One of Ben's

It was old Ben Shadbolt, who burgled a Hertfordshire drapery in 1845, who started it. By way of a terrible prison term in Australia he rose to be a pillar of the community and racehorse breeder, dedicated churchman and squire of the New Zealand settlement of Duvauchelle by 1860 - not to mention fathering fifteen children, in addition to the legitimate ones back in England. The Shadbolts consistently demonstrated a propensity for copious and single-minded action, dabbling in litigation and left-wing politics. After a lively but somewhat luckless career as a journalist and film-maker at home, the author travelled in China and the Soviet states during the Cold War. In Spain and London his first book was written and published. Maurice Shadbolt is the author of "The Maori Wars Trilogy", and was awarded the CBE for services to literature in 1989.