Unfamiliar Canterbury

Press, 14 December 1985, Page 20

Unfamiliar Canterbury

Discover Canterbury. By John Wilson. Photograph by Warren Jacobs. Kowhai Publishing, Christchurch. 96 pp. $24.95. Among the wealth of books displaying New Zealand scenery, this local offering has a good claim to be the best of the recent releases. Pictures and text are nicely linked; production is generally good; the variety of colour illustration is enormous. Above all, almost every illustration gives an exciting new aspect even to the most familiar scenes and places. New Regent Street’s charm is shown with a contrasting background of modern, highrise buildings. Ashburton’s clocktower is shown in its park setting, not from the highway prospective of passing motorists. The misty river view is the Heathcote, not the Avon. The moods of

Lake Tekapo, especially in moonlight, are shown in a dramatic series. It is a book that will provoke unashamed pride and pleasure in their home from the people of Christchurch and Canterbury. Any why not? As John Wilson points out in his text, in its history, geography, and farming methods, in such things as its respect for old buildings, this is a unique New Zealand province. Whether one is seeing Timaru from the sea, or the mouth of the Hurunui from the lagoon’s northern cliffs, Canterbury is also a place of great and unexpected beauty. And whether it is considering the .Wizard in the Square, or the first settlers 900 years before the name Canterbury was ever applied to the plains, this book has something new and refreshing to show and say. — Literary Editor.