When Barbara Francis retired in 2003 after 25 years of teaching, she turned to writing non-fiction. After two biographical works about Agnes (Nessie) Moncrieff, former international secretary of the YWCA in China, Francis has now published Titus Angus White and the Māori Captives on Waitematā Harbour 1863/4 (Atuanui Press).
You were born in Napier in 1938, on the brink of World War II. How did that conflict colour your early years?
One of my most vivid early memories is of my stepmother taking me to the railway station in Dannevirke at the end of the war. Crowds of people were there to greet the train, and when all these men in khaki got off, everybody cried.
What happened to your mother?
My mother was 32 when
