Book excerpt: This classic has been released in the Popular Penguin format to mark 50 years of publishing in New Zealand. The format reaches further back to 1935, when Allen Lane founded Penguin Books with a clear vision- 'We believed in the existence of a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price, and staked everything on it.' Ground-breaking. Original. Heart-rending. Most talked about book in New Zealand, ever. Adapted into a blockbuster movie. Still in print three decades later.