Duncan Perkinson

When "Kiwis Fly: A Sports Tour of Great Britain" is the first book to shine a spotlight on 140 leading sports venues and profile the New Zealanders who have succeeded there. Stadia across the UK are temples for sports fans. Places where crowds gather to worship at the feet of the gods on the pitch, track or course. New Zealand sports fans travel across the globe to visit venues such as Wimbledon and Wembley, Aintree and Anfield, Silverstone and St Andrews. The fans want to know more about the venues, more about the history and more about the stories. It tells the stories of dreams, hopes, disappointment and redemption. It is the story of New Zealand growing up as a nation in the sporting venues of Britain. Sporting stadia are intrinsically linked to the culture, fabric and history of the UK. Golfers have been playing at St Andrews for over 500 years - 300 years before New Zealand made it onto the map! From the whispering to the ear-splitting, the rickety to the state-of-the-art, every venue has its own eccentricities, charms and quirks. The United Kingdom is currently in the middle of a golden decade for sport. The Olympics, The Rugby League World Cup and the Commonwealth Games are just three of the major events happening between 2012 and 2014. The value of sports tourism is significant and now contributes over GBP 2 billion to the British economy every year. Nearly 2 million people watched sport when they visited the UK in 2010. When "Kiwis Fly" covers traditional sporting venues such as Lord's, Old Trafford and Wimbledon and some venues which many readers will not recognise - Pedestrianism at the Royal Agricultural Hall in the 1880s, Stone Skimming in Scotland and the west London concert venue where the Kray brothers boxed. About the Author In Duncan's lifetime, he's imagined beating all of the greats. Canterbury degree in hand, Duncan became a copywriter by day while watching sport from Britain by night. The FA Cup, Test matches, and Wimbledon were played out on a 14-inch TV. Dreams became reality when Duncan left New Zealand and moved to London in 2002, wrote articles, created his own website and visited some of the great sporting venues of Europe. Duncan and his wife moved to Wirral where he has ghost-written articles for magazines and newspapers including The Financial Times. The UK is full of the most amazing sporting venues in the world. On a cold night in Stoke or under the blazing sun at Lord's, whatever the sport, there's a story to be told by the proud New Zealander watching from the stands.