Blog Archives

A travelling life, Tony Mackle

Don’t Forget To Feed The Cat: The Travel Letters And Sketches Of Stewart Bell Maclennan
Mary Bell Thornton (ed)
The Cuba Press, $40.00,
ISBN 9781988595009

This delightful and beautifully produced book is a worthwhile read on several levels. It is a warm, human account of family life, an interesting travel book, and provides an informed abbreviated account of some of the salient features of major international museums and their collections.

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Letters, Non-fiction, Review

At large and at small, Helen Watson White

In Her Hand: Letters of Romantic-Era British Women Writers in New Zealand Collections Otago Students of Letters Department of English, University of Otago, $22.00, ISBN 9780473249818 R A Lawson: Victorian Architect of Dunedin Norman Ledgerwood (Graham Warman photographs) Historic Cemeteries

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
Posted in History, Letters, Non-fiction, Review

Reconsidering a juvenile critique, Jock Phillips

“I think I am becoming a New Zealander”: Letters of J C Beaglehole Tim Beaglehole (ed) Victoria University Press, $80.00, ISBN 9780864739025 For someone such as myself, this is an engrossing book. I had met J C Beaglehole (his preferred

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Letters, Non-fiction, Review

A pleasing oddness, Dougal McNeill

Letters of Frank Sargeson Sarah Shieff (ed) Vintage, $50.00, ISBN 9781869793333 Karatani Kojin, announcing the “end of modern Japanese literature” in 2004, caused some alarm amongst readers, despite Japan’s (for us, and comparatively) philosophically open-minded and expansive literary culture. Weren’t

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Letters, Non-fiction, Review

Curiosa and curiosa, Dale Williams

The Owl That Fell from the Sky: Stories of a Museum Curator  Brian Gill Awa Press, $35.00, ISBN 9781877551130 Stag Spooner: Wild Man from the Bush  Chris Maclean  Craig Potton Publishing, $50.00,  ISBN 9781877517686 The Indescribable Beauty: Letters Home to

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Art, Fiction, History, Letters, Literature, Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

Torn up and homesick, Joanne Drayton

A Good Mail: Letters of John Mulgan Peter Whiteford (ed) Victoria University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9780864736932   Journey to Oxford  John Mulgan (Peter Whiteford ed) Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 9780864738196   The end of John Mulgan’s life in Cairo,

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Biography, Letters, Non-fiction, Review

What we call the past, Martin Edmond

The Hungry Heart: Journeys with William Colenso Peter Wells Vintage, $49.99, ISBN 9781869794743   Give Your Thoughts Life: William Colenso’s Letters to the Editor  Ian St George (ed) Otago University Press, $60.00, ISBN 9781877578144   The Greek word historia, from

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Biography, History, Letters

Good old immortal artists, Vincent O’Sullivan

  Dear Charles Dear Janet: Frame and Brasch in Correspondence Pamela Gordon and Denis Harold (eds) Holloway Press, $250.00, ISBN 9780986461804   As I’ve thought before about the Holloway Press, it’s a tricky business to bring out works of deliberately

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Letters, Literature, Non-fiction, Review

Doing what she pleased, Jill Trevelyan

Letters on the Go: The Correspondence of Suzanne Aubert Jessie Munro (ed) Bridget Williams Books, $69.99, ISBN 9781877242427 In 1922, 87-year-old Suzanne Aubert wrote to a Raetihi farmer: Dear Mr Punch Your valuable present of another truck-load of firewood arrived

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Letters, Non-fiction, Review

It was hell, Gavin McLean

Diary of a Kiwi Soldier in World War II Cecil Coughlan (ed Garrie Coughlan) Reed, $19.99, ISBN 1007900104X No Better Death: The Great War Diaries and Letters of William G Malone ed John Crawford (with Peter Cooke) Reed, $49.99, ISBN

See more ›

Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Letters, Memoir, Non-fiction, Review, War
Search the archive
Search by category