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Fragments of possible worlds, David Gregory

Fourteen Reasons for Writing Kevin Ireland Hazard Press, $21.95, ISBN 18877270080 It may not possess the weight of historical significance of The Kennedy Question, but I asked myself, “where were you when Kevin Ireland’s first book of poetry (Face to

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Falling on his feet, Patrick Evans

Backwards to Forwards: A Memoir Kevin Ireland Vintage, $29.95, ISBN 1869414993 Some time in 1986 (I think it was), Kevin Ireland turned up at the University of Canterbury English Department as writer-in-residence. What returns to the memory is a series

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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

Tickled and moved, Peter Vere-Jones

Under the Bridge & Over the Moon Kevin Ireland Vintage, $29.95, ISBN 1 86941 363 6 bums on seats: The Backstage Story Roger Hall Penguin, $44.95, ISBN 0 670 88366 2 What makes a writer?  As requested, I read these

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Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review

Great expectations, John McCrystal

The Dream of Nikau Jam  Peter Hawes Vintage, $24.95, ISBN 1 86941 421 7 The Craymore Affair Kevin Ireland Vintage, $24.95, ISBN 1 86941 426 8 One of the great fears among actors is being typecast, bound up in the

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Always some bastard has to spoil it, Kate Camp

Anzac Day Kevin Ireland Hazard Press, $19.95 ISBN 087716111 X The title of Kevin Ireland’s selected poems, Anzac Day, suggested to me a rather bloke’s, public kind of poetry, a poetry of momentous occasions with perhaps a hint of speechifying.

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

What might he have become? Iain Sharp

The Man Who Never Lived Kevin Ireland Vintage, $24.95 ISBN 1 86941 325 3 Kevin Ireland begins his second novel in classic thriller mode. While taking his daily constitutional walk along the waterfront of Mt Matheson (an affluent seaside community

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Distracting rhetoric, Janet Hughes

Blowing My Top Kevin Ireland Penguin Books, $24.95, ISBN 0 140 25645 8 The opening of Blowing My Top discovers the hero, Darby Fulljames, in full cry, venting his discontent at his bankruptcy, disgrace and incarceration. Reading it, I couldn’t help

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Not much transferable, Anne French

Sleeping with the Angels Kevin Ireland, Penguin, $24.95 Years ago, before we went down with post-modernism, people used to ruminate about whether writers used the short story as an apprenticeship to the novel, or whether it was a different trade

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Short stories

Skin and bones, Tom Beard

Skinning a Fish Kevin Ireland Hazard Press, $19.95 The cover illustration ‑ a cold blue etching of a grotesque deep‑sea fish screwed to a ragged knife ‑ is a spare and disturbing image that hints at a hard edge to

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

15 writers: ‘You must read this’

Tell us about the book you want to give everyone for Christmas and/or the book you hope no one gives you for Christmas, we asked twenty-four of our top writers and critics. Fifteen of them dared to respond.   Jenny

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Posted in Opinion
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