From the early 1930s to 1953, the seven Goodall children toiled away on a dairy farm near Frankton Junction, in Hamilton, New Zealand. This remarkable volume records the stories of their childhood and their colorful adult lives.

Not many New Zealand kids had to get up at 4am to milk cows. The authors' early days give a whole new meaning to the term 'free range'. Outside farming hours, the youngsters could roam at will over the family property and its surrounds but, at home, they chafed under the confines of their parents' proscriptive and prescriptive style of raising their brood.

Their oppressive regime had a redeeming feature: Alec and Grace Goodall did precisely what they expected their children to do - they practised what they preached. The children, now senior citizens, scrub up remarkably well, and, instead of counting their days, they're making their days count.

Good God - the Goodall's! is a fascinating insight into 20th century New Zealand life, containing the stories and adventures of a New Zealand family told with wit and charm.