Forty yarns and a song / Barry Crump.

"The second in a trilogy"

Autobiographical.

For those that know New Zealand, you have probably heard of Barry Crump. He is the eponymous bushman of this country, and luckily an author who recorded it for posterity in both fiction and non-fiction. His first book, a good keen man, written about Deer cullers and published in the 1960's was an instant best seller and hasn't been out of print since then.

In this book, Crump talks about a lot of his experiences over the years and you can see how the stories he wrote were shaped. These include his time shooting Salt-water crocodiles in Australia, how he got his first book published, and shooting an elephant in the main street of Wellington.

Humour is never far away from any of them, but they don't rely solely on humour. Crump's writing is deep and well crafted. He has the ability to draw the audience into his world and manipulate the emotions, and to alter the perspective of the story to allow other sides to be seen and understood.