Prize for bringing moa back to life

Quinn Berentson has won $2500 for resurrecting the moa – in his award-winning book, Moa: The life and death of New Zealand’s legendary bird. It is among three winners of the New Zealand Society of Authors’ Best First Book Awards, and was described by chief judge John Campbell as “a really great historical biography, in which almost everyone (including the bird itself) is varying degrees of mad”.

Share

Chicago: 10 Things to Do in 24 Hours — Introduction

History’s most famous suicide happened more than 2,000 years ago: rather than surrender to the Romans who had captured her Egypt, the lovelorn Queen Cleopatra succumbed to the venomous bite of an asp. Ancient historians chronicled the act, Shakespeare dramatized it, and HBO even added its own to spin to the tragedy with the lavish TV series “Rome.” Yet while we may know how Cleopatra died of snake poison, after her consort Mark Antony fell on his sword, archaeologists have yet to pin down where the legendary couple was laid to rest.

Share