Blog Archives

In their natural habitat, Barry Gustafson

Political Animals: Confessions of a Parliamentary Zoologist Jane Clifton Penguin, $29.95, ISBN 0143019643 Two Titans: Muldoon, Lange and Leadership Jon Johansson Dunmore Press, $34.95, ISBN 1877399019 I have always loved Jane Clifton. I mean her well-informed, insightful and quirky newspaper

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Take me there now, Garth Baker

A Tramper’s Journey Mark Pickering Craig Potton Publishing, $29.99, ISBN 1877333174 Ride: The Story of Cycling in New Zealand The Kennett Brothers The Kennett Brothers, $39.95, ISBN 095834907X Just this week, someone I know who cannot bear to be more

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Posted in Natural History, Non-fiction, Review, Sport

One-night stands, Christine Johnston

Next to Gods: A Cleaner’s Story  Don Franks Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958251487 On Getting Old  Kevin Ireland Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958251479 On Going to the Movies Peter Wells Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958251460 I have

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Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Review

Cracks in the world, Kathryn Walls

Margaret Mahy: A Writer’s Life Tessa Duder HarperCollins, $39.95, ISBN 1869504852 Margaret Mahy’s 1995 novel The Other Side of Silence presents itself as the autobiography of its female hero (whose name, too, is “Hero”). At the end, however, the first

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

One of the survivors, Tony Simpson

A Radical Writer’s Life  Dick Scott Reed, $39.99, ISBN 0790009765 The society in which I grew up largely no longer exists, immolated in the “reforms” of the 80s and 90s. It would be wrong to consider that an entirely bad

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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

Editorial – Issue 70

Review and be damned There is in Britain a financial journalist called Peter Jay, who, when he was economics editor of The Times, famously dismissed a sub-editor’s querying of his incomprehensible copy by informing him haughtily that the article was

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Posted in Editorial

Gardening as rebellion, Brian Turner

This Piece of Earth: A Life in My New Zealand Garden Harvey McQueen Awa Press, $34.95, ISBN 0958253838 Reading Harvey McQueen’s account of a year’s engagement with his garden has confirmed what I’ve thought for a long time: you have

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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

Unearthly mapmaking, Anna Jackson

Dreamhunter  Elizabeth Knox HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 0732281938 The Time of the Giants Anne Kennedy Auckland University Press, $27.99, ISBN 1869403428 Maddigan’s Fantasia Margaret Mahy HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 1869505611 Maddigan’s Fantasia opens with Garland Maddigan’s note to herself, “Written down things

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults

Smoking documents, Anna Livesey

Hypnic Jerks Geoff Cochrane Victoria University Press, $24.95, ISBN 08647350006 Milk & Honey Michele Leggott Auckland University Press, $28.00, ISBN 1869403347 Cassandra’s Daughter Michael Harlow Auckland University Press, $25.00, ISBN 1869403320 Writing poetry – seriously writing poetry and expecting someone

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

The sparkling, the homely and the cool, Douglas Lloyd Jenkins

Built for Us: The Work of Government and Colonial Architects, 1860s to 1960s Lewis E Martin University of Otago Press, $49.95, ISBN 1877276642 We Call It Home: A History of State Housing in New Zealand Ben Schrader Reed, $39.99, ISBN

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Posted in Architecture, History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
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