The Place We Call Our Home

About the Book

If you were raised in the 1930s through ’50s and, like the author, have fond memories of those times, or if you have entertained thoughts of moving to a rural area to live, or you are just curious to know what it was really like in the “good old days,” much of the content of this book will strike a chord with you. The powerful descriptions of the countryside and the particular beauty with which nature has endowed our shores, Aotearoa, New Zealand, are indicative of the author’s empathy with the land. But that by no means sums up the collection. You may feel a tug of the heartstrings on reading poems in praise of friends and friendship. You may crack a smile at humorous vignettes of people and life that remind you of someone you know or knew. The poems touching on history throw an interesting light on aspects of New Zealand life in the early years of the twentieth century. And while you may not agree with the author’s mildly skeptical stance when commenting on a range of social and administrative issues, from planning to politics, glamour to grammar, at least you will fi nd it illuminating. He isn’t afraid to refl ect on diffi cult topics such as death and war either. That he can do so with some sense of direction is due to his training as a physician and a strong moral sense that is backed by his commitment to the Christian faith, which comes through clearly in several of his poems. The ethos of the poetry is, by and large, refreshingly positive in contrast to the melancholia that seems to inflict much modern writing. The author makes no apologies for basing the poems in New Zealand settings. But in order to assist the understanding of those who may not realize how far New Zealand English has migrated from English English, he has thoughtfully appended a glossary and notes. Just reading through the glossary is an interesting exercise in its own right.

About the Author

David Richmond is a retired medical practitioner and university professor. He has postgraduate qualifications in Medicine, Education and Theology. For most of his childhood he lived with his family in rural areas in the Waikato and Northland, New Zealand, his father being sole charge teacher of a series of small country schools. This may explain his deep empathy with rural New Zealand. The Place We Call Our Home is not David’s first foray into print. He has had over 120 scientific papers and book chapters published in international peer reviewed medical, educational and theological journals, and in 2013 was lead author of the book: In the Beginning: A history of the Medical Unit, Auckland Hospital and the first thirty years of the Department of Medicine in the University of Auckland. Because most of his previous writing has been of a scientific or educational nature, it has given David a lot of pleasure to develop this collection of his poetry to the point of publication.