Nothing Like A Dame: A Biography of Dame Daphne Purves

Now in her ninetieth year, Dame Daphne Purves is New Zealand's oldest Dame and one of Dunedin's living treasures. She has become a by-word for enthusiasm and tenacity in every field she has entered.

Her main area of expertise has been education. She sees this as the key to better conditions for women worldwide; and the passion of her life has been the International Federation of University Women, for whom she became world president in 1977. Her work with IFUW has taken her round the world many times, and into more than forty countries. She is fondly remembered by former students of Waitaki Girls High School, Otago Girls High School, Otago Boys High School and Dunedin Teachers College.

In this delightful, entertaining and extensively illustrated biography we are introduced to the private and public views of a woman whose zest for life has carried her through most of this century, from the horse-drawn era almost to the second millennium.