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After Dark: Walking into the nights of Aotearoa
In After Dark Annette Lees walks us into the nights of Aotearoa. In the company of bats, owls, moths and seabirds, she guides us from dusk to dawn with fascinating night stories: tales of war stealth and ghosts; nights lit by candles and lighthouses; night surfing, fishing, diving and skiing; mountain walking and night navigation on ocean voyaging waka.
- GenresNonfictionScienceAnimals
258 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2021
19 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 9, 2022
Annette Lees is a night owl, or perhaps a bat woman. At least she was for an intensive period while she researched and wrote After Dark, immersing herself in all the nuanced phases and shades of the night as she built an impressively comprehensive, holistic and fascinating understanding about what happens out there while most of us are tucked up in bed. But since childhood she has been in love with nature and the outdoors. The catalyst behind this wonderful book was a gift to Lees from her husband – a ‘seriously cool’ olive green bat monitor, which on its maiden voyage, immediately registered an overhead long tailed bat from her front lawn.
‘Night doesn’t fall, it rises. The sky is the last place to lose the light, the shadowy land first.’
From the first pages of After Dark I was constantly surprised and delighted as Lees recounted scientific, historic, cultural (both Māori and Pākehā) and personal facts and observations, weaving them all in to a cohesive story with great eloquence, colour and feeling.
‘Despite the sound falling like a wave of rain over the landscape, it felt intensely private, a sound made of each of the thousands of crickets in this paddock. If I stood still long enough to become invisible to them, the singing became louder and rhythmic, a hypnotic chorus of pulse and shimmer that filled the dark bowl of the clearing.’
While richly filled with all manner of captivating themes, anecdotes and facts, After Dark follows a clear structure, beginning with a chapter about Night Time and ending with another about Break of Day (the dawn chorus – far more of a symphony than I realised and also New Zealand’s measure of biodiversity). Then between these are chapters, each devoted to an hour of the 12 making up a night.
5pm, Dusk. Did you know that there are three grades of twilight?
6pm, Close of Day. The 6pm swill only ceased in 1967, tramps and swagmen of the great depression, homelessness today, blackouts during World War II, Good night Kiwi 1981 to 1994, eating a restaurant meal in total darkness. Did you know that the horizon is about three kilometres away, but night shrinks our world? And white glows in the dark. All that in just an hour!
As the hours roll by you can read about Aotearoa’s short and long-tailed bats, our insects, kiwi, kākāpō, light houses, night fishing, fireworks, fear of the dark, night lights, sky sanctuaries, astronomy, deep space, sleep patterns … each hour of the night is far more fascinating than I could have imagined until reading After Dark. All 14 chapters also begin and end with vignettes in little grey boxes recounting Lees’ personal night time experiences.
After Dark also delivers compelling reminders about the tenuous plight of our native species. Lees has a particular affinity with our native bats, reminding me just what incredible creatures they are and why it’s so important that we humans cease our disregard and excesses that have taken these and countless other species to the brink of oblivion.
If you want to get fired up, to smile a lot, be entertained and enthralled by myriad facts and insights, or just illuminate your night hours, After Dark – Walking in to the nights of Aotearoa is a must read.
‘Night doesn’t fall, it rises. The sky is the last place to lose the light, the shadowy land first.’
From the first pages of After Dark I was constantly surprised and delighted as Lees recounted scientific, historic, cultural (both Māori and Pākehā) and personal facts and observations, weaving them all in to a cohesive story with great eloquence, colour and feeling.
‘Despite the sound falling like a wave of rain over the landscape, it felt intensely private, a sound made of each of the thousands of crickets in this paddock. If I stood still long enough to become invisible to them, the singing became louder and rhythmic, a hypnotic chorus of pulse and shimmer that filled the dark bowl of the clearing.’
While richly filled with all manner of captivating themes, anecdotes and facts, After Dark follows a clear structure, beginning with a chapter about Night Time and ending with another about Break of Day (the dawn chorus – far more of a symphony than I realised and also New Zealand’s measure of biodiversity). Then between these are chapters, each devoted to an hour of the 12 making up a night.
5pm, Dusk. Did you know that there are three grades of twilight?
