Looking for the Phoenix - A Memoir

W.H. Oliver, a central figure in New Zealand?s intellectual landscape, reflects on the decades of his own life and the history that has shaped him.

The first editor of The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography and the author of The Story of New Zealand, Oliver tells of his Cornish upbringing, the influences of feminism, friendship and family, and his part in the key intellectual and historical debates of his time.

A wide-ranging account by a man who was poet, author and scholar, it is also perceptive, wry and sometimes painfully honest.