However, in September 1984, when the Grants co-published their first book, Sonja Davies’ Bread & Roses, it launched with considerable fanfare at Parliament, and over several years and many editions later, produced an audio book, film and TV series.

“I well remember the initial attitude of booksellers,” remembers Ian. “There was no way that a book by a left-wing, woman trade unionist was going to sell.” More than 25,000 books were sold.

While the Grants have not been particular enthusiasts for book awards, there has been a lingering regret that Bread & Roses was placed second in the Watties’ Book of the Year Award in 1984 because of a very average printing job. Under pressure from trade union colleagues about books printed overseas, Sonja had insisted on the book being printed locally. It was – by Masterton’s Austin & Warby, which later morphed into Printcraft. Excellent printer though he was, Ron Warby had never printed a book before, Ian was on a business trip to London and Diane’s speciality was editing! (Printcraft has printed most Fraser Books’ titles in recent years.)

Subsequently, Grant Redvers’ Tara Arctic won the Australasian non-fiction section in the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards and Jim Graydon’s On the Edge was bronze medal winner in 2014.

“One of the nicest aspects of publishing is the really interesting people you get to meet,” recalls Diane. “There’s quite an intense relationship for a period which can turn into a lifelong friendship as it did with Sonja when she became a member of the extended Grant family and lived for a decade in a cottage on the edge of our smallholding.

It was the association with Sonja, that led Fraser Books’ to publish what they, at the time, called ‘the secret book’. At the ceremony to spread Sonja Davies’ ashes in Wellington Harbour, the Grants met peace activist Kate Dewes and husband Commander Robert Green who had been working for a decade on a book about the suspicious 1984 murder in England of his elderly aunt, Hilda Murrell, a well-known rosarian and anti-nuclear protester.

With their investigation suggesting a possible state murder and involvement of Britain’s security services, Rob and Kate were under surveillance in the UK and at their Christchurch home, with their telephone tapped, house broken into and mail tampered with.

“Rob and Kate knew their book was likely to be of considerable embarrassment in the UK, so were worked secretly as possible, particularly as similar books involving British security services had been stopped before publication,” says Ian Grant.

“It seemed like an important book to us,” says Diane, “but it took some time for us to get used to sending mail to dead drop Christchurch addresses and meetings in Christchurch and Masterton in noisy cafes, with cellphones left in cars.”

The book’s formatting and printing was done secretly in Masterton with the binding done personally overnight by a Lower Hutt bindery’s owner. A made-up publisher’s name and logo appeared on the books.

A Thorn in Their Side: The Hilda Murrell Murder was published in October 2011. Subsequent editions have been published in New Zealand and the UK, with scores of articles, TV and radio programmes, and investigations continuing to maintain high interest in Britain.

More routinely, Fraser Books has now published over 175 books in many genres, by authors around the country. There has been a strong historical and political emphasis.

“We’re particularly proud of our 26-year association with the Wairarapa Archive and the 35 books of Wairarapa history we’ve published,” says Diane.

There has also been a strong connection with the NZ Cartoon Archive founded by Ian at the National Library in Wellington in 1992. Fraser Books has published nine books in association with the Cartoon Archive.

“There have been dire warnings about the future of book publishing, but as the bigger, international publishers have become more risk averse, there are more opportunities for the small independents to publish worthwhile titles,” says Ian. “Possibly of greater concern is the growth of self-publishing, made so much simpler with printing technology developments, which has resulted in some badly designed and very poorly edited books.”

And after 40 years? “We’ve been talking about retirement for over a decade, but we find it very hard to say no when we keep on being asked to publish really worthwhile books,” says Diane.

There will be a session, ‘Celebrating 40 Years of Fraser Books’, with the Grants and several of their authors discussing their books and how and why they were written, at this year’s Yarns in Barns literary festival. Masterton Public Library, 7.00pm, Thursday 24 October.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 September 2004.