Still Standing: A Memoir

By Anna Louisa de Launey Crighton PhD

For decades, whenever a heritage building in Christchurch has been under threat, especially in the aftermath of the 2010- 11 earthquakes, Anna Crighton has consistently defended this city's architecture and history against shortsightedness and the threat of bulldozers. She has fought tirelessly, not only for the heritage of her hometown, but for the built past of Aotearoa New Zealand. But behind this well-known persona lies an extraordinary and unexpected life story. In ' Still Standing' Anna recounts a childhood bereft of parental affection, a wild adolescence that included a stay at the Mount Magdala Convent ' to straighten her out', unsuitable relationships clung to in a desperate search for love, an unplanned pregnancy that led to adoption, and a violent marriage. Not many people would survive all this, let alone rise above it, to bring up a beloved son, to restore a magnificent Victorian home, to begin university study as an adult and gain a PhD, and, in 2020, to be appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to heritage preservation and governance. ' Still Standing' is a riveting story of a life lived with courage, and of triumph over adversity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1988503418
• ISBN13: 9781988503417
• Release Date: April 2024
• Publisher: Canterbury University Press
• Length: 240 Pages