Book Review
“A Bushman’s Book of Yarns” by Sam Gibson, published by Allen and Unwin, price $45. Reviewed by Tony Orman
Sam Gibson really made a great book writing debut with “Sam the Trap Man”, which in a sense set a very high standard to follow. Consequently it’s not surprising – talking to myself – that his recently published second book “A Bushman’s Book of Yarns” just quite doesn’t compare.
This is not to suggest don’t buy a copy. If you enjoyed his first, then go and buy this one because it has some fine aspects to it and there’s some very good chapters and an invaluable guide to edible native plants and trees.
But there’s one aspect that won’t quite click with readers. There may be frustration for some with the use of solely Maori names in the text. To explain in the text, for example, the word “toutouwai” pops up.
To learn what that is, it’s necessary to turn to a glossary at the rear where it turns out it’s the bush robin. How much better it would’ve been to put in the text in brackets immediately after “toutouwai’ the two words “bush robin”?
So for the reader, that’s likely to happen on a good number of occasions and it somewhat irksomely interrupts the flow of reading. Another small grizzle – an index would have helped immensely
Those cavils aside, Sam Gibson writes fluently and with passion from the heart especially when he’s teaching his youngsters how to catch a trout or stalk a deer. There’s tales of hunting big stags down south at Haast and Hawea and of course in the author’s home haunt of the Urewera.
The author has a love of the mountains and its bush and he revels in just “being there”. In hunting there’s mentions of excessive deer numbers – as in one excercpt “the bush has been devastated” and thus the need to harvest deer.
It’s an interesting subject one that is slanted by a current exaggerated vogue of calling deer “pests”. I prefer to call deer or possums “a resource” to be harvested. Besides the tree and shrub species are well adapted to browsing over 50 million years by moa. What did the forest look like in moa times?
Yes it’s necessary to be realistic and keep deer significantly below the carrying capacity of habitat – but don’t go overboard on it.
Sam Gibson is an ardent conservationist and that’s obvious from his latest book and as a Dad he loves getting his kids outdoors. Liberal use of some very good photos enhance the book.
The publishers have done a great job in presentation.
Go buy a copy and enjoy it. Highly recommended.
I enjoyed Sam Gibson’s first book and I’ll look forward to reading this one.
I like the way he helps young hunters.
Interesting comments in the review about the current “deer pest hysteria.” I just watched TV 3 news tonight and was told by Federated Farmers NZ deer are over-running farms. Highly sensationalising I say.
Well isn’t the solution in farmers’ hands? Let responsible recreational hunters in and harvest them. And Mr Farmer stick some venison back steaks in your deep freeze. It’s top quality organic meat. You will enjoy it. Stop grizzling
Absolutely, one of the sentences he mentions about deer devastating or forest is ridiculous, they said the same thing about the possum, if anyone watch’s New Zealand hunting videos which clearly demonstrates that this remark is not true, it’s a must kill of everything, as JT mentioned, if it’s a problem for farmers, then go to your local sports store or hunting clubs and offer access to respected and responsible hunters to resolve there deer problem, I believe theres a few farmers in the Hawks bay doing just that and sharing the food around, works for every body.
Bit of a struggle to get into it for a start