Books published by Oratia Media

Historian Matthew Wright goes to the heart of how the First World War affected the lives of ordinary New Zealanders. The book analyses what it was like for New Zealand soldiers at the two main battle fronts where they fought, and frames it with the social effects back home. Beginning with an outline of pre-war New Zealand society, Wright portrays the extraordinary world of war into which its young men plunged as they entered the baptism of fire at Gallipoli. The end of innocence that the withdrawal from the Dardanelles implied led to a harder, more fatalistic approach in the theatre of mechanised death that was the Western Front. By wars end, hope and glory had faded, replaced by a new view of military heroism -- in a country forever changed.

Hongi Hikas invasion of the Rotorua area in 1823 is one of the most dramatic and daring assaults in New Zealand history. Armed with muskets, Hongis forces had roamed the North Island seeking utu (revenge) for past slights. Te Arawa, inland and with their island stronghold of Mokoia on Lake Rotorua, felt impregnable. They did not count on Hongis determination which led to an epic portage of canoes to the lake shores, from which an attack on Mokoia became inevitable. This book not only tells the story with Staffords flair and sense of drama, but is also richly illustrated, including modern photos of the locations depicted. Launch of the book in 2007 occasioned a major meeting of Ngāpuhi and Te Arawa that aided reconciliation for the past conflict.

This gripping book captures the evolution by trial and error of the New Zealand army, alongside those of Australia and Canada, from the Boer War in South Africa to involvement in the First World War. It tells the story of citizen soldiers becoming professional as they learned the lessons of the Gallipoli landings and applied these to the Western Front earning them the status of the fighting elite in the British armies in France. Richly illustrated with historical photographs and maps, The Anzac Experience blends social analysis and military history in a compelling combination. In its research and writing, Christopher Pugsley walked every New Zealand battlefield on Gallipoli and the Western Front.