Barbed Wire Boks by Don Cameron

Barbed Wire Boks (1981 First Edition, 1982 Reprint, in Jacket)

A New Zealand Journalist's Account of the 1981 Springbok Tour, from the First Protester to the Final Test

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Barbed Wire Boks
• Author: Don Cameron
• Publisher: Rugby Press, Auckland
• Publication Date: 1981
• ISBN-10: 0908630050
• Edition Details: First published in 1981; this copy is the 1982 reprint.
• Binding: Publisher's black cloth boards with a colour photographic dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Octavo-sized hardcover, approximately 235 x 160 mm, 239 pages.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good (VG)
• Exterior / Boards: The black cloth boards are plain and clean, with a slightly rubbed spine edge and a few small specks. The corners are fairly sharp and the spine is straight.
• Interior: The pages are clean and cream-coloured, with no markings, and the binding is tight.
• Provenance: A CNA retail price sticker (R15.95 crossed out, marked down to R2.99) on the lower back panel of the dust jacket. No inscriptions or bookplates.
• The Dust Jacket: Present. The colour photographic jacket is bright, with a small crease near the lower spine and slight creasing or wear at the lower right edge of the back panel. A CNA price sticker sits on the lower back panel. The jacket is protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover.

Synopsis & Historical Value

Barbed Wire Boks, published by Rugby Press in Auckland in 1981, is Don Cameron's account of the Springbok tour of New Zealand that year. It follows the tour from the first protester at Gisborne to the final try at Eden Park, taking in the street battles, the policing and the three test venues.

The tour divided New Zealand more deeply than any sporting event before it, and this book is far more than a rugby record. Chapters such as 'A Game Imprisoned', 'A Tour Is Saved' and 'The Ugly News' give a sense of the drama, and the book stands as an early journalist's narrative of a pivotal moment in the history of the anti-apartheid movement.

The book has remained a point of reference: it is cited in academic work on the social geography of the tour, quoted by the New Zealand Rugby Museum, and listed in the NZ History reading list on the tour. It will appeal to collectors of Springbok rugby history and to readers of apartheid-era sporting and political history.

Author Profile: Don Cameron

Donald John Cameron (1933-2016) was a New Zealand journalist and sportswriter, regarded as one of the leading New Zealand sportswriters of the twentieth century. He worked as a sports reporter on the New Zealand Herald from 1950 to 1998.

His other books include Caribbean Crusade (1972), All Blacks: Retreat From Glory (1980) and Rugby Triumphant: The All Blacks in Australia and Wales (1981).

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