Strangerland A Family at War Author:Helena Drysdale In 1834, Isabella Campbell left England for India, and within two weeks of joining her brother had married his best friend, a dashing cavalry officer named Charles Gascoyne. Twenty years and nine children later, Charles decreed the family should leave India for a nascent British colony on the other side of the world: New Zealand. He went ahead w... more »ith the children and their governess; Isabella, who was unwell, returned to England. On landing in New Zealand a year later, she found herself ousted by the governess, and rejected by her children and her once-beloved husband. While battle clouds massed over the Gascoyne family, so New Zealand disintegrated into war between British settlers and the Maori. Bloodshed came close when Isabella's son Fred was embroiled in a massacre by a notorious Maori warrior-prophet. When the Gascoynes were joined by their nephew Bamber, more terror lay in store. One hundred fifty on, Helena Drysdale has woven together the facts and fabric of her cousins' lives to create an engrossing, intimate map of one family's journey, vividly illuminating the story of their times.« less