What more suitable place to read this novel than while on holiday in Fiordland? Whilst reclining in the beanbags in Milford Lodge, watching the rain stream down outside - the dark shapes of the beech trees rising in a perfectly penetrable wall, and above them sheer and rocky cliffs, streaming with waterfalls. This was my world as I read this, and this also is the kea's world.

For those not informed on New Zealand wildlife, the kea is the only alpine parrot in the world, and one of the most intelligent non-primate species that there is. This novel is rather like the Watership Down of my country (except not quite as famous). My copy originates from its first publication - in 1982, but Temple has since re-released it with a few of the facts updated as people learn more about the behaviour of these extraordinary birds. Although no dates are given, I believe this story is set in the 1870-80s or so, when farmers started colonising the valleys around Milford, burning the native tussock and replacing it with their more sheep-edible grasses. It includes the keas first experiences with human-kind, and also includes numerous extinct birds - and no mammals.

Like most realistic animal-protagonist books it is exceedingly sexist. All the main characters are male, and the role of the females seem to be to coo and beg at the more dominant males. This is excuseable - it is true kea behaviour, after all. It follows similar structures to most realistic animal books - the main character is exiled for getting a little too bolshy and trying to take on the dominant cock, with his friends he travels across the mountains to find a new home for himself, but alas, the new home has no kea and they're all males, therefore no matter how suitable (kea-kind) it is, they cannot remain there. They search, in vain, having amusing encounters with kakapo (which were plentiful at the time) and kaka. It is not a new storyline at all, but the richness of the writing, the personality of the characters, the complexity of their world all weaves together to create a captivating and spell-binding story. Added in, of course, is the fact that they are birds and the whole flying adds a new dimension (literally) to the plot. I am working on my own, rather more contemporary, kea novel and this has been something of an inspiration. My female character is going to much stronger, however! ( )

An absolutely wonderful and unique Watership Dawn style book for New Zealand. Keas are New Zealand's alpine parrots, intensely curious social trouble makers. They are one of the world's most intelligent parrots (though they can't mimic human speech), the only parrot living where it snows and they will eat meat when available (including killing sheep). Beak of the Moon has a similar plot to Watership Down, several young males are forced out of an authoritarian group and undertaken a dangerous journey looking for a new place to live, and has a similar mythic quality, while being solidly grounded in real kea behaviour.