The Parrot Family

The Parrot Family is an early and previously unpublished story by Frank Sheldon Anthony, best know for his Gus and Me stories. Written around 1900, The Parrot Family shows the same dry humour and attention to local details that made the Gus and Me stories so popular. The story follows the adventures, or misadventures, of the Parrot family—particularly the two children James and William— in the Taranaki region around the turn of the century, as they find their own amusement in rural Taranaki. As well as being an entertaining story of childhood country life, The Parrot Family offers a unique look at life in rural New Zealand around 1900, written by someone who lived it. The book also contains a foreword by D B Hann, author, and university lecturer on western culture, describing the author’s life and writing.