Blood and Dirt

I waited so impatiently for Blood and Dirt to be published!

It’s a compelling history that reveals how prisoners were forced to labour over many years to build colonial New Zealand ‘one cartload of stone at a time’. Evocatively illustrated, this book profoundly alters readers’ perceptions of the picturesque New Zealand landscape by vividly recasting it through imprisoned eyes.

Whether journeying through a built urban landscape or the nation’s large forest plantations, Davidson reveals how prison labour was instrumental in shaping the built and natural environments of the modern nation.

He explores schemes that were put into practice as well… show more.