Authors

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Simon Lendrum grew up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the North of England, gradually moving south after leaving school. He went to Cambridge first, then progressed to London. In 2004 he took a bigger leap and moved to Auckland, the place he now calls home. Simon has had a successful career in advertising and is currently CEO of the Commercial Communications Council.

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ROGER LENTLE has co-written four previous books on hunting — Red Deer in New Zealand, Stalking the Seasons Round, Alpine Hunting in New Zealand and The New Zealand Hunters’ Companion.

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Lynne Leppard lives on an orchard in the sunny Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. She and her husband Phil enjoy sharing their life with their grown family, which has happily expanded in recent years with several grandchildren. Lynne has an interest in supporting parents and families and anyone navigating their own adoption journey.

A professor in ecology and entomology at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Phil Lester has published around 150 papers on invasive species and their management. He has specialised in the management of invasive ants and wasps and the parasites and diseases affecting bees. Phil has won Fulbright and Royal Society Te Apārangi James Cook Research Fellowships. He is an appointed member of the Environmental Protection Authority’s Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Committee, which considers the use of hazardous substances and new organisms for pest control in New Zealand. His previous books are The Vulgar Wasp (2018) and Healthy Bee, Sick Bee (2020).

Dave Letele (Ngati Maniapoto, Samoa) is a community leader, life coach and motivational speaker based in Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland. Born the son of Auckland Mongrel Mob leader Big Dave Letele, he once said, "I should definitely be in jail or dead, one of the two ... but because I'm not, I feel like I'm blessed. I share my story to give hope and help to others." He played representative rugby league in New Zealand, and professional rugby league in Australia, with teams including the North Sydney Bears, Cootamundra Bulldogs and AS Carcassonne in France, and achieved notoriety as heavyweight boxer The Brown Buttabean. In 2014, Dave started a 100kg weight-loss journey that would gain him thousands of followers. This led to him creating Buttabean Motivation (BBM) which has helped thousands more achieve their goals and break the destructive cycles and patterns in their own lives. Today, Dave delivers targeted health, nutrition, and fitness programmes, youth employment programmes, runs the BBM Foodshare, and fundraises and advocates on behalf of communities in need. He won the 2022 Kiwibank New Zealand Local Hero Of the Year Award Te Pou Toko o te Tau for Auckland Tamaki Makaurau. He lives in Henderson, Auckland with his wife Koreen and four sons.

CHRISTINE LEUNENS is the author of Primordial Soup, described by The Sunday Times as ‘a remarkable debut novel’; A Can of Sunshine, selected as one of the Best Books of the Year 2013 by the New Zealand Herald; and Prix Médicis-nominated Caging Skies, which was adapted into the Academy Award-winning film Jojo Rabbit. Christine’s novels have been translated into over twenty languages. She lives in Nelson with her family and is working on her next novel.

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