Journey to Tangiwai : the diary of Peter Cotterill, Napier, 1953 by David Hill

Journey to Tangiwai : the diary of Peter Cotterill, Napier, 1953 Reviews

• 
  Antony Silich

  ‘Journey to Tangiwai’ from the ‘My Story’ collection is a great insight into the post-war period of the early 1950s . The diary of Peter Cotterill explains to us in detail the struggles and blessings of living in New Zealand at the end of the Second World War. Where New Zealand still hasn’t got the predecessors of modern day technology that we take for granted today because in the worlds eyes, New Zealand was still that small speck in the middles of the vast Pacific Ocean . Only the very well off have motor vehicles , people still use ink wells to fuel pens and steam trains were still the most efficient way of crossing the fast growing country.
  
  As the title suggests , the terrible Tangiwai train disaster is where the story is travelling towards. With every passing month in the diary you travel closer to the tragic event , and you get a new hint at how the life of Peter Cotterill, and the Tangiwai disaster collide .
  
  I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys learning something new everyday . In this story you will learn about the struggles of 1953, and how over 150 lives came to a terrible end all those years ago. And it makes you ask yourself questions. What could the young men onboard the train to Auckland have done with the lives that were cut short? And will a disaster like this ever happen again in a modern world ?
• 
  Alysha Vaigalu

  I decided to read this book because I wanted to learn about the history of New Zealand and we were learning about this event in class. My favourite quote from this book was "I will have the quote in here by Thursday" Something new I learned from this book was about this certain time in history and the way people lived. This book gave me a sense of the setting and where these people lived. A character I liked in this book was Peter because he was so determined and such an intelligent young man. This book fills the category of "A book written by a New Zealander"
• 
  Kathleen Dixon

  David Hill does a fine job of giving us some solid historical background while he tells this story. For those of us who already know what happens at Tangiwai, there are no surprises, but this is a delightful cameo of life in small town New Zealand in the early 1950s.
  
  Peter, the 13-year-old diarist is thoroughly believable, and a nice boy. This is an excellent read.
• 
  Kat

  I really enjoyed it. I hope I can get my son to read it :)
• 
  Grace

  It's slow; very slice of life. His diary is mostly about school and some girl that irritates him (and yet he somehow can't stop writing about her) and his newspaper route and using his newly earned money on ice cream - it just so happens that more important events/themes of the day occasionally intrude on that mundane day to day as his mother considers getting a job, his ex-soldier uncle takes up the cause of pacifism, his friend's ex-soldier father runs off, and he ends up having to use his scout's first aide training for real.
• 
  Melissa Sowden

  Great book.
• 
  Connor Foster-Nesbit

  It was great reading about someones personal experience of the Tangiwai Disaster.
  I loved this novel.