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  • Published: 29 February 2016
  • ISBN: 9780143573746
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $32.99

Wild Pork and Watercress




This rattling good yarn has now been made into a major movie: Hunt For the Wilderpeople, directed and written by Taika Waititi, and starring Sam Neill and Julian Dennison.

This rattling good yarn has now been made into a major movie: Hunt For the Wilderpeople, directed and written by Taika Waititi, and starring Sam Neill and Julian Dennison.

When Social Welfare threatens to put Ricky into care, the overweight Maori boy and cantankerous Uncle Hec flee into the remote and rugged Ureweras. The impassable bush serves up perilous adventures, forcing the pair of misfits to use all their skills to survive hunger, wild pigs and the vagaries of the weather. Worse still are the authorities, determined to bring Ricky and Uncle Hec to justice. But despite the difficulties of life on the run, a bond of trust and love blossoms between the world-weary man and his withdrawn side-kick.

  • Published: 29 February 2016
  • ISBN: 9780143573746
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $32.99

About the author

Barry Crump

The laconic Barry Crump, who died in 1996, began writing humorous sketches of life as a government deer-culler and pig hunter, publishing these as A Good Keen Man in 1960. By 1992 his New Zealand book sales were estimated at more than a million copies. As well as a bestselling author, Crump was an actor, television personality, poet, radio commentator, traveller, goldminer, photographer and more. Crump wrote 24 books in his lifetime, was married five times and had six children, all sons.

Praise for Wild Pork and Watercress

Wild Pork and Watercress was a novel that I couldn't put down. It was hilarious and being married to a hunter-gatherer, I could relate to nearly everything in the book. . . . I still preferred the book, and would encourage anyone who is interested in seeing the movie to read it first. It definitely will not disappoint.

Waiuku & Districts Post

With the addition of behind-the-scenes photos from the making of The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, this edition provides a great chance to hook the younger members of the family on reading, especially once they’ve seen and loved the film. It’s a memento they can use. And for those of us a wee bit older, the updated preface from Crump’s son Martin is an interesting read. What we know about Barry Crump today is a lot different to what we knew about him when he first started publishing; regardless of his shortcomings in other personal areas, his tales of the bush and the men he encountered there are part of NZ’s literary history, and Wild Pork and Watercress is a must have in every New Zealander’s library.

Sarah McMullan, Booksellers News

Wild Pork and Watercress is a humorous tale that discloses a universal truth: When challenged, we discover who we truly are to ourselves as well as to others. But it is not just a novel about outsiders, or even New Zealand as a nation of outsiders, but it is dedicated to a wondrous place where adventures are bound to happen.

Hanna Komornitzyk, Berlin's NPR News Station

'nicely crafted . . .' — Mervyn Cull, NZ Herald

PRH, PRH

'a rattling good yarn . . . an almost unbelievable tale made believable by its raw earthiness as Crump displays his bush lore . . .' — Garth Gilmour, Sunday Star

PRH, PRH

'a good simple yarn' — Linda Sanders, Dominion

PRH, PRH