A book by John MacGibbon which
traces the hopes, fears and fortunes
of early Scottish migrants to New Zealand's Deep
South.
"What is it
youre sayin, man? Are ye askin me to live amang savages
on the other side of the warld? Where was it ye said?"
ISBN: 0-9582243-3-1 NOW IN A THIRD PRINTING
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Going Abroad
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IN THE MIDDLE of last century,
"Going Abroad" could be the 'nice' way of saying you were emigrating from
Scotland. It's also the title of a book which takes a fresh look at the
Pilgrim Fathers of the 19th century – those determined men and and their
wives from the breakaway Free Church of Scotland who sailed to a new life in
the furthest outpost of the British Empire:
New Zealand. 258 pages, 136 illustrations, 99 photos, 10 maps, bibliography and full index. "It is a commonplace to say
that if we want to know where we are, then knowing where we have been is
crucial, but it is also a commonplace worth reasserting from time to time,
and this book reasserts it with considerable skill. If you want to know what
brought your ancestors here...this is the one...a fascinating and detailed
picture." Historian Tony Simpson, in New Zealand Books. "This is not a book I expected to interest me greatly - I'm Irish after all, not Scots, but I was wrong...full of interest, information and humour...great fun, great read, absolutely fascinating...I thoroughly recommend this book." (Brian Edwards, Top 'o the Morning programme, New Zealand National Radio.) |
An important aim was to recreate
the flavour of life in the mid 19th century Scottish lowlands, and the
emigration and colonial experience. But
Going Abroad also contains a great deal of carefully
researched detail. The first section, set in Glasgow, is written as
semi-fiction, while the balance of the book is historical journalism.
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