Squid as long as buses and fish with fangs haul in book prize

Published by the Communications and Development Department

 

27 July 2004

 

Canterbury University Press is celebrating after one of its publications won the environment category at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards last night.

Deep New Zealand: Blue water, black abyss by Peter Batson, examines the full spectrum of oceanic life, from microscopic plankton to the great whales, and also devotes chapters to marine geology, ecology and exploitation.

Some of the creatures which feature in the book are so alien in appearance that they might have been spawned in the mind of a science fiction writer.

 

The book is engagingly written and beautifully illustrated. Kim Westerskov was the book’s principal photographer.

Canterbury University Press director, Jeff Field, who was at the awards function in Auckland, says CUP is absolutely delighted with the award and to see scientific publishing acknowledged.

 

“It is a book that is a very good fit for Canterbury University Press. We have a strong niche in natural history and scientific publishing.

 

“The book is based on excellent scholarship by a young postgraduate student, it is well written by a first-time author, brilliantly illustrated by Kim Westerskov and has a beautiful book design by Richard King.”

 

Canterbury alumna Annamarie Jagose won the Deutz Medal for Fiction for Slow Water, an historical novel based on a true story. Dr Jagose has a BA (competed in 1985) and MA (conferred in 1988) from the University of Canterbury.

 

Dr Deidre Brown, a former senior lecturer in the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts, won the E H McCormick Best First Book of Non Fiction for her book Tai Tokerau Whakairo Rakau: Northland Maori Wood Carving. She wrote the book while at Canterbury University.

For further information please contact:

John MacDonald
Communications Manager
University of Canterbury

Tel: +64-3-364 2910
Fax: +64-3-364 2679
Mob: +64-27-441 7280
john.macdonald@canterbury.ac.nz