Brian Turner was appointed New Zealand's fourth Te Mata Estate Poet Laureate in March 2003: The laureateship has a term of 2 years with twin aims of honouring the work of New Zealnd's foremost poets and raising the profile of poetry in the community. Brian has published eight other collections of poetry: his first in 1978 - Ladders of Rain was joint winner of the Commonwealth Poetry prize. Beyond won the 1993 NZ Book Award for Poetry. He was awarded a Scholarship in Letters in 1994. His sporting interests (he represented NZ in hockey in 1960s) have led to publications on cricket (with brother Glenn) and rugby (biographies of Josh Kronfeld, Colin Meads and Anton Oliver), also books on fishing, mountaineering and the High Country (such as The Timeless Land). Elegant, cased, numbered edition of 2000