Olwyn, who already has a strong following thanks to Panther's Road, In the Shadow of Maungataniwha, Wings Over Waipapakauri and Windress Family of Hikurangi, insists that her latest effort is "not a book as such."
"It's really for my grandchildren. Surprisingly they have all read it, and enjoyed it.
"Life was so different then, and I thought it was important to tell them that. I wasn't interested when I was their age; Dad told me all sorts of things but I didn't write any of it down."
Being "not a book as such," she isn't expecting that it will be of interest to a wide audience; Printing.com only produced 50 copies, but a second print might soon be on the cards.
But while it's true that the book has an intimacy that will give it special meaning for the family, packed as it is with anecdotes and memories that might not give it mass appeal for its content alone, it is an important contribution to the very Far North's recorded history.
It is no bad thing that today's younger generation be reminded from time to time that life was physically much more demanding, resilience and self-sufficiency much more important, when the parents and grandparents were growing up.
It was a time when luxuries were few, when pleasures were simple and inexpensive, when everyone, at least within a farming family, was expected to make some contribution to their family fortunes from a young age.
It was a time when an orange made a wonderful Christmas gift, one to be savoured for some days before eating, and when the 'big' presents would be colouring books and crayons.
Youngsters today might fret about keeping up with cell phone trends and maintaining their social media status, whereas Olwyn's generation were more intent on finding warm cow pats to stand in as they walked, shoeless, to school on cold winter mornings and surviving a shortcut through the bull paddock.
Walking features strongly in this book, whether it be to school, to the store at Victoria Valley, to visit family and neighbours, or in Douglas Panther's case, to carry two buckets of cream, produced by the herd of 30 cows, over the hills to Mangatoetoe to begin its journey to the factory at Fairburn.
He must have been delighted when the Fairburn factory closed and the Kaitaia Dairy Company was prevailed upon to collect his cream from the farm gate.
It was not a time of great prosperity for many, but Olwyn wasn't complaining.
"We were poor, but we didn't think of ourselves as poor. And everyone was in the same boat," she said. She had had a happy childhood.
Her story continues to the beginning of her working life, after a couple of years at Whangarei Girls' High School.
Her first job was as a receptionist at Kaitaia Hospital, where she remained for eight years.
And again there are stark contrasts with the much more materialistic 21st Century - her mother paid a £5 ($10) deposit on a watch for Olwyn's sister Heather, who was earning her own living by that time but still found such a purchase beyond her means.
And while this might not be "a book as such," it exposes at least one compelling truth.
It is said, in some quarters, that the Baby Boomers (which Olwyn isn't quite) had it good, even that they are greedy.
They have forgotten how blessed they were, with affordable housing, full employment, 'free' education.
Perhaps they did have it better, in some ways, than today's millennials, but what they had they and their parents worked for. Very, very hard.
