About the Author

Tony Simpson is one of New Zealand's best known social and cultural historians. He has published sixteen books of which the award winning The Sugarbag Years, an oral history of the Great Depression of the thirties, is the best known. He has recently retired from an almost fifty year career as a public servant, journalist, industrial advocate and writer for film, radio and television and is now writing full time, as well as running a small Wellington publishing company, the Blythswood Press.