Jim Hopkins and Julie Riley — Blokes and Sheds

HarperCollins New Zealand 1998 Paperback, 128pp. What could be more essentially Kiwi than a blokes shed? A good shed provides a safe haven where a bloke can be himself and do the things that he really wants to do. It's a stress-free, woman-free zone, where the normal rules of housekeeping don't apply. And it's a place for storing all those things that might just come in handy one day. In this superb book, Jim Hopkins peers into the sheds of blokes the length and breadth of New Zealand. He uncovers all sorts of stories, touching, funny and serious, stories of secret and not so secret lives played out in sometimes unlikely settings. Some sheds are for work, others are for play; some are for solitude, others are for socialising. But whether he uses his shed to make dreams or juggernauts, each is special to the bloke who owns it. With Julie Riley's stunning photographs, this is a unique portrait of life in New Zealand's masculine heartland. Beginning to fox inside covers. (ISBN: 9781869502782). Good.