The Runaway Settlers is one of the all-time classic children’s books in New Zealand literature, based on the true story of an Australian family who ran away to New Zealand and became pioneers. They had to go – it was the only thing to do with a father as drunken and brutal as theirs – so Mrs Small and the six children left their farm, changed their name to Phipps and sailed away.

It was impossible to keep all the children happy on the farm where the two elder boys were working – to pay back the money for their fares – but at last they found an old cob cottage, ‘one room and a chimney’, which they could have. And there, the first morning, Jack woke with a joyful thought: ‘Father will never find us here.’

The family’s adventures with bushfires and wild pigs, the gold rushes, and Mrs Phipps’s daring journey through the Southern Alps with a herd of cattle for sale, make this a story that will long be remembered.

Winner, Gaelyn Gordon Award for much-loved book. NZ Children’s Book Foundation.