Keep Calm — We Are Coming

 

Keep Calm — We Are Coming
The NZSAS in action in Afghanistan, 2009–2021

Ron Crosby

A gripping account of New Zealand’s military elite in action in Afghanistan, told in their own words

This special book takes the reader on a rare tour behind the lines of the New Zealand Special Air Service during its time in Afghanistan, based on extensive interviews and research by author Ron Crosby.

Keep Calm —We Are Coming briefly backgrounds the NZSAS role with Coalition forces supporting the Afghan government, before focusing on four engagements where many lives were at risk.

While primarily training Afghan forces in Kabul, the Kiwis were called upon to respond to a series of ‘spectacular attacks’ by heavily-armed Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests and determined to inflict major casualties on civilians.

In the words of those who were there, Crosby tells how the NZSAS resolved three devastating attacks by terrorists in Kabul between 2009 and 2012 — at the Indian Guesthouse, Intercontinental Hotel and British Council.

The book then relates how the NZSAS returned to help evacuate New Zealanders from the chaos of Kabul Airport in 2021 as the Taliban took over.

This fast-paced book —illustrated with 32 pages of colour photos from the attacks and the airport – reveals how a courageous group of Kiwis saved hundreds of lives in extremely 

dangerous conditions.

Author Ron Crosby at the book's launch in Auckland

Keep Calm — We Are Coming is available in good booksellers nationwide, in time for Anzac Day 2026 commemorations.

The author

Ron Crosby is a well-known author of New Zealand history, including The Musket Wars, The Forgotten Wars, Te Kooti’s Last Foray and NZSAS: The First Fifty Years. He enjoyed a long career as a barrister, and was a member of the Waitangi Tribunal for 13 years. Resident in Blenheim, Ron has intermittently spent many years writing the current book; see www.roncrosby.co.nz.

Publication: 2 April 2026  |  ISBN: 9781990042997  |  RRP $45.00

Paperback with flaps, 240 x 160 mm portrait, 260 pages, 

b&w with 4 x 8-page colour sections

Setting the record straight on extraordinary New Zealand Wars mass abduction

Te Kooti's Last Foray

The extraordinary story of Te Kooti’s 1870 abduction of two Whakatōhea communities into the Waioeka Gorge and how Whanganui’s pursuit won the day but never the credit

Ron Crosby

The evidence in support of the conclusions drawn is compelling. This book is well worth the read.’ 

— Justice Sir (Tā) Joe Williams, from the Foreword

Previous histories of the New Zealand Wars have either overlooked the events that are retold in Te Kooti’s Last Foray, or have got them wrong by relying on questionable accounts by Lieutenant Thomas Porter. 

Te Kooti

The key facts are these: in March 1870, on the run from government forces and seeking to challenge their authority, Māori leader Te Kooti and his followers abducted 218 Whakatōhea people from Ōmarumutu and Ōpape, near Ōpōtiki in the Bay of Plenty — marching them back into Te Urewera and constructing a pā called Waipuna.

This constituted one of the largest abductions in New Zealand history, and subjected the captives (largely old people, women and children) to extreme hardship, traversing rugged forest and river valleys.

 

The government forces tracking Te Kooti — mostly Whanganui forces under the command of Major Kēpa Te Rangihiwinui and Ngāti Porou led by Major Ropata Wahawaha — headed into Te Urewera in pursuit. 

After formidable feats of marching and scouting, Whanganui took Waipuna pā and secured the release of all the captives on 24 March, although Te Kooti was able to escape.

Accounts by Porter, who fought with Wahawaha, formed the primary source for later historians — and he gave credit for the successful outcome to Ngāti Porou. 

Samuel Austin, whose diaries cast new light on the 1870 events

The recent emergence of diaries written by another Pākehā soldier, Samuel Austin, who served with Whanganui, have revealed the inaccuracy of Porter’s account, and informed Ron Crosby’s painstaking fieldwork.

