Accusation: A Wife’s Story Mary Fielding (with Jane Westaway) Longacre Press, $29.95, ISBN 1877361151 ”J’accuse!” (I accuse!). Just over 100 years ago Emile Zola’s article in Le Figaro on the Dreyfus Affair appeared beneath this bold headline, and helped to…
In the Air Henare te Ua Reed, $34.99, ISBN 0790010119 Henare te Ua, grandson of Sir Apirana Ngata, cousin of Witi Ihimaera, takes us on a journey spanning the period from the 1930s to the end of the century; through…
Black and White John Tamihere (with Helen Bain) Reed, $29.95, ISBN 0790009641 Few politicians these days have lives interesting enough to write about, let alone turn into saleable books. No one is going to queue up at Whitcoulls for Steve…
Ghost dance Douglas Wright Penguin, $39.95, ISBN 0143019031 It’s tempting, when looking to praise a good book from someone who has made their mark in another sphere, to damn them with the feint praise of “natural writer”. As if their…
Good as Goldie: the amazing story of New Zealand’s most famous art forger Karl F Sim (C F Goldie) and Tim Wilson Hodder Moa Beckett, $35, ISBN 1869589076 You know me as a forger, but I’ve had more lives…
Everest – Summit of Achievement Stephen Venables Allen & Unwin, $79.95, ISBN 1741140668 Everest – 50 Years on Top of the World George Band Collins, $49.95, ISBN 0007147481 High Adventure: Our Ascent of Everest Sir Edmund Hillary Allen & Unwin,…
Mihipeka: Call of an Elder Karanga a te kuia Mihi Edwards Steele Roberts, $29.95, ISBN 1877228222 The Tribes of Muriwhenua: Their Origins and Stories Dorothy Urlich Cloher (Maori translation by Merimeri Penfold) Auckland University Press, $29.95, ISBN 1869402693 Rere atu,…
Barbed Wire Between Us: A story of love and war Derek Round Random House, $29.95, ISBN 1869415248 Last of the Whalers: Charlie Heberley’s Story Heather Heberley Cape Catley, $29.95, ISBN 0908561903 In Search of Elisa Marchetti: A Writer’s Search for…
Somebodies and Nobodies Brian Turner Vintage, $34.95 ISBN 1869415078 Few autobiographies return us to scrutinising our own lives. I’ve just had – suffered – that experience reading Brian Turner’s Somebodies and Nobodies. It covers his first 25 years, from birth…
Life (and death) in a Small City Garden Philippa Swan Godwit, $24.95, ISBN 1869620798 In the vast and varied field of literature, gardens and writing are a classic pairing. Well-told stories of personal experience are few and far between, grist to…