Blog Archives

To-ing and fro-ing, John O’Leary

Henry Lawson in New Zealand Charles Ferrall (ed) Steele Roberts, $29.99, ISBN 9781877577390   Who could be more Australian than Henry Lawson? He was born on a New South Wales goldfield, wandered and worked in the outback, and wrote stories

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Posted in History, Literature, Review

Brave new world of publishing, John McCrystal

The Spanish Helmet Greg Scowen Whare Rama Books, $32.99, ISBN 9781463558482   Coast David Carnegie Young Vanguard Press, $38.00, ISBN 9781843866855   No Second Chance Mark Stephenson Steele Roberts, $29.99, ISBN 9781877577345   Zhu Mao Mark Sweet Huia, $30.00, ISBN

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Into the light, Paul Thompson

Early New Zealand Photography, Images and Essays Angela Wanhalla and Erika Wolf (eds) Otago University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9781877578168   I must admit that I don’t usually go around thinking of photographs as “culturally conditioned visual communications systems” but, on

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Photography, Review

Closing the spaces between, Filma Anne Punakitere Phillips

Words Between Us/ He Korero: First Maori-Pakeha Conversations on Paper Alison Jones and Kuni Jenkins Huia, $45.00, ISBN 9781869694784   Aotearoa/New Zealand as a place of encounter, a zone of contact and kanohi ki te kanohi. Face-to-face meetings during the

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Posted in Essays, History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review

The peculiar business, Laurie Atkinson

Katydid  Lucy O’Brien Playmarket, $22.50, ISBN 9780908607419   No 8 Wire: Eight Plays, Eight Decades  Playmarket, $30.00, ISBN 9780908607426   Plays 2: London Calling: Blue Sky Boys/John, I’m Only Dancing/Waterloo Sunset Ken Duncum Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780864736840  

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Posted in Literature, Plays

Ongoing investigations, Bernard Carpinter

Death on Demand Paul Thomas Hodder Moa, $36.99, ISBN 9781869712334   Traces of Red Paddy Richardson Penguin, $30.00, ISBN 9780143565765   Bound Vanda Symon Penguin, $30.00, ISBN 9780143565277   Ihaka is back – and about time, too. It’s around 15

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Posted in Fiction, Literature

Draft 17 anyone? David Eggleton

Dunedin Soundings: Place and Performance Dan Bendrups and Graeme Downes (eds) Otago University Press, $40.00, ISBN 978 877578229   With the possible exception of Chris Knox, the “Dunedin Sound” was never driven by charismatic personalities. Instead, it consisted of a

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Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review

The love we live by, Pinky Agnew

Dear Heart: 150 New Zealand Poems Paula Green (ed) Godwit, $36.99, ISBN 9781869797621   Appropriately for a book of love poems, Dear Heart: 150 New Zealand Poems is lovely to look at and to hold. Equally appropriately, closer acquaintance reveals

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Truth eating, Harry Ricketts

Inside Outside Brian Turner Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 9780864736536   Coming Ashore Peter Bland Steele Roberts, $19.99, ISBN 9781877577499   Fly Boy Jeffrey Paparoa Holman Steele Roberts, $19.99, ISBN 97818544125   “I seek to honour/the truculent/genesis of living,” states

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Poem – C K Stead

The Silence The dead we think are gone except when dreams return them. So it was Frank Sargeson took me aside in Hell and said, “You know, my friend, the ways the wind among the reeds is used by shaman

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