Fantasy London flat C K Stead thinks I am having a “fantasy” about a meeting I had with Dr Michael Bassett at Parliament in 1989 (NZB Summer 2009). Perhaps he has confused one meeting I describe with a later one.…
London flat Sue McCauley’s review of Fiona Kidman’s Beside the Dark Pool (NZB Spring 2009) slides over the chapter on the London flat purchase with vague dark nods of acceptance and approval and without questioning the facts. For me,…
From the heart Linda Burgess’ review of Chicken Feathers in the Winter issue of NZB was warm and kind and I thank her for that. She made a comment that has been echoed by other reviewers, that the book was…
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,…
Marsh in production In his review of Joanne Drayton’s Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime (NZB, Summer 2008), Murray Bramwell regrets the lack of anecdotes that would give some “sense of Marsh’s strategies and style as a director”. On my…
Balance before vitriol I was sorry to read Graeme Hunt’s letter (NZB Winter 2008) in which he takes offence at Trevor Richards’ admirable review of Spies and Revolutionaries (NZB Autumn 2008). Hunt demands novel admissions from his reviewer – first,…
Apology Awa Press have quite rightly pointed out to me that I did indeed give them permission to quote some of my words on the preceding Radio New Zealand series of talks as a blurb for their The Transit Of…
Frame stories wanted I am compiling a collection of anecdotes and urban legends about the late Janet Frame and her family members, and would be grateful to receive any contributions to this genre at: patrick.evans@canterbury.ac.nz or c/- English Programme, University…
Gender reassignment Thanks for the kind review of my story “The Sea as Past” (NZB Spring 2007, p26). And my gratitude also for the gender reassignment: it has been a most enlightening experience, and far less painful than is sometimes…
Against the grain Please allow me to correct errors of fact and interpretation in Martin Edmond’s review of my biography of Mervyn Taylor (NZB, Winter 2007). Edmond claims Taylor’s “best, and best-known, works are woodblock prints”. They are not. So…
