About the author and owner of Top Read Publishing
Robert Findlay. Chief Advisory Officer. Horticulture. HO. 
Private Secretary, Parliament Buildings. 
Manager establishment phase and Project manager. 
Operations Manager and Recreation Manager Manukau City Council Parks Department. 
Convoy Brand market garden and orchard 
Author / Publisher
He has lived and worked throughout New Zealand: Henderson, Christchurch, Mosgiel, Dunedin, Hastings, Palmerston Nth, Roxburgh Central Otago, Southland, Wellington, Otahuhu. His job in Wellington involved travel to all horticultural regions in the country. With visits to USA and Japan. Including an International Society of Horticultural Science Congress at UC Davis.
Robert Joined the Horticulture Division of the Department of Agriculture in Hastings in 1969. Exiting MAF in 1988 after ASD morphed into MAFTECH. First serving as a private secretary in parliament buildings then manager of the establishment phase of the NZ Horticulture Export Authority.
From May 1988 was Park Operations Manager with the “Ahead of the Times “Manukau City Council Parks Department responsible for the maintenance and use management of 2000ha of parks. Retiring as Parks Recreation Manager, 23 years later. He was also involved as Staff Officer Team 2 in MCC Civil Defense.
He retired a few months after the formation of Auckland City.
During the time he received several merit and service awards from industry organizations;
Three Manukau City, Manager’s Incentive awards,
The NZ Sports Turf Institute, Merit Award
The Sports Field Forum, NZ. Services Award
The New Zealand Recreation Association,presented him with the Ian Galloway Memorial cup, In recognition of excellence and outstanding personal contribution to the wider parks industry. 2011
He was also responsible for initiating and running the Manukau Parks Teaching Gardens which won the NZRA Outstanding Project Award, To recognise excellence, innovation and effectiveness in the provision of a recreational /leisure project. 2010
From 1988 he was a Director of Convoy Brand a market garden (protected cropping) and orchard
Robert started gathering family history information in 1970. One upside of living and travelling throughout NZ was meeting many members of the extended family from Northland to the Bluff. Hawkes Bay/East Coast to Taranaki. Since “retirement” in March 2011 Robert has been sifting and collating these archives.
In retirement he is racing to publish as much family and employment history as he can. Top Read Publishers, 2017, is the vehicle to get them to market. This web site Topread.nz is both a promotional tool and record of publications.
Current Work in Progress; From August 2024, The biographies of “Two brothers and a nephew” John, Thomas and James FINCH from Etwall, Derbyshire to Dunedin, Otago.