Phoney Wars

Overview

Phoney Wars looks at the lives of New Zealanders during the greatest armed struggle the world has ever seen: the Second World War. It is not a political, economic or military history; rather it explores what life was like during the war years for ordinary people living under the New Zealand flag. Stevan and Hugh Eldred-Grigg explore New Zealanders' hopes and fears, beliefs and superstitions, shortages and affluence, rationing and greed, hysteria and humor, violence and kindness, malevolence and generosity, to argue that New Zealand need not have involved itself in the war at all.

Reviews

"Stevan Eldred-Grigg defies classification. He can swoop from the historical to the contemporary, from lyric to polemic, from fiction to faction. He's unsettling as well as absorbing." —David Hill, NZ Herald

Author Biography

Hugh Eldred-Grigg was born in Canterbury and graduated with an MA in political science from Victoria University of Wellington. Since graduating he has worked as a teaching assistant at VUW, a high school language teacher in Japan, a lecturer at Xiamen University in China, and a high school teacher in Estonia. Stevan Eldred-Grigg is a leading novelist and historian. His first novel, Oracles and Miracles, was a runaway bestseller.