This page lists and summarises biographical books that have been published by Top of the South writers and are available for purchase.
To find out where to buy the book and learn more about the author, click on the author's name.
To find out where to buy the book and learn more about the author, click on the author's name.
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A Counter of Moons
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A Curious Life
Katherine Palmer Gordon (2002) When Princess Peggy Abkhazi died in 1994 in her adopted hometown of Victoria, BC, she not only bore a royal title, she also ruled over an exceedingly beautiful garden that had won international acclaim. It was a far cry from her unremarkable birth into tenuous circumstances in Shanghai… |
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Accidental Immigrants
John Ewan (2017) When John's great-great grandfather, Thomas Powell left Leeds, England, with his family and sailed out to India in the early 1850s, they little realised that within a few years they would be living in New Zealand and facing very different futures. |
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Away ... for God's Sake
Katheleen Byrne (2021) Born into an Irish Catholic family, Kathleen entered a religious order in France when she was 17 years old and from there experienced a life of vast challenge and despair. Only her faith and the knowledge that she was doing God’s will sustained her - though would that always be enough? |
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Big Pockets: Confessions of a Wanton Woman
Laura Strange Well travelled and well educated, Laura reflects on the men in her life. In this explicit memoir, written in an accessible style, she remembers lovemaking in the snow, in summer meadows and in the hills; affairs with married men, marriage to a secretly gay man, a tragic connection with a bipolar friend and finally a roller-coaster experience with an elusive truck driver. |
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Constance Barnicoat: A Cool Head and a Sharp Pen
Annabel Schuler (2023) Constance Barnicoat (1872-1922) was sassy, strong, opinionated, brave, meticulous, and very intelligent. She should be celebrated as a leading journalist of her time, but she is unknown to most people. This is the story of her writing, her climbing, her grit in a man’s world, and her unflagging work ethic. |
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Dancing on the Tundra
Emma Stevens (2017) In this final book in a trilogy of memoirs, we follow Emma’s life in a small city in SW Alaska. Working as a bicultural coordinator, Emma flies to remote village schools to work with the local Yup’ik Eskimo, and inspires an inaugural Spring Festival to unite the villages in a huge dance celebration. But when Emma and her husband decide to relocate to Chevak, they find themselves awaited by the Cup’ik elder, |
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Driven by the Wind, the Memoir of Captain Henry Rose
Karen Stade (2019) A biography of Henry Rose, who went to sea as a 14 year old apprentice and rose to command some of the fastest clipper in the world. He sailed the trade routes between England, Asia and America, was aboard the tea clipper Collinsburgh when she raced her rival Truce around Cape Horn, and in 1870 captained the Merope on her record-breaking voyage across the Southern Ocean to New Zealand. |
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Katherine Mansfield in Picton
Julie Kennedy (2000) Aged 19 Katherine Mansfield left New Zealand never to return. But shortly before her death in 1923, in a story fragment, she wrote: ‘It was one of those days so clear, so still, so silent you almost feel the earth itself has stopped in astonishment at its own beauty.’ The setting is unnamed but is likely to be the Marlborough Sounds. Her visit to Picton, and the effect it had on her, is the reason for this book. |
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Knock Knock - Confessions of a Kiwi Interviewer
Trish Palmer (2021) This is the world of the dreaded door-knock from the other side of the door, drawing on over 20 years of interviewing. Invited into the homes and private lives of an astonishing array of folk from every lifestyle imaginable, we encounter everything from bare bottoms to angry cats, the desperately struggling to the well-off, and everyone in between. |
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Nesting on the Nushagak
Emma Stevens (2016) The second book in a trilogy of memoirs, the story follows Emma and her new husband as they settle to a life in a remote Yup’ik Eskimo village in SW Alaska, where Emma joins the local people in their subsistence way of life, gathering food during the extended summer daylight hours to last them through the bitter cold, semi-darkness and isolation of the long Alaskan winter ahead. |
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Off the Hook
Judy Fisher (2020) A true account of suddenly facing life alone in middle age, this is a story of exciting adventures, interesting characters and fascinating twists and turns that challenges the fear of loneliness, and shows that if you embrace change with courage you can survive. |
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Porters in My Past
John Ewan (2015) The true story of three brothers who arrive in New Zealand in the 1850s and face the challenge of life in a new land. One becomes a surveyor, one a mayor and one a farmer after whom Porters Pass is named. |
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Simple Gifts
Jan Marsh (2019) A gentle autobiography that reflects on the many joys of Jan's quiet life – the beauty of the environment, the pleasure of walking and swimming, her family and friends – and on some underlying values and concerns. Perfect for the busy reader. |
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The Lighthouse Children's Mother
Jeanette Alpin (2007) The story of family life on a remote lighthouse on Dog Island in Foveaux Strait. Much is the same as for other families, but living in a remote place like this brings extra challenges. Writing with charm and disarming honesty about island relationships, Jeanette brings her perceptive eye to what is truly different in her unusual circumstances. |
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The Lighthouse Keeper's Wife
Jeanette Alpin (2001) The first book in her autobiographical trilogy recounts Jeanette's early years as the wife of a lighthouse keeper on the remote Stephens Island. This is a human story of self-discovery and of the lighthouse community, candidly revealing Jeanette's struggles to live up to her own ideals, and 'to be a good, true, lighthouse keeper's wife.' |
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The Performer
Paul Maunder (2021) ‘The road less travelled’ as Paul reflects on his role as film-maker, theatre director, educator, writer, full-time parent, producer, actor and teller of stories, combined with personal relationships, the development of his political and ideological beliefs, the experiences of being brought up by adoptive parents and his later contact with his birth family. |
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The Price of Bacon
Jeanette Alpin (2011) Living on the isolated and beautiful D'Urville Island in the Marlborough Sounds, Jeanette writes candidly about the challenges of daily life - no electricity, no roads to the door, a solar-powered computer. Pigs are a focus - this is the story of Jeanette as she raises kunekune pigs. But it is also about other animals, wildlife, and lifestyle - a way of life that is almost lost to New Zealand forever. |
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Walking on Ice
Emma Stevens (2015) The first book in a trilogy of memoirs, the story begins in the warm climes of New Zealand in the South Pacific when an on-line friendship between an American and a New Zealander blossoms into romance, and concludes among the Eskimo in the wintry wilds of remote Alaska. |
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Walking with James Hogg
Bruce Gilkson (2016) Celebrating the extraordinary life of a flawed and lovable character, this book provides a study of Hogg’s works, explores three of his Scottish journeys through the eyes and experience of his great-great-grandson, and shows how these influenced Hogg's career and writing - and his continuing relevance in the 21st century. |
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What You Wish For
Rebecca Hayter (2009) - and Paul Blacklow When Paul Blacklow was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 31, he refused to accept that he would die within five years. Instead he delved into the world of alternative therapies, exploring physical, mental, emotional and spiritual healing. By the time of his death, at 35, he had learned much about healing and about himself. Rebecca Hayter completed the biography for him. |