Along for the Ride

Book excerpt: Tony Simpson's memoir as a unionist and public servant of New Zealand life and society from the 1970s through to the new millennium. One of New Zealand’s best known social historians, Tony is the author of many published books, including the award-winning Sugarbag Years. But through his working life he has also been a witness to and participant in major events shaping current New Zealand society: irritating Muldoon, watching Thatcher’s rise during his OE, seeing off the Lange government and its Rogernomics, and ultimately serving as senior advisor to Alliance and Progressive Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton. With dollops of wry wit, Along for the Ride offers us a politically committed kiwi insider’s probing insights into some of recent history’s most momentous changes, traversing employment in public broadcasting and customs, public service union work, and his life as a writer, an international foodie, and a gay man.