Random House, Auckland, 2010

• Bee Dawson has written extensively on many aspects of gardening and horticulture but it is her two books on New Zealand horticultural history that make her such a deserving recipient of the Institute’s Award in Garden History…

  …This keen sense of social history is likewise seen in her more recent book, A History of Gardening in New Zealand (Godwit, 2010). Her history starts with the agriculture of the Māori and then follows the introduction of many plants by the first missionaries and settlers. She then describes the development of gardens during the colonial period. For the colonists, gardens reminded them of the homes they had left but gardens were also an economic necessity as they supplied fresh fruit and vegetables that were not otherwise available. This dichotomy between aesthetics and necessity has continued with the balance point changing according to economic conditions. Many of us will remember how in our childhood, it was usually the man who was responsible for the vegetables, the woman for the flowers. Gardening remains a hobby for many but there has recently been an increasing emphasis on the health and economic benefits of home-grown fruit and vegetables.

  A History of Gardening in New Zealand provides many hours of reading and the comprehensive list of literature will entice many of us to study further new aspects of our horticultural history. The drawings, paintings and photographs that are used as illustrations are particularly apt and finding such appropriate images must have taken months of searching.

  As a social historian, Bee Dawson may well prefer people to plants. However, all of us who have an interest in gardening (and books) will be glad that she writes about people and their plants. Our appreciation of her efforts is shown by our presenting her with the Institute’s 2011 Award in Garden History.

  2011 Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture Awards, Award in Garden History, 14 April 2011.

• ‘A History of Gardening in New Zealand is delightful – well-researched, well-written and magnificently illustrated, but also immensely readable and entertaining.’ Listener, May 22, 2010
• ‘Far from being a rarefied catalogue of botanical history, this book is a joy to read and will appeal to gardeners of all persuasions… worth every cent.’ Southland Times, 15 April 2010.
• ‘Even if you’re not into history, you’ll enjoy Bee Dawson’s new book. History buffs will sense that it’s a timely event. And gardeners with soul will lap it up. Gardening finds its place in the birth of this nation.’ NZ Gardener, April 2010.
• ‘Stuffed full of diary snippets, advertisements, photographs, paintings and other ephemera from archives and collections all over the country, and strung together with an easy informal writing style, this is a book that should have been done before but the magnitude of the project might have put off many less energetic writers.’ DomPost, May 2010.
• ‘This book is a gem not only for gardeners and those interested in social history, but for anyone who enjoys beautiful things.’ Sunday Star Times, May 23, 2010.

Also, reviews on stuff.co.nz and listener.co.nz.

A History of Gardening in New Zealand – book description

Random House, Auckland, 2008

• ‘If you are expecting a technical book about seaplanes or a treatise on the exploits of the RNZAF this probably isn’t quite the book for you. Rather, RNZAF Social Historian Bee Dawson has painted a multi-faceted picture of Hobsonville from its earliest days as a gum digging site, a pottery, and later a market garden through its slow pre-war growth as a seaplane station, its heyday as a wartime station and its eventual amalgamation with the RNZAF’s nearby Base at Whenuapai.

  Along the way Bee Dawson has again produced a detailed social profile of Hobsonville community and an important part of Auckland’s history. She interviewed many of its former personnel digging up fascinating anecdotes and personal observations (including mention of Scandal Alley) that give the book its colour…

  …Mrs Bee Dawson’s third book on Air Force history is a pleasure to read and an excellent contribution to the Air Force’s and Auckland’s social history – well-researched, readable, with plenty of historical photographs, maps and diagrams. Mrs Dawson has come up with a thoroughly professional and apt history.’

  Air Force News, April-May 2008.

• ‘…it’s a wonderful book. Packed full of details, photographs, facts and anecdotes, everyone is included, from commanding officers and their lady wives to gardeners and aircraftsmen.’ North and South, April 2008.
• ‘Thank heavens for the likes of social historian Bee Dawson, who isn’t letting more than a century and a half of history sink beneath yet another housing estate. Here she’s produced a chatty, unpretentious history of the base, recording voices and stories that might otherwise have been lost.’ Metro, April 2008.
• ‘The author is the social historian for the RNZAF and is well qualified to research, record and present the station’s story in an accurate, engaging, lively and easily absorbed style.’ Marlborough Express, 25 March 2008.

Hobsonville – book description

Penguin Books, Auckland, 2004

• ‘It’s a social as well as a military history, and a fascinating one too. Snappily written, well-researched and witty, it is also beautifully illustrated…’ Deborah Challinor in Waikato Times, 8 May 2004.
• ‘One of the things which immediately strikes the reader of these [books being reviewed] and other previous books of the ilk, is the emphasis they put on human experience… The question being asked is not; what was the war like or about? It is instead; what did it meant to be a New Zealander and at war?

  They cover a broad gamut: the Italian campaign from the point of view of those who saw it first hand; the western desert from the viewpoint of a highly specialised but highly successful railway construction and transport unit; a general oversight history as already noted; and accounts of the personal family experience and the experience of women in the WAAF at war.

  One of their paradoxes is that they are as much books about the New Zealand we have lost as they are about war in the strict sense. The New Zealand they describe is now as remote to those New Zealanders who had their first vote in 1984 as the craters on the nether side of the moon. That it is a society for whose passing we need not necessarily feel regret is dramatised for me by two anecdotes which stuck in my mind as I read…

  …I found the recounted experience of the WAAF June Gummer even more fascinating. June, very unusually for the time and place, had qualified as a pilot pre-war. She joined up shortly after the war commenced and eventually applied for a posting in Britain as a ferry pilot ie one of those who did not take part in aerial combat but who carried out the crucial task of flying aircraft to points of delivery, a highly skilled job which required familiarity with a wide range of planes. She was ultimately accepted and in the event performed with a high degree of merit. Bear in mind, however, that this was a time when skilled pilots were at an absolute premium, and that the Battle of Britain had almost been lost for lack of them. When June initiated her application she was told that she could come and try out if she paid her own fare to Britain. This, to me, is an extraordinary dramatisation of the way in which women were regarded as less than full citizens in New Zealand, a situation by no means improved by the war, notwithstanding the key roles many women played in the course to victory. Afterwards they were ignominiously bundled back to the kitchen for the sake of ensuring jobs for the “returned” men.’

  Tony Simpson in New Zealand Books Quarterly Review, 1 March 2004.

Spreading Their Wings – book description

Diabetes New Zealand, Wellington 2002

• ‘The style of writing, which is chatty and includes many anecdotes, allows the personalities of the interviewees to shine through… the style of the book may be of interest to those who are considering documenting the history of their own organisation’s activities in an approachable and readable way.’ The New Zealand Medical Journal, 16 May 2003.

Dedicated to Diabetes – book description