New biography sheds light on the private side of the legendary Bernard Freyberg

Freyberg: A Life’s Journey

Matthew Wright

Biography out tomorrow (6 October) focuses on Bernard Freyberg the man to reveal the reality behind a towering 20^th-century hero

The name Freyberg appears all across New Zealand, in streets, parks, schools, buildings, public spaces, pools and more. 

For much of the 20th century Bernard Freyberg was a household name: a swimming champion, an action-hero, military commander and Governor-General —a physically imposing figure known to most Kiwis as ‘Tiny’, following his childhood nickname. 

 

Freyberg receiving support as he attempts to swim the English Channel

Now in this new, concise biography, prolific author Matthew Wright reveals the complex man behind the myth for 21^st-century readers less familiar with Freyberg — tracking his personal journey from lower middle-class Wellington to his death in London as Lieutenant General The Right Hon. Lord Freyberg. 

Bernard Freyberg with son Paul during the Allied advance in Italy, 1944 

Who was this man, who presented initially as innocent and vague, yet showed a sharp intellect to those who knew him? How much of his action-hero status came from an effort to validate himself? 

Being sworn in as Governor-General, 1946

Why was he so ferociously private he did not even have a photographer at his own wedding? Why did he try to keep his 1914 adventures during the Mexico Revolution secret to the point of having his biographies censored?

Freyberg Beach, Wellington – one of many places named after the man

Freyberg: A Life’s Journey is the most accessible and revealing  Freyberg biography yet, with numerous photos. 

 

The author

Matthew Wright is one of New Zealand’s most published historians and writers. His work includes more than 600 articles, papers and reviews, and over 60 books on topics from biography to military and social history. His other Oratia books are The New Zealand Wars (2014) and The New Zealand Experience at Gallipoli and the Western Front (2017) (see matthewwright.net).

Publication: 6 October 2020  |  ISBN: 978-0-947506-72-8  | RRP $45.00

Paperback with flaps, 234 x 153 mm portrait, 232 pages, b&w

 

Archibald McIndoe's extraordinary Guinea Pig Club

Out in its New Zealand edition this Tuesday 14 August with a new foreword by HRH Prince Harry, The Guinea Pig Club tells the story of New Zealand surgeon Archibald McIndoe and his amazing work with scarred airmen in the UK during the World War II. 

Plastic surgery was in its infancy before World War II. The Allies were tremendously fortunate in having McIndoe operating at a small hospital in East Grinstead in the south of England. 

From Dunedin, McIndoe had studied at the University of Otago and relied on the mentorship of that other great pioneer of plastic surgery, fellow Kiwi Harold Gillies, to cope with the extraordinary demands placed by the casualties of the air war. 

Archibald McIndoe (centre) in theatre; his skill with the scalpel was legendary but no less extraordinary was his understanding of the psychological scars faced by disfigured airmen 

McIndoe set up a revolutionary treatment regime for survivors of plane crashes — a group dubbed the Guinea Pig Club — innovating not only in physical treatment of their injuries but also in the psychology of rehabilitation of disfigured airmen back into society.

For the first time, official records have been used to explain fully how and why this remarkable relationship developed between the Guinea Pig Club, the RAF and the Home Front — and how the experience inspires today’s victims of war.

A revised edition of the book The Reconstruction of Warriors, this joint UK-Canada-NZ publication now includes a section on McIndoe’s New Zealand origins. 

You can hear author Emily Mayhew interviewed by Wallace Chapman on Radio New Zealand on the morning of Sunday 26 August.

Dr Emily Mayhew is a military medical historian specialising in the study of severe casualty. She is the historian in residence in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London and a research fellow in the Division of Surgery. She is the author of several other books in her field of expertise, including the Wounded trilogy of books.

