Dear Oliver : Uncovering a Pakeha history

Wells, Peter

Massey University Press（2018/03発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 336 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780994147363
• DDC分類 929.20993

Full Description

When writer and historian Peter Wells found a cache of family letters amongst his elderly mother's effects, he realised that he had the means of retracing the history of a not-untypical family swept out to New Zealand during the great nineteenth-century human diaspora from Britain. His family experienced the war against Te Kooti, the Boer War, the Napier earthquake of 1931 and the Depression. They rose from servant status to the comforts of the middle class. There was army desertion, suicide, adultery, AIDS, secrets and lies. There was also success, prosperity and social status.In digging deep into their stories, examining letters from the past and writing a letter to the future, Peter Wells constructs a novel and striking way to view the history of Pakeha New Zealanders.

Contents

ContentsRed Letter Day 7 Obscure Individuals 17 Dear Oliver 29 How to Read a Letter 71 The Coming Out Letter 95 To Whom It May Concern 117 How to Write a Letter 129 The Business Letter 155 Polly 175 What's in a Name? 191 Local Hero 213 Dear Heroix 237 Silence Like a Bruise 259 The Failure of Language 291 Afterword 309 Acknowledgements, image credits, notes, about the author, Northe family tree 320