Description

In 1961, a boy from Somerset embarked with his family on a six-week voyage to New Zealand. He left behind an English village where generations of his family had lived, to make a new home in a remote country that was still closely tied to the one he'd left.

Despite challenges adapting as new immigrants, these were good times to be growing up in rural New Zealand. But the country was about to embark on its own change as ties with Britain were loosening and a more outward-looking, confident and diverse nation was emerging. Peter Hamilton joined the diplomatic service as this change was getting underway and his four-decade career saw him leading diplomatic and free trade efforts with traditional and new partners at a time of unprecedented international change for his adopted country.

This book is a rare insider's account of how New Zealand conducts its diplomacy, forges alliances and makes the most of its position as a small South Pacific country on a global stage. It is also a personal story, told with refreshing honesty, of a new migrant who carves out his own path to becoming a Kiwi. And it ends with some observations for a more independent future for his adopted country.