Blog Archives

Poem – Heather McPherson

At Rangiora’s Ashley Street Cemetery   This graveyard’s a bit like the one  where we buried my mum and dad. Oldish,  a small town Anglican acreage … ours    used to seem huge. But after farms on the state  house

See more ›

Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Poem

Letters – Issue 86

Sappho and the unspeakable If I’m a little surprised that Alan Loney joined up with the “moth to flame” industry about Sappho – which is probably little different from the industry round Homer, Virgil, Dante, Virginia Woolf or Emily Dickinson,

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Letters

Hyde and seek, Timothy G Jones

Lighted Windows: Critical Essays on Robin Hyde  Mary Edmond-Paul (ed) Otago University Press, $40.00,  ISBN 978877372582  Robin Hyde’s 1938 essay “The Singers of Loneliness”, published out of Shanghai in the T’ien Hsia Monthly, gives an account of the New Zealand

See more ›

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

Issue 86 | Winter 2009

  Volume 19 | Number 2 | Issue 86 | Winter 2009 Letters Geoff Miles: Margaret Mahy, The Magician of Hoad Stevan Eldred-Grigg: Chris Else, Gith; Anthony McCarten, Show of Hands; Stephanie Johnson, Swimmer’s Rope Joanne Drayton: Barbara Anderson, Getting

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Contents

Driven by secrets, Frances Edmond

When Sun and Moon Collide Briar Grace-Smith Huia, $21.88, ISBN 9781869693169 Sons Victor Rodger Huia, $21.88, ISBN 9781869693039 Why publish a play? Well, a book is a nice thing to hold, material and solid: a small package containing something intriguing,

See more ›

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

Brave new worlds, Joan de Hamel

The Tomorrow Code Brian Falkner   Walker Books, $19.99, ISBN 781921150340 Juno of Taris Fleur Beale    Random House, $18.99, ISBN 781869419882 About Griffen’s Heart  Tina Shaw   Longacre Press, $19.99, ISBN 87746015 Chronicles of Stone: Scorched Bone Vincent Ford 

See more ›

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

Bright fine gold, Peter Calder

Diggers, Hatters and Whores: The Story of the New Zealand Gold Rushes Stevan Eldred-Grigg Random House, $55.00, ISBN 9781869419257 In the closing pages of this comprehensive, even magisterial, historical survey, the author quotes the observation by Joan Stevens in The

See more ›

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

Debuts and returns, Linda Burgess

Enemy at the Gate  Philippa Werry Scholastic New Zealand, $17.99  ISBN 9781869438135 Old Drumble  Jack Lasenby  HarperCollins, $16.99, ISBN 978169506742 Chicken Feathers  Joy Cowley and David Elliot (illus) Puffin Books, $17.95, ISBN 9780143303909 Five (and a bit) Days in the

See more ›

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

Cannibalism and communion, Andrew Fieldsend

This Horrid Practice: The Myth and Reality of Traditional Maori Cannibalism Paul Moon Penguin Books, $40.00, ISBN 9780143006718 Macaulay said that history was sometimes fiction, sometimes theory. But Paul Moon’s provocative and controversial book sets out to establish objective facts

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review

Between rocks and hard places, David Hill

The Real McKay Graham Bishop Otago University Press, $45.00,  ISBN 9781877372223 The Amazing World of James Hector  Simon Nathan and Mary Varnham (eds) Awa Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780958275071 The first time I went on a Geological Society field trip, we

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review
Search the archive
Search by category