6pm, Close of Day. The 6pm swill only ceased in 1967, tramps and swagmen of the great depression, homelessness today, blackouts during World War II, Good night Kiwi 1981 to 1994, eating a restaurant meal in total darkness. Did you know that the horizon is about three kilometres away, but night shrinks our world? And white glows in the dark. All that in just an hour!
As the hours roll by you can read about Aotearoa’s short and long-tailed bats, our insects, kiwi, kākāpō, light houses, night fishing, fireworks, fear of the dark, night lights, sky sanctuaries, astronomy, deep space, sleep patterns … each hour of the night is far more fascinating than I could have imagined until reading After Dark. All 14 chapters also begin and end with vignettes in little grey boxes recounting Lees’ personal night time experiences.
After Dark also delivers compelling reminders about the tenuous plight of our native species. Lees has a particular affinity with our native bats, reminding me just what incredible creatures they are and why it’s so important that we humans cease our disregard and excesses that have taken these and countless other species to the brink of oblivion.
If you want to get fired up, to smile a lot, be entertained and enthralled by myriad facts and insights, or just illuminate your night hours, After Dark – Walking in to the nights of Aotearoa is a must read.
April 18, 2023
This book is gorgeous. Full of recollections of times spent in the dark night of NZ. So many things I could identify with and smile while reading
April 7, 2023
This is such an enchanting read that I am sad I finished it. The attention paid to the natural night landscapes in all it's splendour- nocturnal birds, creatures, ghost stories and night warfare was quite captivating. I particularly liked the chapter structures, starting from dusk to dawn. Incredible prose and a good read.
December 30, 2021
I loved this book and read it after hearing Annette being interviewed on RNZ. It the perfect blend of science, nature, personal accounts wrapped in a blanket of Maori legends and history. Each chapter is an hour of the night - it enthralled me.
March 4, 2023
This is a beautiful, nourishing book. Annette writes a little like Annie Dillard, dropping diverse facts into lyrical prose. The reader walks with her on dark paths, listening and groping for the source of a thousand small sounds. It’s a wonderful read.
June 30, 2024
What a magnificent work of non-fiction. Whenever I would open it and delve in, I would completely lose myself in the night of Aotearoa. Annette Lees has created something truly special: informative, transporting, mesmerising. It's a shame that it is not more widely available in bookshops worldwide.
March 16, 2024
I really wanted to love this book, but it's just a style I don't really enjoy. The author pulls together snippets of stories and explanations of ecology and science around a theme for each chapter. While an interesting concept, the snippets of stories were just that and I felt like the author would interest the start of a story that was never finished, again and again, and again. The science was interesting, but again just not that satisfying - a bit like reading a collection of magazine articles.
February 13, 2022
I recommend having plenty of time to read this book; it should be a slow read, maybe 20 pages at a time. It’s full of lovely descriptors of walking at night, and you’ll want to go and do it yourself.
Unfortunately I read a library copy, and had a pile of others to get through, so didn’t have that luxury; I may need to get my own copy for a re-read.
Unfortunately I read a library copy, and had a pile of others to get through, so didn’t have that luxury; I may need to get my own copy for a re-read.
April 23, 2025
Brilliant writing. A book to digest in stages, sitting with and savouring each part of the night. A mixture of local history, natural science, Mātauranga Māori, mythology and local storytelling. A great introduction to the recent past of Aotearoa New Zealand from an everyday perspective.
December 31, 2025
A stunning book that I love to reread. Sometimes in its entirety, but often I love to pick out the little vignettes as I recall them: tales of bat roosts, strange plants and a bold fearlessness that I feel strengthened to adopt. This is a real gem and one of my favourite books from recent years.
December 1, 2022
Delightful and varied anecdotes connected by night many nature based but some life based.
Quite detailed, took some time to read.
Quite detailed, took some time to read.
September 10, 2023
Absolutely stunning book. I really enjoyed learning more about our history and native animals. The writing was entertaining and informative as well as lyrical in places.
February 11, 2024
A wonderful, beautiful book. Highly recommended.
April 6, 2025
What a special book to lose yourself in... full of joy and inspiration to go on night adventures to experience more of glorious Aotearoa.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews