Judith Binney reflects on the origins – and intended readership – of her prize-winning Maori histories. Every book I have written had its origins in a gift – in some form, from someone. It might have been an unexpected conversation,…
Black Saturday: New Zealand’s Tragic Blunders in Samoa Michael Field Reed, $34.99, ISBN 0790011034 Samoa-New Zealand relations are nothing if not complex. Michael Field in Black Saturday, while presenting an overview of Samoan history, focuses on a not only complex…
Innovation and Independence: The Reserve Bank of New Zealand 1973-2002 John Singleton (with Arthur Grimes, Gary Hawke and Frank Holmes) Auckland University Press (in association with the Ministry of Culture and Heritage), $49.99, ISBN 1869403649 This history of the Reserve…
Cup Alison Wong Steele Roberts, $19.99, ISBN 1877338761 The Joy of a Ming Vase Ruth Dallas Otago University Press, $29.95, ISBN 1877372307 Brief Lives Chris Price Auckland University Press, $27.99, ISBN 1869403630 The Word Went Round David Howard Otago University…
Dangerous Enthusiasms: E-government, Computer Failure and Information Systems Development Robin Gauld and Shaun Goldfinch Otago University Press, $39.95, ISBN 18773723X Anyone who follows IT news knows that many large-scale projects end up as catastrophic failures. Even when the projects do…
Like Love Poems: Selected Poems Joanna Margaret Paul (ed Bernadette Hall) Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 0864735278 Modern Colours Wystan Curnow Jack Books, $24.95, ISBN 0473102544 One Shapely Thing: Poems and Journals Dinah Hawken Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 08646735286…
The Accidental Anthropologist Michael Jackson Longacre Press, $39.99, ISBN 187736147X The epigraphs an author chooses may be taken as a guide to his intent, and Michael Jackson chose two. From Rilke, he derives: “We are born, so to speak, provisionally,…
Politics 101 Anna Smith Canterbury University Press, $29.95, ISBN 1877257419 The Sound of Butterflies Rachael King Black Swan, $27.99, ISBN 1869417941 Davey Darling Paul Shannon Penguin, $28.00, ISBN 0143020773 Weeping Waters Anne Maria Nicholson HarperCollins, $34.00, ISBN 1869506170 Four debut…
Mustn’t Grumble: An Accidental Return to England Joe Bennett HarperCollins, $34.99, ISBN 07432376272 First Pass Under Heaven Nathan Hoturoa Gray Penguin, $29.95, ISBN 0143020676 You Must Die Once Ian D Robinson HarperCollins, $29.99, ISBN 1869505468 If you’d asked me a…
Dear Miss Williams, Mark Williams
Critic and literary historian Mark Williams describes how he learnt to love his feminine side Adolescents commonly write poetry, but they write poems to themselves rather than for an audience. If they write for others, it is usually to interest…
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