Bird in the Bush: From Fledgling to Flight

The story follows the diary of the author’s adolescent years from leaving school at 15, until she married 8 years later.

Acutely uncomfortable in large gatherings of teenagers, Marnie left the school environment to help her family on an isolated farm in the eastern Bay of Plenty (NZ). The solitude and wild, wide open spaces gave her room to mentally heal, acknowledge what was important to her, and accept herself just as she was, all the while helping with mustering sheep from steep hillsides, fleeco-ing for shearers, building stock fences, cutting scrub, rounding up cattle, and exploring the rugged terrain – sometimes from the back of a horse.

Because her memoir follows many rural escapades through rough and tough countryside, some paragraphs and chapters could be an almanack for – or a tribute to – crusty old pioneering farmers. Examples of physics or chemistry occasionally pop out of the text, while other pages could be a gentle Travelogue.
The reader is taken into the fury of fire, the ferocity of floods, and wandering with worrisome wild pigs.

The text is sprinkled with teenage angst and female emotion, while the last chapter slips into a Mills and Boon genre, culminating with the greatest possible leap of faith.

The story is told with authenticity and honesty, humour and delight, interspersed with historical aspects and anecdotes.

Format: Hardback
Pages: 312
Imprint: Small New Zealand Publisher
Publication date: 10/11/2024