Shooting Folly as it Flies

Posted: Wednesday May 11, 2022

The Life and Lines of New Zealand’s First Political Cartoonist James Brown

Prolific Dunedin author Ian Dougherty’s latest book has just been published. 

Shooting Folly as it Flies: The Life and Lines of New Zealand’s First Political Cartoonist James Brown, includes a biography of the nineteenth century Dunedin artist and engraver, and reproduces and places in their historical context all of his surviving cartoons, many of which have not previously been published. 

They constitute what the book describes as ‘a rare visual record of and a remarkable and enduring commentary on the factional and fickle world of settler politics in Dunedin and Otago in the 1850s and 1860s, which would have been duplicated in settlements through New Zealand.’ 

This is Ian’s 29th book on New Zealand history, biography, culture and society, including several books on the history of Dunedin and Otago. 

Copies are available for $35 from bookshops, and directly from the publisher (post-free): 

Saddle Hill Press
PO Box 90
Dunedin 9054
Phone 027 2480714
Email: saddlehillpress@xtra.co.nz