The All Blackography: The Indispensable Guide to Every All Black by Ron Palenski is a beautiful book in more than one way. The first is from an aesthetic standpoint. It is a lovely book that would look great in a den or on a coffee table. It would be a great conversation starter.
The second lovely part of this title is the vast amount of photos, information, and statistics housed in just 336 pages. It literally contains every All Black player from 1884 to 2016. Every player has a photo, biography, and statistics. It’s an encyclopedia of New Zealand rugby all in one book. It would take years, even with Google, to compile this kind of information if you could find it all, which is certainly doubtful.
Palenski has done the rugby community a great service. It would be great if he would do this for all other national teams. I am sure the likes of England, Wales, South Africa, Scotland, France, Fiji, and Argentina would love something like this as well.
This is a great resource and one of the summer’s biggest bargain at less than $30. Simply put, you can’t go wrong with this one.
