New Zealand Belshaws - and an apology in advance

It is not often that I become completely dissatisfied with one of my own stories, but that is the case with the story on the New Zealand Belshaws.

The Belshaws are an interesting case study because of the transition from working class England to an international academic family spread across four countries via New Zealand. It is interesting also because of its Pacific focus, because of the way themes repeat themselves and because of what it says about the success of early New Zealand with its tiny population in generating a rather remarkable (not just the Belshaws) group of thinkers and academics.

New Zealand history is largely ignored in Australia. Yet it is a very interesting story, far more interesting perhaps than even New Zealander's realise.

Given all this, I do not think that the Belshaw story gets the message across. It is just too hard to read. Now, and this is the reason for my apology, I am going to break it up and run it again as a number of stories, recognising that this will mean repeats for some of you.