostly the pictures are black and white and that is good because things pretty much were back then. I'm not sure if I should know who Richard Wolfe is or not, but he has done a job here that I absolutely thank him for. As a proud kiwi currently living in the United States, I treasure this book.… (mehr)