Shining with the Shiner

Publisher: Bernard Henry & N. V. Douglas Ltd 1950. Hardback with no jacket. Inscription on first page, minor marks. Tanning and foxing.

The real life Shiner Irishman Ned Slattery was immortalised in a series of stories by John A Lee. Once, in New Zealand, most men had tramped the roads, carrying the swag. Indeed, the swagger, with his entire worldly wealth rolled round with a calico tent, fastened with straps and slung from the shoulder, was taken for granted. He was the farmer's labour exchange and, in after years, many men grown eminent in Dominion affairs were, and still are, able to meet and swap yarns about pioneering life on the road, its adventures and hardships, its semi-legendary giants and heroes. The Shiner, around whom this book is centred, was one of New Zealand's most colourful vagabonds. In his time he tramped the country from end to end. His adventures are told with an authenticity due to the fact that the author spent part of his boyhood on the road and, at one time, tramped for many miles side by side with the Shiner. They make absorbing and, frequently, side-splitting reading.