New Zealand-s London : A Colony and Its Metropolis

For most of New Zealand's history, its main centre has lain some 12,000 miles away from its geographical borders. London, centre of the empire and the world's greatest city, was also New Zealand's metropolis. 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 this 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 our colonial and national identity.

Featured in the 15 October 2012 New Zealand newsletter.
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