The unknown story of a young Maori boy captured during the New Zealand wars - a crucial link to that enigmatic country's secret history.
There had been a history of mutual kidnapping between the Maori and the English people in New Zealand dating back to the 1760s. In 1869, after an English defeat in battle in the Taranaki, forest, one more Maori boy, aged five, was captured. This little boy was to be adopted by the Prime Minister and educated to become a lawyer and an "English gentleman".
The small captive was photographed, just a few days after his kidnapping, in a studio in the town of Wanganui. He is wearing a fine English suit and boots, a vase of flowers and a weighty book on the ebony stand beside him. As Peter Walker comments, "Someone has combed the boy's hair and taught him to put one hand in his jacket pocket. And he looks as if he's seen a ghost."
It was Walker's question, "Well, I wonder what happened to you?" which set him off on this remarkable quest. Not only did he follow Ngataua Omahuru (or little "William Fox") out of the forest and into the drawing rooms of Wellington and London, but he found himself on a personal journey which converged unexpectedly with the material he uncovered. Walker learned that this Maori boy, about whom perhaps five lines had ever been published, played a crucial role in New Zealand's history. He also learned about Maori ghosts and some very eccentric English scoundrels.
This is bracing historical sleuthing that sweeps the reader along into a great curious adventure.