This is a book based on walking the ground, not solely on written records. Over many years Ron Crosby has tramped the Urewera forests to retrace the steps of Te Kooti and his pursuers. 

That legwork deeply informs Te Kooti’s Last Foray, and enables pinpoint location of where events took place — including Waipuna pā, a site largely forgotten for 150 years. 

Annotated photos taken in the depths of Te Urewera, detailed maps, and sketches by artist Stu Spicer (who has accompanied Ron in the area) bring to life this gripping episode, which was to prove pivotal in Te Kooti’s move away from armed resistance and towards spiritual leadership.

The author

Ron Crosby burst onto the publishing scene in 1999 with his landmark The Musket Wars (still in print through Oratia Books), and has followed that with a wide range of books,  including Gilbert Mair: Te Kooti’s Nemesis (2004), NZSAS: The First Fifty Years (2009), Kūpapa (2015) and most recently The Forgotten Wars: Why the Musket Wars matter today (Oratia Books, 2020). Formerly a barrister, Ron was appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal in 2011. His interest in te ao Māori is constantly reinforced by his whānau relationships, his wife Margy being of Te Rarawa and Te Aupoūri descent. They live in Blenheim (see www.roncrosby.co.nz).

Publication: 8 August 2023  |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004234-8 | RRP $49.99

Paperback, 240 x 160 mm portrait, 280 pages, b&w with 16 pages colour

 

New book ensures the Musket Wars will not be forgotten

The Forgotten Wars: Why the Musket Wars matter today

Ron Crosby

Distinguished author outlines why this crucial phase of New Zealand history matters and should be taught today

 

Ron Crosby couldn’t believe his eyes when the Ministry of Education released its draft curriculum for compulsory teaching of New Zealand history. 

 

Subjects to be covered included initial contacts between Māori and Europeans, and early colonial history — but not the Musket Wars. 

In The Forgotten Wars, Crosby sets out to ensure that readers will be able to appreciate just how much of an omission that was.

 

For, as he describes in the book, these conflicts between 1806 and 1845 were the longest period of continuous warfare in Aotearoa, and laid the basis of relationships between iwi and hapū ever since — not to mention featuring endless cycles of utu and feats of bravery, including the campaigns of Hongi Hika and Te Rauparaha.

Muskets, potatoes and other introductions fundamentally altered the balance of power in 19th-century Aotearoa, leading to inter-iwi conflicts that claimed tens of thousands of lives (killing, wounding or displacing up to half of the Māori population).

 

Drawing on his seminal The Musket Wars, this concise work breaks the wars down by region and tribe, with stunningly detailed maps and illustrations that will help to ensure these epochal conflicts are no longer forgotten.

 

The author

Ron Crosby with his wife Margy

Ron Crosby burst onto the New Zealand book scene in 1999 with The Musket Wars (still in print through Oratia Books), and has followed that with a range of other titles including NZSAS: The First Fifty Years. Formerly a barrister specialising in resource management and iwi claims, Ron was appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal in 2011. He lives in Blenheim with his wife Margy (Te Rarawa, Te Aupouri). A keen tramper and hunter, Ron and family  have walked and visited many of the sites and trails featured in this new book.

Publication: 14 October 2020  |  ISBN: 978-0-947506-79-7  | RRP $39.99

Paperback, 240 x 160 mm portrait, 208 pages, b&w with 16-pp colour

 

Ron Crosby on Radio NZ National

Ron Crosby, distinguished lawyer and author of The Musket Wars (Libro International, 2012) featured on Radio New Zealand National's Saturday Morning show on 29 August.

Follow this link to hear Ron talking with Kim Hill about New Zealand conflicts of the nineteenth century, including the Musket Wars, in relation to his new book Kūpapa (PenguinRandomHouse, 2015). 

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201768527/ron-crosby-kupapa

See Ron's site for more on his books:
http://www.roncrosby.co.nz