Publication Date: 14 August 2018  | ISBN: 978-1-784383-21-3 |  RRP $39.99

Paperback, 234 x 156 mm, 240 pages black & white

Kia Ora, the Italian documentary based on the book To the Gateways of Florence: New Zealand Forces in Tuscany 1944

In 1944 the New Zealand forces, with the Maori battalion, liberated Tuscany. Click on the link to watch the trailer of the Italian documentary Kia Ora, based on the book To the Gateways of Florence: New Zealand Forces in Tuscany 1944 published by Libro International. 

   http://vimeo.com/92906673

To the Gateways of Florence: New Zealand Forces in Tuscany 1944 

ISBN: 978-1-877514-23-4   | RRP $44.99

276 pages (20 colour), 12 contributors, 200 images

Click here to see this and other books by Libro International

To the Gateways of Florence New Zealand Forces in Tuscany, 1944

M E D I A    R E L E A S E

24 August 2011

To the Gateways of Florence

New Zealand Forces in Tuscany, 1944

Edited by Stefano Fusi

For 50 years after the end of the Second World War, most people in the Chianti region between Florence and Siena did not know that New Zealand forces had been the ones to liberate them from Nazi German occupation in the summer of 1944.

It took research by Stefano Fusi, then mayor of Tavarnelle (near Florence), and his New Zealand wife Jill Gabriel, to affirm that the liberators had been not Americans but soldiers of the 2^nd New Zealand Division, many of whom never made it home.

Now those sacrifices, and the bonds they forged between New Zealand and Italy, are being celebrated in a new book – To the Gateways of Florence: New Zealand Forces in Tuscany 1944.

Launched at functions in Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland over the next fortnight, To the Gateways of Florence remembers the men of the 28^th Maori Battalion and 21^st Infantry Divisions who showed immense tenacity in battle, and compassion to the Italian people that is warmly remembered to this day.

A delegation composed of Stefano Fusi  (now a Florence Provincial councillor), Jill Gabriel, Sestilio Dirindelli (current mayor of Tavarnelle) and his wife Gianna has come to New Zealand in order to launch the book.

“Sharing our history has helped forge a deep friendship with the New Zealand people who live so far away from Tuscany and from the Chianti area, but to whom, for obvious reasons, we feel so close,” says Fusi.

“Our friendship has strengthened over time and has also been sealed by the decision made by the municipalities of Tavarnelle Val di Pesa and Scandicci to erect two monuments to the fallen New Zealanders.”

Translated from a 2009 Italian book, To the Gateways of Florence enables New Zealanders to read Italian historians analysing New Zealand’s pivotal role in Tuscany, alongside contributions from three of our own leading military historians – Christopher Pugsley, Monty Soutar and Jeffrey Plowman

The testimonies, diaries and letters of the New Zealand soldiers are matched by moving testimonies from the Italian civilians who lived through the battles that decided the war.

One contributor, Franca Ferrantini, recalls singing for New Zealand soldiers at Florence’s Hotel Baglioni: “I send dear thoughts to all those boys from way back then on the other side of the world.”

Publishers Peter Dowling and Alessandra Zecchini committed to translating the work after attending commemorations in the Chianti region on Anzac Day (also Italy’s Liberation Day) in 2010.

“We were overwhelmed by the warm welcome and the efforts that had gone to honouring the New Zealand soldiers,” Dowling recalls.

Zecchini, whose late father fought for the partisans in the mountains to the north of Tuscany, says that the book embodies the close bonds that sprang up between Italians and Kiwis in the course of the Second World War.

A rich selection of photographs and memorabilia from archives in New Zealand and Italy illustrates the work.

To the Gateways of Florence will be launched at the following events:

·      Wellington, 26 August: Te Papa Store

·      Christchurch, 1 September: University Bookshop Canterbury,

·      Auckland, 8 September: Council Chamber, Auckland Town Hall

Release Date:  26 August 2011  | ISBN: 978-1-877514-23-4   | RRP $44.99

276 pages (20 colour), 12 contributors, 200 images

Stefano Fusi is in New Zealand until 10 September.

For an interview, images, launch details or a review copy, contact:

Isabell Zitzelsberger 09 814 8993

Peter Dowling  027 614 8993

Libro International, a division of Oratia Media

www.librointernational.com   |    www.oratiamedia.com