Nearly Out of Heart and Hope: The Puzzle of a Colonial Labourer's Diary

by Miles Fairburn

This original and thought-provoking book is based on the 800,000-word diary of James Cox, an itinerant laborer living in New Zealand between 1880 and 1925. Cox's diary is a rare record of the daily life of a permanent member of the colonial working class - nothing like it exists in a New Zealand archive and little elsewhere. Rather than reproducing selections of the somewhat down-to-earth diary entries, Fairburn uses it more interestingly, taking the life of this obscure and unimportant man to explore in novel and ambitious ways some issues in writing and understanding nineteenth-century New Zealand history, colonial societies and working-class experience.

275 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

history book about James Cox, a 19th century new zealand colonial labourer who was of little significance but for two things: his meticulously kept diary which the book uses to explore his world and experiences, and the fact that he was the childhood friend of Richard Jefferies, and turns out to have been the model for the character of Mark in Bevis. it's pretty interesting although i felt that the puzzle referred to in the title, why Cox held to an ideology of self improvement even when this utterly failed to get him anywhere in life over a sustained period, wasn't actually very puzzling.

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so glad I am not an itinerant colonial labourer! This book is a study of the hard and poverty-stricken life in New Zealand of labourer James Cox between his arrival in 1880 and his death 1925. There is much that is fascinating - a window into another world - the only weaknesses are a certain repetition in parts, and style that at times seems awkwardly poised between academia and general history.