By Roger Childs

… in recognition of the significant contribution you have made in writing and recording the history of the Kapiti Coast District. –Citation for the special award to Chris Maclean from Mayor Jenny Rowan in 2012

Many readers, especially Kapiti folks, will be familiar with Chris’s excellent books on Kapiti and New Zealand history, biography, tramping, landscapes and the wider environment. Having covered a range of topics he finally decided in the mid-2010s to write about himself, and the book is sub-titled A Memoir of Writing and Publishing in New Zealand. It does actually go beyond this as Chris Maclean had an earlier career as a talented stained-glass window designer. 

At school he enjoyed writing and was told he had a way with words. This encouraged him, supported by his erudite mother Joan, to start on his first book, appropriately about home turf: ‘Waikanae Past and Present’. He published this himself using his mother’s maiden name in his publishing company – Whitcombe Press.

After an extensive section on his stained-glass work, the following chapters feature his various books – Waikanae, The Sorrow and The Pride, Tararua, Kapiti, John Pascoe, through to Tramping: A New Zealand History.

Tremendous efforts helped by many

Chris Maclean is warm in his praise of those who assisted him – family, friends, publishers, editors, layout experts, booksellers and fellow writers and researchers. A number of his books were co-authored – after his mother worked with him on Waikanae, Jock Phillips collaborated with the war memorials book and later Shaun Barnett co-wrote the tramping history with him. 

All his books have been very thoroughly researched and superbly illustrated. Many involved travelling round the country, interviewing key people and in the case of the environment books, getting into the New Zealand hills and mountains. As part of his preparation for writing Kapiti, Chris explored along all the tracks that were used to eliminate possums and paddled around the entire island.

Some of his works required rewrites and revised layouts because Chris Maclean is a perfectionist. He consulted widely and used a wide range of primary and secondary sources. Not surprisingly his books were welcomed by booksellers and earned appreciative and positive reviews.

Warts and all

A Way with Words is a very truthful autobiography and the readers get all the highs and lows of Chris’s life and work. There is the disappointment of a pink blotch on the first double page spread in the first printing of Tararua and the tragedy of not being able to publish the biography of talented Kiwi artist John Bevan Ford because his first wife objected to some of the later content. (Ford was well known overseas and earned a half-page obituary in The Guardian.)

But we also get the fulsome praise of so many who had contact with him, and the warm appreciation and support from book sellers and fellow writers.

It is fluently written, superbly illustrated and leaves no rock unturned. He gives his views on many issues of the day from 1080 poison to coastal hazards. 

This is a book which will interest the serious reader about a man who has not only been an outstanding writer and publisher, but also a compassionate family man and friend, stained-glass artist, tramper, kayaker and mountain biker. He worked so very hard to achieve his many goals.