Blog Archives
Mind that Child: A Medical Memoir Simon Rowley with Adam Dudding Penguin, $35.00, ISBN 9780143771982 We can Make a Life: A Memoir of Family, Earthquake and Courage Chessie Henry Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9781776561940 Dr Simon Rowley is a…
The Unconventional Career of Dr Muriel Bell Diana Brown Otago University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9781988531304 Perhaps some are surprised that a scientist whose impact on New Zealand’s health, particularly the health of women and children, could have been, up until…
Doctors in Denial: The Forgotten Women in the “Unfortunate Experiment” Ronald W Jones Otago University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780947522438 My first acquaintance with National Women’s Hospital was as a final-year medical student in 1968. It was an unpleasant experience of…
The Edge of Life: Controversies and Challenges in Human Health Mike Berridge BWB Texts, $15.00, ISBN 9780909321339 BWB Texts is publishing a series of “Short books on big topics by great New Zealand writers” each month. They are edited by…
The Healthy Country? A History of Life and Death in New Zealand Alistair Woodward and Tony Blakely Auckland University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9781869408138 Non-Māori New Zealanders lived longer than any other peoples on earth between 1876 and 1940. Figuring out…
Rough on Women: Abortion in 19th Century New Zealand Margaret Sparrow Victoria University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780864739360 Someone I follow on Twitter reported that a friend of hers had no idea that abortion is yet to be decriminalised in New…
Sorrows of a Century: Interpreting Suicide in New Zealand, 1900-2000 John C Weaver Bridget Williams Books, $60.00, ISBN 9781927277232 All of us seek happiness, Pascal declared centuries ago, even at the point of a warm gun. “This is without exception,”…
The Rise and Fall of National Women’s Hospital Linda Bryder Auckland University Press ISBN 9781869408091 Many readers will be familiar with the furore which arose when Linda Bryder‘s A History of the ‘Unfortunate Experiment’ at National Women’s Hospital (2009) concluded…
Being a Doctor: Understanding Medical Practice Hamish Wilson and Wayne Cunningham Otago University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9781877578366 I have been a doctor for 45 years. How I wish that this volume had been available 46 years ago. I emerged from…
Democratic Governance and Health: Hospitals, Politics and Health Policy in New Zealand Miriam J Laugesen and Robin Gauld Otago University Press, $40.00. ISBN 9781877578 274 I have long puzzled over the point of local democracy in the highly centralised state…