When Polly Evans read a survey claiming that the last bastion of masculinity, the real Kiwi bloke, was about to breathe his last, she was seized by a sense of foreboding. Abandoning the London winter she took off on a motorbike for the windswept beaches and golden plains of New Zealand, hoping to root out some examples of this endangered species for posterity. But her challenges didn't stop at the men. Just weeks after passing her test, Polly rode from Auckland's glitzy Viaduct Basin to the vineyards of Hawkes Bay and on to the Southern Alps. She found wild kiwis in the dead of night, kayaked among dolphins at dawn, and spent an evening on a remote hillside with a sheep-shearing gang. As she travelled, Polly reflected on the Maori warriors who carved their enemies' bones into cutlery, the pioneer family who lived in a tree, and the flamboyant gold miners who lit their pipes with five-pound notes, and wondered how their descendents have become pathologically obsessed with helpfulness and Coronation Street. The author of the highly acclaimed It's Not About the Tapas reaches some unexpected conclusions about the new New Zealand man - and finds that evolution has taken some unlikely twists.

Polly Evans

HGG surprise for someone.
Happy Holidays!

Sobergirl! What an amazing holiday surprise! I got it today here in Jerusalem along with another book and some wonderful Finnish chocolate...you are the best! Thank you so so so so so so much!!!!!!!!!

After almost 10 (!) years of toting this book with me from Israel to Maryland to Texas to (3 different residences in) Wisconsin, I decided to dust it off the shelf. I brought it with me on a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, where I started it, and finished it at home last week. It was interesting, not my favorite Polly Evans of the 3 or so I've read; usually they're pretty quotable and funny but this one was a little tough to get through.

This area has a ton of Free Little Libraries so it's going in one of them to see the world!

Put in Little Free Library #8443 (Corner of Franklin Avenue and Park Street) in Middleton, WI.