Philip Simpson

Philip Simpson is a botanist and author of Dancing Leaves: The Story of New Zealand’s Cabbage Tree, Tī Kōuka (Canterbury University Press, 2000) and Pōhutukawa and Rātā: New Zealand’s Iron-hearted Trees (Te Papa Press, 2005). Both books won Montana Book Awards in the Environment category and Pōhutukawa and Rātā also won the Montana Medal for best non-fiction book. Simpson is unique in his ability to combine the scientific expertise of the trained botanist with a writer’s ability to understand the history of Māori and Pākehā interactions with the environment. He was awarded the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writer’s Fellowship to work on Tōtara: A Natural and Cultural History.