Authors

Elizabeth Orr has made a long and distinguished contribution to the campaign for equal pay and pay equity for New Zealand women. The stories she tells in her memoir cover this — and many more aspects of her varied and colourful life. Born in Wellington in 1929, the daughter of controversial forester Pat Entrican, Elizabeth’s early education was enlivened by stints on backblocks farms. At university she mixed with talented literary personalities and future lawmakers; she married Gordon Orr, later Secretary for Justice and a member of the Waitangi Tribunal. In 1966 Elizabeth led a delegation to government to establish the National Advisory Council for the Employment of Women. She helped set the terms for the Commission on Equal Pay and saw the 1972 Equal Pay Act put in place. In the 1990s Elizabeth became the first female chancellor of Victoria University, combining university duties with building stone walls, conserving stands of native bush and creating an 18th-century style country garden at the family property near Otaki.

Bob Orr was born in 1949 in the Waikato. Most of his adult life has been spent in Auckland, where he worked as a seafarer plying the waters of the Waitematā Harbour and Hauraki Gulf. He now lives in Kohukohu, a village on the shores of the Hokianga Harbour. Bob has published eleven previous books. In 2016 he was awarded the Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for Poetry and in 2017 he was the Writer in Residence at the University of Waikato. The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature comments on his 'tautly controlled imagistic lyrics, some of intense verbal beauty and force of feeling.’

Joanna Orwin has a background in plant ecology and 30 years' experience as an editor in environmental sciences. Her lifelong interests in New Zealand's landscapes and history are reflected in award-winning books that range from social and environmental history to historical and adventure novels for children and young adults. Shifting currents is her second historical novel for adults.

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Keith Ovenden is a biographer, former university political studies lecturer, broadcaster, satiric novelist and political commentator. He is the biographer of the New Zealand writer Dan Davin and is the chair of the board of the National Portrait Gallery in Wellington, where he also lives.

Becky Overeem grew up as the eldest of five adopted children. Born in Auckland, she spent part of her childhood in Fiji and her teenage years in the Solomon Islands. At 18, she returned to New Zealand to attend Teachers College, where she met her husband, Yaron. When her daughters, Chloe and Sophie, were in high school, Becky trained as a school chaplain. Passionate about mental health and education, she now runs her own business in Whangarei, creating teaching and mental health resources. This is her first book, inspired by personal experience.

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Robert Owen has been a beekeeper for over 20 years. He completed his PhD on Varroa in 2022. Robert has advised beekeepers in Nigeria, Benin, Lebanon, Nepal, and Bangladesh for USAID. He authored The Australian Beekeeping Manual and regularly contributes to specialist beekeeping magazines. Robert has extensive first-hand knowledge of honey bee pathogens from many countries. Jean-Pierre Scheerlinck is an Honorary Professor in Animal Biotechnology at University of Melbourne and an avid beekeeper. Mark Stevenson is a veterinary epidemiologist with expertise in infectious diseases. 

Jenny Owens has been gardening her whole life, she is from a long lineage of keen gardeners from both the North and South Islands of Aotearoa New Zealand. Jenny has a background in fine arts, teaching, landscaping and runs a garden design business.