Editor's Introduction

Abstract

We begin this issue with the text of the W.H. Oliver lecture, given in Wellington by Emeritus Professor Lydia Wevers on 7 November 2017. Lydia recently retired as the Director of the Stout Centre at Victoria University and during this time she played leading international and national roles as both a literary historian and advocate for the Humanities. Her lecture focuses upon colonial Pākehā and the community of Dickens readers in New Zealand, demonstrating the scholarly insights that emerge from literary approaches to historical understanding.