Rachel Buchanan reviews The Forgotten Coast for the Spinoff:
‘The Forgotten Coast is heartfelt, poetic; a pleasure to read. I really like Richard’s honesty about the intergenerational privilege enjoyed by some Pākehā farming families: “The prosperity that flowed from the land has supported the endeavours of later generations in various ways; its shadow lies behind the purchase of other properties and houses, bequests to children, support with the costs of education, and so forth, on down the generations.”
'The book taught me new things about Irish immigration to Taranaki, Catholicism on the Coast and even about Parihaka; the place that was the focus of my PhD in history and the subject of two of my books. I was unaware, for example, that Hori Teira (George Taylor) – who sold 98 acres of Parihaka land to Richard’s grandmother Kate — was one of journalist James Cowan’s key informants on the Taranaki wars.
The book also reinforced just how much we have lost. That eel Richard’s holding in the 1971 photograph (on the book’s cover) is a stupendous example of the creatures that were once plentiful in our waterways.’
Read the full review here.
