Len Cook: South Dunedin to Whitehall
As told to Les Hill
Published by Mary Egan Publishing
$35, Paperback
204pp + picture insert, 153 x 230mm (Portrait)
ISBN: 978-1-0670519-8-3
COMING SOON!
Part memoir, part oral history, this book brings together deep institutional knowledge with personal anecdotes, humour, and a fierce belief in the role of good information in building a fair society.
From a South Dunedin schoolboy with a sharp tongue and a love of apple pie, to the head of the UK’s Office for National Statistics, Len Cook’s story is anything but ordinary.
Told with wit, humility and keen social insight, South Dunedin to Whitehall traces a life shaped by family, politics, and a belief in public service. From jungle gyms and school strap punishments to Royal Commissions, international “dustups”, and a CBE, this memoir offers a rich portrait of New Zealand life across generations — and a front-row seat to public life on both sides of the world.
Funny, reflective and sharply observed, Len’s story is a celebration of workingclass roots, statistical curiosity, and the power of speaking up — even when it gets you the cane.
About the Book
This is the extraordinary life story of Len Cook, New Zealand’s former Government Statistician and one of the country’s most influential public servants, told with warmth, clarity and insight by retired teacher and seasoned author Les Hill.
From a modest upbringing in South Dunedin to the highest echelons of public service in New Zealand and the UK, Len’s career has spanned five decades, two hemispheres, and some of the most important shifts in government policy, data transparency, and public trust. This book captures not just the facts of that career, but the principles and values that guided it — from census reform and Māori data sovereignty to the quiet power of public service done well.
About the Author
Les Hill is a retired schoolteacher and widely respected angling writer based on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. He has been a passionate trout fisherman for more than sixty years, and for over forty of those has written and photographed for Fish & Game and other publications in New Zealand and overseas. Les is the author or co-author of seven books on trout fishing, and in Len Cook: South Dunedin to Whitehall, he brings his love of storytelling and clarity of voice to a very different, but equally compelling, subject.
To arrange interviews with Len Cook or for any further information, please contact:
Kate Gordon-Smith
Relish Communications
kate@relishcommunications.co.nz, 021587227