Ettie Rout fought a battle for safer sex in the First World War — and won. She gave New Zealand the best sexual health system when its army adopted her prophylactic kit and made every soldier going on leave take one — while she was banned from the pages of the newspapers so New Zealanders wouldn't find out. In Paris, having transformed Madame Yvonne's into a safer sex brothel, she met soldiers at the railway station and convinced them to go there if they chose to have sex. Armed with a wicked sense of humour, an intolerance of hypocrisy and boundless energy, Ettie Rout proved the case for safer sex decades before the term was coined — and the soldiers loved her for it. This book celebrates an unlikely heroine of the First World War who is now internationally recognised for waging a successful public health crusade. A woman way ahead of her time. Also available as an eBook

In the early 20th century Cairo was a vibrant and booming global metropolis. The integration of Egypt into the global market had led to rapid urban growth and increased migration. As occupational prospects for women outside the family were limited, sex work became a prominent feature of the new modern city. However, the economic and social changes in Egypt ignited national anxieties about racial degeneration, social disorder and imperial decadence. Francesca Biancani argues here that this was a period of national crisis that became inscribed on the bodies on female sex workers. Based on a wide range of rare primary sources, including documents from court cases, reformist papers, police minutes and letters, Biancani examines the discourses around sex workers and shows how prostitution was understood in colonial Egypt. The book argues that from initially regulating and managing prostitution, local and colonial elites began to depict sex workers as a threat to the physical and moral welfare of the rising Egyptian nation. However, far from being a marginal activity, prostitution is shown to play a central role in the history of Egyptian nation-making. By exploring the interdependence of power and marginality, respectability and transgression, Biancani writes sex work and its practitioners back into the history of modern Egypt. The book is an original contribution to the global history of prostitution and a vital resource for scholars of Middle East Studies.

Evocative, wry and thought-provoking, this is a rewarding journey with one of our finest writers. It is a little over a decade since Fiona Kidman wrote her last volume of memoir. But her story did not end on its last page; instead her life since has been busier than ever, filled with significant changes, new writing and fascinating journeys. From being a grandmother to becoming a widow, from the suitcase-existence of book festivals to researching the lives and deaths of Jean Batten and Albert Black, she has found herself in new territory and viewed the familiar with fresh eyes. She takes us to Paris and Pike River, to Banff, Belfast and Bangkok, searching for houses in Hanoi and Hawera, reliving her past in Waipu and creating new memories in Otago. These locations and experiences – among others – have shaped Fiona’s recent years, and in this lively book she shares the insights she has picked up along the way.

In the first major national history of Aotearoa New Zealand to be published for 20 years, Professor Michael Belgrave advances the notion that New Zealand's two peoples — tangata whenua and subsequent migrants — have together built an open, liberal society based on a series of social contracts. Frayed though they may sometimes be, these contracts have created a country that is distinct. This engaging new look at our history examines how.

"She was the 'guardian angel of the Anzacs', accordiong to a French veneriologist. To a bishop she wa sthe 'wickedest woman in Britain.' Soldiers described her as a saint. Their mothers regarded her as an 'agent of the devil.' Six decades before the term 'safe sex' was coined, Ettie Rout went to war to protect soldiers from venereal disease. In Paris she ran a complete social and sexual welfare service for the Amzac soldiers of World War One - collecting them on the station platform, guiding them to Madame Yvonne's brothel which she regularly inspected, looking after the sick and running a counselling service. Her prophylactic kit was adopted by both the New Zealand and Australian governments. But although all New Zealand soldiers going on leave were handfed a copy of her kit, her own couintry made her persona non grata. The French, on the other hand, awardedher the medal they struck for the English martyr Edith Cavell. ..."--Book flap.

For New Zealanders, the First World War was not just a grueling conflict but also the nation's biggest health challenge. Military personnel had to deal with horrific injuries caused by high velocity bullets, artillery fire and chemical weapons. Infectious diseases were a constant and grave threat. Health professionals prepared and supported the 100,000 New Zealand servicemen and servicewomen who served overseas, while those who stayed at home had to fill the gaps left by absent colleagues. In the midst of this, the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic hit both troops overseas and New Zealanders at home. For the first time, this book tells the collective story of how our troops were supported and cared for by dedicated teams of doctors, nurses, dentists, ambulance officers, orderlies and sanitation and hygiene workers, and the important role of veterinarians in caring for horses. It explores the coming of age of New Zealand health services and details such significant figures as Henry Pickerill and Harold Gillies, who rebuilt shattered faces and treated burn victims - in doing becoming the fathers of plastic surgery. Battlefield Medicine celebrates the way New Zealanders delivered the best of healthcare under the most difficult circumstances.