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Tripping our light fantastic, Adrienne Simpson

Fantasy and Folly: the lost world of New Zealand musicals 1880-1940 Peter Harcourt Steele Roberts, $39.95, ISBN 1877228656 The dearth of published research on the history of entertainment in New Zealand would be reason enough to welcome the late Peter

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Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review

The triumph of reinvention, Mary Varnham

Wellington – The First Years of European Settlement 1840-1850 Gavin McLean Penguin Books, $29.95, ISBN 0140288635 Wellington’s Heritage – plants, gardens, and landscape Winsome Shepherd Te Papa Press, $49.95, ISBN 0909010730 Kirkcaldie & Stains – A Wellington Story Julia Millen

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Posted in History, Memoir, Natural History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

1905: A Sports Odyssey, Adrienne Simpson

The Book of Fame Lloyd Jones Penguin, $29.95, ISBN 0140296948 New Zealanders love sport. The truth of this frequently-heard comment is daily demonstrated by the amount of space our newspapers allocate to sporting activities. Success on the cricket pitch, putting

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

An opportunity missed, Adrienne Simpson

Strangers in Paradise Jonathan Eisen and Katherine Joyce Smith (eds), Random Century/Vintage, Auckland, 1991, $24.95 There can be no better antidote to hubris than to see ourselves as others see us. A dispassionate observer can pinpoint our foibles and frailties,

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

On the world’s opera stage: 19 New Zealand singers, Roger Flury

Southern Voices; international singers of New Zealand Adrienne Simpson and Peter Downes, Reed Books, Auckland, 1992, $45 The timing of Adrienne Simpson’s and Peter Downes’s admirable Southern Voices could hardly be more propitious. With opera in New Zealand once again approaching the level

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Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review

High standards and fine judgement, Marian Minson

Opera in New Zealand: Aspects of History and Performance,  Adrienne Simpson (ed), Witham Press (PO Box 28-074), Wellington, 1990, $24.95 Since her recent return to New Zealand, Wellington musical historian Adrienne Simpson has made a strong impact with regular talks

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Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
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