Mid-Century Living

An extraordinary collection of mid-century and modern Kiwi objects and the stories behind them from the best-selling author of The Road to Castle Hill.

An incurable collector shares her astonishing collection of vintage New Zealand art, objects, and design, along with her classic 1960s seaside bach. For over 30 years, philanthropist and best-selling author Christine Fernyhough has built an extraordinary collection of over 4000 everyday objects of mid-century New Zealand craft, design, and folk art.

From furniture to toys and games, tableware to ornamental objects, Royal Family memorabilia to Kiwiana, Crown Lynn to hand-coloured scenic posters, these objects form a gloriously nostalgic, colourful, and tangible record of the way we lived and the things we surrounded ourselves with.

Christine has devoted her classic 1960s seaside bach, 'The Butterfly House', to housing her collection, transforming it into a beguiling mid-century fantasy that never fails to delight visitors. This beautiful book, Mid-Century Living, shares that collection for the first time, for all to enjoy.

Crisp, colour-drenched photographs by Studio La Gonda bring to life the bach and all its rooms, revealing individual objects in situ through rich close-ups, taking the reader into our quirky, crafty, and often 'make do' past.

Christine's intimate, lively, and deeply informative text tells the story of how it all came to be. She blends her own family stories with those of New Zealand's manufacturers and craftspeople, sharing her journey into collecting as well as her knowledge and passion, evoking nostalgia for the beach, the bach, and bygone summers.

This is a deeply immersive, generous book that celebrates twentieth-century life in Aotearoa New Zealand and provides an important record of our social and cultural history.