Title: Inamata
Description: Inamata was the name given to the original Allen family home in New Plymouth- a favourite Christmas retreat during childhood. It is a Maori word meaning "a long time ago" or "in former times", an appropriate title indeed for a collection of poems drawn from vivid childhood memories of faces and places in suburban Henderson and the dramatic forces of nature seen at Piha on Auckland's west coast. It also comprises treasured memories of some very special people who have enriched the live of the author and his family. Bernie Allen has lived all his life in the west of Auckland where he has practised law for more than thirty years. He is married to Mary, has three children and three grandchildren. Since his teenage years he has been fascinated by language and a family tradition of sotry-telling. Inamata is Bernie's first book.