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Neville Peat has been a New Zealand writer for over 50 years, and during his working life has visited many of the islands within Aotearoa's marine realm, from the tropics to Antarctica. This book is about these islands, including Stewart Island/Rakiura, Anchor Island in Tamatea/Dusky Sound, Kapiti Island and Tiritiri Matangi in the Hauraki Gulf. Further afield, the book also covers Ross Island in Antarctica, Enderby Island in the subantarctic Auckland Islands, the Chatham Islands and the New Zealand dependency of Tokelau. Presented in the order he encountered them, Neville Peat explores how these places contribute to New Zealand's national character, and their geography, nature and human history. These stories, at times interconnected, are a narrative of place and belonging that reflect New Zealand's relatively young nation – diverse, characterful, innovative, resourceful. Part memoir, part adventure travel, history and nature conservation, Home Is an Island is a fascinating, insightful book from one of the nation's most prominent authors.
Neville Peat is a Dunedin writer, the author of some 40 books covering themes of geography, biography, history, nature and the environment. In 2007, he was awarded New Zealand's largest literary prize, the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship, for a book about the Tasman Sea. Besides the books, Peat has written a number of nature conservation publications for the Department of Conservation. They include the nomination of the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Area in 1998, and the public discussion document for the creation of Rakiura National Park, Stewart Island, in 2002. For 20 years he has worked as a guest speaker on ship-based tours around mainland New Zealand and the outer islands. In the 2018 New Year Honours, he was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to conservation. He lives with his wife at Broad Bay on the Otago Peninsula.
