Acknowledgements

This book has its origin story in a second-hand bookshop. The cover of Dianne Bardsley’s The Land Girls: In a Man’s World, 1939–1946 (University of Otago Press, 2000) – a muscular, tanned woman shearing a sheep – leapt out at me and planted the double-meaning story title in my head. Bardsley’s patient research on this part of forgotten New Zealand women’s history was an indispensable resource, and helped me formulate the characters.

Thanks to Fiona in the Tūranga archives for helping me research homosexual law reform. To books on the women’s military auxiliaries and war work force by Bee Dawson (Spreading Their Wings: New Zealand WAAF in Wartime, Penguin, 2004), Bathia MacKenzie (The WAAF Book, Whitcoulls Publishers, 1982), and Deborah Montgomerie (The Women’s War: New Zealand Women 1939–1945, Auckland University Press, 2001). And to the National Library online photograph collections which helped with images of the uniform and land girls at work.

Thanks to my family who supplied memories of the Dunedin to Palmerston train services and North Otago during wartime, to my great uncle’s wartime letters, and my grandfather’s war service in the Middle East.

This book wouldn’t have happened without the enthusiasm of editor and publisher Marie Hodgkinson. Thanks to Laya Rose for the beautiful cover art. Kia ora Cassie Hart for the sensitivity read.

Thanks to my critique group CLAM who helped with my original drafts, to beta reader Andi C. Buchanan, and the rest of the Crustaceans for your support.

I wouldn’t be the author I am today without my Clarion classmates and tutors. It’s an honour to have you as colleagues and friends. Special thanks to Ann VanderMeer for her advice and unwavering support.

And love and thanks to C for always being there.