Book Launch: Crossed Keys & Coffee Spoons.

Te Tuhi is currently undergoing renovations after a flood (the overpass under construction is next door...) Parking is available on William Roberts Road (access from Ti Rakau Drive) or across the road at the Pakuranga shopping centre. There is a 'back entrance' - follow the decked path around the side of the building. We plan to have Dutch baking with coffee (recipes are in the book) as well as the usual hot bites to go with bubbly and wine. Expect a short reading from the book and copies for purchase! Wear a touch of orange if you like.

By Bernardine Vester and published by Wai Ako Press

The book is a multi-generational saga following the Stijnman bakers' journey from their 19th century artisanal roots in South Holland to wealth in Leiden, the city of the crossed keys. Then there's the Coster coffee-house that inaugurates the largest flower auction co-op in the world. Along the way, there's poverty and tuberculosis; war-time occupation and near-starvation in the Hongerwinter 1944-45; and paratrooping in the East Indies before Frans Stijnman and his fiancee arrive in New Zealand in 1952.