Authors

Arachnologist Cor Vink has a special interest in the systematics of New Zealand spiders, and he has also worked on spider ecology, biosecurity and biological control. He has produced over 50 scientific articles and in 2010 he co-authored an illustrated guide to the spider families of New Zealand. Bryce McQuillan is a freelance wildlife photographer specialising in macro; spiders are his main passion. His work has featured in magazines around the world, particularly New Zealand Geographic.

Linda Bryder gained her MA (1st Class Hons) at the University of Auckland in 1980, and her DPhil in the history of science at the University of Oxford in 1985. Her doctoral thesis was published by Oxford University Press as Below the Magic Mountain: A Social History of Tuberculosis in Twentieth-Century Britain (1988). Linda held a research fellowship at The Queen’s College, Oxford, from 1984 to 1988, and was awarded a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 1987. Since returning to New Zealand in 1988, Linda has taught history at the University of Auckland and in 2008 was appointed professor. She has an extensive publication list in the social history of health and medicine, including over one hundred peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and significant monographs in the history of women and children’s health, including A Voice for Mothers: The Plunket Society and Infant Welfare, 1907–2000 (2003), A History of the ‘Unfortunate Experiment’ at National Women’s Hospital (2009) and The Rise and Fall of National Women’s Hospital: A History (2014), all published by AUP. In 2014 she was awarded an inaugural University of Auckland Research Excellence Award. From 2007 to 2023 she held an honorary chair at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi. A founding editor of the Oxford journal Social History of Medicine, Linda has served on the editorial board of several international medical history journals and co-edits the New Zealand Journal of History. She is currently President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of the History of Medicine.

Jacqueline 'Rock' Bublitz is a writer, feminist, and arachnophobe, who lives between Melbourne, Australia and her hometown on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. She wrote her debut novel Before You Knew My Name after spending a summer in New York, where she hung around morgues and the dark corners of city parks (and the human psyche) far too often. She is now working on her second novel, where she continues to explore the grand themes of love, loss and connection.

No biography

Dr Rachel Buchanan (Taranaki, Te Atiawa) is an historian, archivist, journalist and curator. She is the author of The Parihaka Album: Lest We Forget (Huia, 2009), Stop Press: The Last Days of Newspapers (Scribe, 2013) and Ko Taranaki Te Maunga (Bridget Williams Books, 2018). Dr Buchanan's archival expertise has included roles such as Curator, Germaine Greer Archive, University of Melbourne Archives, and publications in scholarly journals including Te Pouhere Korero, The Journal of Social History and Archivaria. Her writing has been translated into Maori, Farsi and French and published across Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

Andy Buchanan is a semi-retired structural engineer who grew up on the Port Hills of Christchurch. After obtaining a Civil Engineering degree at the University of Canterbury in 1969, he alternated between engineering jobs and study abroad. He completed a Masters degree in California and a PhD in British Columbia, before establishing a structural consulting firm in Christchurch. Andy moved to the University of Canterbury in 1987, where he specialised in earthquake resistance, fire safety, and the carbon footprint of multi-storey timber buildings. He taught thousands of students before stepping down in 2014. His busy retirement activities include part-time structural engineering and the pursuit of interests in family, forestry, and conservation, as well as frequent trips to the mountains to seek images for his oil paintings.

No biography

Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck, 1877-1951) led a busy and distinguished life - variously as an MP, leader of the Young Maori party, doctor, medical officer for Maori health, anthropologist and director of the Bishop Museum, Hawai'i. He was knighted in 1946 for services to science and literature. His best-known books are Vikings of the Sunrise and The Coming of the Maori.

Gay Buckingham is a regional writer – her work is set firmly in southern New Zealand — and she revels in describing the coast, bush, wildlife and farming community of the area in which she grew up. In 2013 she completed a degree in modern letters at Victoria University. This is her first novel.

No biography

Dr Roger Buckton and his family moved to Puhoi in 1990 and discovered the rich world of Bohemian music Kiwi style. His professional music career and interest in early European music helped him appreciate that in his neighbourhood there was a wealth of European music which had been undergoing a transformation since the arrival of the early settlers in 1863. He quickly went about recording this music, and two cassettes (later CDs) and a documentary film for the University of Auckland were produced from 1993 to 1996. After years of research and performances of the music, Buckton's book Bohemian Journey: A Musical Heritage in Colonial New Zealand was published in time for Puhoi's 150th anniversary in 2013. The simultaneous publication of Judith Williams's book It Takes a Whole Village: the People of Puhoi showed Buckton the cultural value of her collection of song and verse texts and was the catalyst for matching song texts and music to realise the rich heritage of song which was fast disappearing with the loss of the language. Buckton was an Adjunct Associate-Professor at the University of Canterbury and lectured in ethno-music, musicianship and music education. He continues to perform on the dudelsack, alongside other instruments of early music. His aim is to promote the songs and music in this collection so that these unique Kiwi-Bohemian musical gems take their place in the multicultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand. Judith Williams lived her early years in the village of Waiwera and started her schooling at the Puhoi convent school. She formed friendships with local Bohemian families and these early relationships fostered her interest in the local dialect, its songs and dances. She trained as a teacher and studied German to Master's level at the University of Auckland, followed by three years teaching English at secondary level in Oldenburg, Germany. Williams was intensely proud of being a descendant of the early settlers in the area (Pittner) and her decision to learn German and to live in Germany derived from her early links with Puhoi families. So it was unsurprising that later she returned to Puhoi, and developed a smallholding there with sheep and chickens. At this time, Williams began a second career, in journalism. She helped establish

Matt the Bat and the Bird of the Year is the debut picture book from author Catherine Budai and illustrator Clare Cudmore-Neame. The pair first met as children's librarians at Birkenhead Library, where their shared love of storytelling and beautifully crafted books sparked this creative partnership.