Craig Sherborne's second memoir deals with his adolescence on a farm in rural New Zealand during the 1970s. Leaving the bright lights of Sydney, our self-assured teenage narrator casts himself ("Master Muck") and his parents as intrepid colonists who have shouldered the brave and necessary task of civilising Taonga. The culture clash provides humour and pathos: when Master Muck refuses to looks at the udder of a cow he is milking - out of "common decency and respect" for the animal - we laugh and cringe in equal measure. It is the intensity of Sherborne's narrator that sticks in the mind: half-Holden Caulfield, half-Frank The Wasp Factory Cauldhame, Master Muck epitomises the messy process of growing up.