Blog Archives

Issue 62 | March 2004

  Volume 14 | Number 1 | Issue 62 | March 2004 Garth Baker: Ron Palenski, Century in Black: 100 Years of All Black Test Rugby; Paul Verdon, Heritage: Golden Years of All Black Rugby; Bob Howitt and Diane Haworth,

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Contents

“Something like a cult”, Margaret Clark

Treasury: The New Zealand Treasury 1840-2000 Malcolm McKinnon Auckland University Press, $50, ISBN 1869402960 At the launch of this book a former assistant secretary to the Treasury pointed out to me that this is an administrative history of the Treasury,

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Forerunner or footnote? Kim Worthington

Mason: The Life of R A K Mason Rachel Barrowman Victoria University Press, $49.95, ISBN 0864734638 Many people will be familiar with the broad outline of the life of the man Allen Curnow called New Zealand’s “first wholly original, unmistakably

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Hills, weather, houses, Norman Bilbrough

Why Go To The Riviera: Images of Wellington Peter Shaw Godwit, $99.95, ISBN 1869621018 When Evelyn Page arrived in Wellington in 1947 she was captured by the capital’s energy and bustle. She often painted scenes from her car, even obtaining

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review

A stitch-up, Louise O’Brien

Hummingbird James George Huia, $34.95, ISBN 1877283665 The Mango’s Kiss Albert Wendt Vintage, $34.95, ISBN 1869415809 Hummingbird, James George’s second and very readable novel, recounts the unlikely convergence of four sharply drawn characters, who, for very different reasons, find themselves

See more ›

Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Letters – Issue 62

Well said, Elspeth! Congratulations to Elspeth Sandys on her Comment piece in the December New Zealand Books, “In search of the ‘good’ writer”. My own choice of a good writer but not so good human being would have been Evelyn

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Letters

Girl behind the good keen man, Jane Tolerton

When did I first see the cover of Jean Watson’s Stand in he Rain – that strong, elegant black cover with a woman looking as if she has been doing exactly that? And the photograph of the author on the back

See more ›

Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Imprints

Heart of the matter, Catharina van Bohemen

The Heart Sutra Caren Wilton University of Otago Press, $29.95, ISBN 187727660X Bosom Buddies: Women’s Stories about Friendship, Love and Life  [Editor not given] Black Swan/Random House, $26.95, ISBN 1869415842 Got the T-shirt? Now buy the book. Bosom Buddies: Women’s

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , ,
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Short stories

Men (mostly) behaving well, W K Hastings

Gay Men, Sex and HIV Heather Worth Dunmore Press, $39.95, ISBN 864694342 As chief censor, I recently classified The Gift, a documentary directed by Louise Hogarth about gay men’s relationships with a virus. It interviews men who “bareback”, who choose

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Gender, Health, Non-fiction, Review

Poem – David Eggleton

The Book Reviewer   His tatty raincoat conceals a country, rolled-up sleeves reveal many wristwatches. He airily waves away rainbows of neckties and pulls a smoke from a dark pocket. But his book-side manner is a corrupt text, for, though

See more ›

Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Poem
Search the archive
Search by category