Christmas gift ideas Books

PNG By Phil Gregory (Lynx Edicions)

This is the first field guide to cover the entire New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipelago and Bougainville. All of the 943 bird species known to occur throughout PNG are covered, including doves, kingfishers, parrots, honeyeaters and birds of paradise. The book has some 1780 illustrations. The author has over 25 years experience in the region and lived in PNG for seven years.

By Peter Phelps (Hachette)

Too old to fight and with jobs scarce at home, Australian Tom Phelps finds work as a carpenter in the goldfields of the New Guinea Highlands in 1942. No one expects the Japanese to attack in the Pacific. But when they do, Phelps and his mates aren’t going to hang around and wait to be killed. With escape routes bombed by the Japanese, their only option is to try to reach safety by foot, through some of the most rugged terrain on Earth – the Bulldog Track.

By David Attenborough (Hachette)

In the 1950s, a young David Attenborough roamed from Madagascar and New Guinea to the Pacific Islands. He and his cameraman companion were aiming to record not just the wildlife, but the way of life of some of the indigenous people of these regions. From the sing-sings of New Guinea, to a Royal Kava ceremony on Tonga, Attenborough records not only culture but remarkable encounters with wildlife.

By Robert Forster (Self-published, rforster.com)

kiap

country as a kiap was in the 1960s and 70s. The history of kiaps working in PNG up to the end of the 1950s has been well covered, but Forster writes about the issues faced by village people and their civil service during the less-well documented approach to independence in 1975.

Compiled by Gayle Thwaites (PNGAA)

This book has been published by the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia (pngaa.org) and recounts the experiences of civilians and soldiers living in Rabaul, Kavieng and the New Guinea islands at the outbreak of World War 2, as well as the sinking of SS Montevideo Maru.

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