"Country of Writing examines the vast literature of travel that brought New Zealand into the newsstands, libraries and smoking rooms of Europe, and connected the new colony to the interests of empire. By the time Anthony Trollope arrived in Orago in 1872 more than 400 books had been written about New Zealand. This original book shows how the cultural effects of European expansionism are expressed through travel and travel writing, from the pages of the Sydney Gazette to journals of adventure, scientific papers, published diaries, guidebooks and long numbered letters read over breakfast tables in the Home Counties."--Jacket.