Despite the centenary of World War 1 inspiring a deluge of books and articles, there remain endless nooks and crannies to be explored.
Bulford, Salisbury, was a spot well-known to most New Zealand Western Front soldiers: Sling Camp, the base where they trained prior to heading to the continent, was nearby.
The troops weren't much fond of Sling during the war, and they came to heartily loathe the place afterwards.
It was to Sling that the army despatched soldiers who had finished their duty on the front lines, and at Sling where they waited, and waited, and waited some more as the Government tried in vain to find ships to ferry them home again.
Brown's account opens as 1918 rolls into 1919, and as the soldier's resentment at being confined to the camp starts to simmer.
There was only so much compulsory educational training the homesick troops were prepared to put up with, and the cancellation of a troop ship due to an English industrial dispute saw the camp erupt into riotous disorder.
All this exposition delays the arrival of the Bulford Kiwi on the Sling Camp horizon, but it is necessary background, as otherwise the hatching of what would otherwise seem to be a quite barmy plan would make no sense.
Brown skilfully sets a scene where, by this stage, anything to keep the men busy was a welcome distraction; even the construction of a massive chalk kiwi in the nearby hillside.
Dunedin soldier Sergeant-Major Victor Low moves centre stage at this point, as the man who surveyed the hillside in preparation for the kiwi to be carved; Dunedin-born Captain Harry Clark oversaw the actual construction.
While the making of the kiwi is at the heart of Brown's book, the soul of the story comes next, as she charts the history of the memorial after the NZEF marched out of Sling Camp for the last time.
Combing through the archives reveals the story of officialdom content to let the grass grow back over the giant bird, and a few driven individuals determined this unique signifier of Bulford's New Zealand connection not be forgotten.
Although she would be reluctant to take any credit, Brown can add herself to that list.
In this short but very readable chronicle, she has done her bit to keep the kiwi in the nation's collective memory.
Mike Houlahan is an ODT health reporter.
