New Zealand's London : A Colony and its Metropolis

London, centre of the British Empire and the world’s greatest city, was also New Zealand’s metropolis for most of that country’s history; a main centre lying some 12,000 miles away from New Zealand’s geographical borders. Antipodean soldiers and writers, meat carcasses and moa, British films and Kiwi tourists – over the last 150 years, all of these people, things and ideas have gone back and forth from New Zealand to London to help define, and redefine, the relationship between that country and its colonial centre. In New Zealand’s London, which draws on an award-winning PhD thesis, Felicity Barnes explores ‘a colony and its metropolis’, from Wakefield to The Wombles.

By focusing on particular themes – from agricultural marketing to expatriate writers – Barnes develops a larger story about colonial and national identity.