Book Giveaway | Where the Nor’wester Blows

Where the NOR'WESTER blows
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Where the NOR'WESTER blowsWe are very pleased to be giving away two copies of Bee Dawson’s book ‘Where the Nor’wester Blows’, to our GrownUps members.

All you need to do to enter the draw is be a GrownUps member, make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter and fill in your details near the bottom of the page!

About Where the Nor’wester Blows

Social historian Bee Dawson turns her attention to her parents, Roland Clark (aka popular columnist Nor’wester) and his wife Betty, in this moving biography that captures a special time in New Zealand farming history.

This is the story of Roland Clark (aka ‘Nor’wester’), a provocative and entertaining farmer and agricultural commentator, and his wife Betty, who farmed at Staveley in the Foothills area of Mid Canterbury from the 1950s to the 1980s.

For more than twenty years Roland’s New Zealand Farmer articles, notable for their wisdom, charm and provocative humour, were a monthly highlight for farming families throughout the country. Readers of the Christchurch Star were equally enthusiastic, avidly reading his weekly columns – about one thousand of them, and some two thousand articles in all. Where the Nor’wester Blows draws extensively on Roland’s lively writing.

In addition to chronicling family, farming, local and social history, the book colourfully charts Roland’s rise from farming novice (he had to ask a neighbour to show him how to plough a paddock!) to being one of New Zealand’s leading agricultural commentators and a founder of the New Zealand Tree Crops Association.

The narrative takes us from their early days in Ireland and the Queensland outback, through years of war (Roland was in the Special Operations Executive in the Mediterranean) and managing a Belfast linen mill to when they moved to New Zealand in 1958. The book provides a rich account of their early days in rural New Zealand as well as the development of their farm, ‘Glenshane’.

‘There is a modern theory that nobody is irreplaceable and that once one generation has done its best, the next one will do better. Well, those theorists obviously never encountered Roland Clark, because since he stopped his writings on agriculture in 2002 there has never been a columnist who could come within a bull’s roar of his contributions.’ Harry Broad

Author Note

‘As a chronicler of other people’s family, farm and social histories, it was probably inevitable that I should eventually dust off the folders and albums in my study and tell the story of how my parents, farmer and agricultural journalist Roland Clark (‘Nor’wester’) and his devoted wife Betty, came to New Zealand to farm some 66 years ago. However, this book is much more than the tale of one family – it’s also an account of rural New Zealand in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, a heartland and social history which celebrates life in mid-Canterbury, and especially Staveley. Inevitably, I share much of my parents’ story, but I have chosen to tell it in the third person so that the focus would stay on Roland and Betty, their remarkable lives and the people who made it all possible.’

About the Author

Bee Dawson is an author, columnist and social historian who enjoys writing about people, places and gardens. She has now authored 21 books, including Otari: Two hundred years of Otari-Wilton’s Bush and A History of Gardening in New Zealand and writes for New Zealand Gardener. Bee and her husband, Sandy, live and garden on a windswept hill above Wellington Harbour.

Click here to see an exclusive article Bee has written for GrownUps

 

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Terms and conditions

    1. You must be a GrownUps member and receive our newsletter to be eligible to win.
    2. Competition closes on the 13th November 2024, winners will be notified via email by 14th November 2024.
    3. It is your responsibility to ensure you correctly enter a New Zealand postal address where the prize can be sent. GrownUps will not take responsibility for prizes sent to incorrect addresses.
    4. Winners are drawn at random by the GrownUps administration team.
    5. GrownUps employees and family are not eligible to enter.
    6. By entering the giveaway, you approve for GrownUps to use your name on social media as winner of the competition.
    7. One entry per household.
    8. Prize in non transferrable.
    9. You must reside in New Zealand – the prize can only be redeemed within New Zealand.
    10. You must be over 50 years of age to enter, please check your details are correct in your membership dashboard.