Hard by the Cloud House
Description
Uncover the captivating legend of the extinct giant eagle of New Zealand, a blend of history, memoir, science, and mythology.
Peter Walker journeys from a Canterbury sheep run to the British Library's Rare Books Room and Polynesia's 'sacred' Raiatea, revealing the story of the predator that once dominated the Southern Alps. Was this bird, confirmed by scientists only in 2009, the Rukh of Arab legends? Did medieval Islamic mariners venture into the Pacific, encounter the great raptor, and return home with tales of its existence?
From the calamitous clash of South Island Māori with colonisation to the glories of tenth-century Baghdad, Hard by the Cloud House weaves a heady mix of history, memoir, science, and mythology. Perfect for readers interested in New Zealand history, Māori legends, and the intersection of myth and scientific discovery.
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Peter Walker grew up in Christchurch and began his writing career as a journalist in Wellington and then Sydney. He moved to London in 1986 and joined The Independent and later the Independent on Sunday where he was Foreign Editor. He also wrote for the Literary Review, the Financial Times books pages and Granta. He is the author of the historical memoir The Fox Boy (Bloomsbury, 2001), set in Taranaki, and his first novel The Courier's Tale (Bloomsbury, 2010), set in Italy and the court of Henry VIII. In 2011 he was a Randell Cottage fellow in Wellington and began another novel, Some Here Among Us (Bloomsbury, 2015). He now lives on an orange orchard near Ninety Mile Beach in the Far North.