Andrew Paul Wood: the history of the occult in Aotearoa

Historians paint colonial New Zealanders as "smug bucolic hobbits", but alternative spirituality was part of life for many in the 19th and early 20th centuries, says Andrew Paul Wood. The historian and journalist explores a range of homegrown occult groups – and their intriguing leaders – in his new book Shadow Worlds: A History of the Occult and Esoteric in New Zealand.