Ursula Bethell Collected Poems

First published by Oxford University Press in 1985 and reissued with corrections and a new introduction by VUP in 1997, this is the definitive collection of the poems of Ursula Bethell. Ursula Bethell stands with R.A.K. Mason at the beginnings of modern poetry in New Zealand. Born in England, she grew up in New Zealand but did not live there until the 1920s when she came back finally to Christchurch. There she established a garden and began, at the age of fifty, to write poetry. ‘New Zealand wasn’t truly discovered,’ said D’Arcy Cresswell, ‘until Ursula Bethell, “very earnestly digging”, raised her head to look at the mountains.’