NZ Book Month

Not the sort of book I would normally pick up, but I started following the story as it was narrated on the radio. I only got to hear five installments before my evening commute to night watch ended with a shift change- then quite some time later I found a copy amongst the wife's collection.

This tale is the New Zealand 'Angela's Ashes' and is a morbidly fascinating window on lower class urban life in the 1930-40's.

Much has been written on rural life, now here is a story of life in Christchurch. Run-down rental housing- if you could get it, factories not far removed from the pages of Dickens, neglect, feckless fathers and shagging on the banks of the Avon. (Not much has changed, really...)

For those who delight in tales of human misery, this does not disappoint- but this tale tells it the way it was, warts and all.