Blog Archives
Streets, waters, winds, Kirsty Gunn
A Strange Beautiful Excitement: Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington 1888 – 1903 Redmer Yska Otago University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780947522544 “There is a handful of writers” begins Vincent O’Sullivan’s introduction to a rare and illuminating account of the city in which Katherine…
Tagged with: Issue 120, Kirsty Gunn, Otago University Press, Redmer Yska, Summer 2017
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
“Loneliness was his condition”, Owen Marshall
Notes From the Margins: The West Coast’s Peter Hooper Pat White Frontiers Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780473380663 A journey is a kind of endless forgetting. The boys lived only in the present, seeking a river crossing, probing a thorny thicket for…
Tagged with: Frontiers Press, Issue 120, Owen Marshall, Pat White, Summer 2017
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Nosing out the story, Lawrence Patchett
Breaking Ranks: Three Interrupted Lives James McNeish HarperCollins, $35.00, ISBN 9781775540908 Partway through Breaking Ranks: Three Interrupted Lives, James McNeish stops his narrative to admit his own bias. “At this point,” he writes, “I had better come clean and declare…
Tagged with: HarperCollins, Issue 120, James McNeish, Lawrence Patchett, Summer 2017
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
The long and the short of it, Jock Phillips
A Peculiar Gentleman: George Rusden – A Life John O’Leary Australian Scholarly, $50.00, ISBN 9781925333404 The World, the Flesh and the Devil: The Life and Opinions of Samuel Marsden in England and the Antipodes, 1765-1838 Andrew Sharp Auckland University Press,…
Tagged with: Andrew Sharp, Auckland University Press, Australian Scholarly, George Rusden, Issue 118, Jock Phillips, John O’Leary, Samuel Marsden, Winter 2017
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Devouring the monster within, Jon Johansson
Crossing the Floor: The Story of Tariana Turia Helen Leahy Huia, $45.00, ISBN 9781775501633 In Helen Leahy’s Crossing the Floor: The Story of Tariana Turia, a tale is told about Tūtaeporoporo, a taniwha taking the form of a shark. Tūtaeporoporo…
Tagged with: Helen Leahy, Huia, Issue 116, Jon Johansson, Summer 2016
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Undesirables and worthies, John O’Leary
The Girl Who Stole Stockings: The True Story of Susannah Noon and the Women of the Convict Ship Friends Elsbeth Hardie Australian Teachers of Media, $40.00, ISBN 9781876467241 May Your Shadow Never Grow Less: The Life and Times of Henry…
Tagged with: Australian Teachers of Media, Elsbeth Hardie, Fraser Books, Helen Thomas, Issue 116, John O’Leary, Summer 2016
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review
Dazzling, dizzying cornucopias Stella Ramage
Marcus King: Painting New Zealand for the World Peter Alsop and Warren Feeney Potton & Burton, $80.00, ISBN 9781927213704 Vivid: The Paul Hartigan Story Don Abbott RF Books, $65.00, ISBN 9780473337117 Marcus King and Paul Hartigan belong to that interesting…
Tagged with: Don Abbott, Issue 114, Peter Alsop, Potton & Burton, RF Books, Stella Ramage, Warren Feeney, Winter 2016
Posted in Art, Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Art, Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Rescuing an heroic figure, Jane Westaway
Petals & Bullets: Dorothy Morris, New Zealand Nurse in the Spanish Civil War Mark Derby Potton and Burton, $40.00, ISBN 9781927213766 In the preface to Mark Derby’s new book, Spanish War historian Angela Jackson writes of the challenge in recounting…
Tagged with: Dorothy Morris, Issue 114, Jane Westaway, Mark Derby, Potton and Burton, Winter 2016
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review, War
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review, War
Air-brushed, Nicholas Reid
Helen Clark: Inside Stories Claudia Pond Eyley and Dan Salmon (eds) Auckland University Press, $40.00, ISBN 978186940 8381 She led the parliamentary Labour Party for 15 years and served for nine years as New Zealand’s first elected woman prime minister.…
Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Claudia Pond Eyley, Dan Salmon, Helen Clark, Issue 114, Nicholas Reid, Winter 2016
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Hero worship, Gyles Beckford
A Few Hares to Chase: The Life and Economics of Bill Phillips Alan Bollard Auckland University Press, $40.00 ISBN 9781869408299 The sages have long counselled that you should never meet your heroes. Should that be extended to writing about them?…
Tagged with: Alan Bollard, Auckland University Press, Bill Phillips, Gyles Beckford, Issue 114, Winter 2016
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review