The author's eight great-grandparents all arrived in New Zealand between 1858 and 1868. Their family names were Harrop, Sales, Campbell, Brown, Valentine, Maxwell, Jefcoate and Oliver. She looks at their reasons for migration, how they fared once settled, and at their participation in gold-digging, farming, road-making, school-teaching and surveying. Both of her parents were graduates of Canterbury University and A.J. Harrop was a respected New Zealand historian. Ann explains how she and her brother David came to be born in England and how, early in World War II, they were taken to their New Zealand relations for safety, returning to the UK five years later with a deep love for the country where David later became a farmer. This is an engaging portrait of a brilliant and unconventional New Zealand–British family.
