Kiwi Roots: The Making of a New Zealander

KIWI ROOTS is the story of a young Kiwi boy growing up in rugby-mad New Zealand at a time of increasing racial tensions and during the abrasive political climate of the turbulent Muldoon years of the 70s and early 80s when New Zealanders were split right down the middle.

Young John is a trusting and somewhat gullible child who is frequently led astray by his older and trouble-prone brother. But he survives school and heads to university, and then overseas to see how other people live.

Along the way he is booed by a rugby crowd when he fills in for an injured former All Black and Canterbury legend; is held up at knifepoint, and spends a night in a brothel without knowing it; and shares an incident with Prime Minister Muldoon himself that could, with a different outcome, have changed the course of New Zealand political history.

"John Mullinder has a Forrest Gump-like ability to get himself into interesting places at just the right time. A rollicking account of growing up in New Zealand (and some overseas adventures) in the 60s and 70s." (Richard Harman, Broadcasting Executive and former Television New Zealand Reporter).

"This is a lively and entertaining memoir full of amusing anecdotes and light-hearted moments, all told with an appealingly consistent sense of humour." (David Haviland, Publisher, Author of How to Remove a Brain).