LeafSalon’s local mayor Bob Harvey has a useful sideline as an author: he’s the writer behind the highly acclaimed books Untamed Coast and Rolling Thunder: The Spirit of Karekare. Both were shortlisted for the Montana Book Awards, and both are wonderful paens to the delights of the Waitakeres.

Now Cap’n Bob’s got a new book out, published once more by boutique Titirangi outfit Exisle. And he's in his element:

They used to say that every house in the west had 2.8 cars, the 0.8 was the other bits and pieces on the front lawn – axles, diffs and chassis.

Westies profiles 60 prominent and not so prominent West Auckland personalities. The 192 pages are dotted with well-known Westies such as fashion designer Karen Walker, potter Len Castle, Judge Mick Brown, singer Jan Hellriegel, the pioneering Bethells family, writer Sandra Coney, the Lawson quintuplets and Maori leader Pita Sharples.

Less well-known Westies are singer John Rowles (Te Atatu), Ed Hillary (Anawhata), C K Stead (Lone Kauri Road) and Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt. I didn't know that Shadbolt is a native of both Glen Eden and Huia, but as Harvey says, ‘He has the west written all over him, and I believe he’s the founder of the Westie image’.

We also skim through Westie oddments such as the black T-shirt, the Millennium Baby and Lion Rock. Even Lucy Lawless makes an appearance: Xena was shot in Henderson.

Despite such a stellar cast, Westies is not up to the production standards of Harvey’s previous ‘local’ books. The printing (in Hong Kong, so often the case these days) does not flatter Antoine Gasperini's monochrome images.

But Westies is an interesting read, and the section on Holden V8s is worth the price of admission alone. Our Bob’s not smitten with ‘Mitsubishis and whatever else with tinted windows’. No, sirree:

Westies understand that a well-kept Holden V8 of any age simply opens a fresh can of whoop-ass on those little motorised sardine tins.

… And no, Shore boys, that style is not found in a Subaru and never will be.

Wise words, well spoken.