Blog Archives
Letters – Issue 49
Not letting the facts interfere Stevan Eldred-Grigg’s review of Southern Capital was the most spiteful, vindictive and unprofessional review I have seen for a very long time. We learn that Eldred-Grigg actively dislikes the University of Canterbury’s History Department, and…
Beyond shock, Shelagh Duckham Cox
Room Laurence Fearnley Victoria University Press, $24.95, ISBN 0864733909 Dr Amelia Walsh is an abortionist and the room of the title is her consulting room. A succession of women sit in her patient’s chair and respond in various ways to…
Tagged with: August 2001, Autumn 2001, Issue 49, Laurence Fearnley, Shelagh Duckham Cox, Victoria University Press
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Poem – Peter Bland
A meeting in Barcelona For Louis Johnson (1924 – 1988) I glimpsed your ghost today, disguised as a tourist, visiting Picasso’s favourite brothel. The one where he painted those cubist nudes with their stranglers’ hands and fetishist faces. Ugly…
A slimming diet, Rose Lovell-Smith
Scarface and the Angel William Taylor Longacre Press, $14.95, ISBN 1877135445 Afterwards David Hill Mallinson Rendel, $14.95, ISBN 090878354X Twenty-Four Hours Margaret Mahy Collins, $16.95, ISBN 0007113722 Leon Frances Cherry Mallinson Rendel, $14.95, ISBN 0908783582 Here’s a batch of four…
Tagged with: August 2001, Autumn 2001, Collins, David Hill, Frances Cherry, Issue 49, Longacre Press, Mallinson Rendel, Margaret Mahy, Rose Lovell-Smith, William Taylor
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults
Way down South, Peter Beck
A Wise Adventure: New Zealand and Antarctica 1920-1960 Malcolm Templeton Victoria University Press, with the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Wellington, $39.95, ISBN 0864734034 Antarctica is often presented as “a pole apart” because of its peripheral location, geographical isolation,…
Tagged with: August 2001, Autumn 2001, Issue 49, Malcolm Templeton, New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Peter Beck, Victoria University Press
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Tolling on, James Brown
The Bells of Saint Babel’s: Poems 1997-2001 Allen Curnow Auckland University Press, $19.95, ISBN 1869402421 There is much to admire in Curnow’s first completely new book since The Loop in Lone Kauri Road (1986). To the fore is his great…
Tagged with: Allen Curnow, Auckland University Press, August 2001, Autumn 2001, Issue 49, James Brown
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Fragile as corrugated iron, Kim Hill
Angel of the Anzacs: The Life of Nola Luxford Carol van Grondelle Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 0864733976 Nola Luxford left New Zealand in 1919, at the age of 23, for Hollywood. She never quite made the Big Time in…
Tagged with: August 2001, Autumn 2001, Carol van Grondelle, Issue 49, Kim Hill, Victoria University Press
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
“Life in one’s mouth”, Peter Bland
Louis Johnson: Selected Poems ed Terry Sturm Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 086473350X There’s a short poem by Louis Johnson which I’ve always admired. It’s called “Intemperance” and it tells us a lot in a very short space, both about…
Tagged with: August 2001, Autumn 2001, Issue 49, Peter Bland, Terry Sturm, Victoria University Press
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
To be a pilgrim, Susan Paris
As Fair as New Zealand to Me: New Zealand Writers in Katherine Mansfield’s Menton Victoria University Press, $24.95, ISBN 0864733984 The French Riviera … not the most obvious place to spend time concentrating on your writing. But because of Mansfield’s…
Tagged with: August 2001, Autumn 2001, Issue 49, Katherine Mansfield, Susan Paris, Victoria University Press
Posted in Essays, Literature, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Essays, Literature, Non-fiction, Review
Robber barons, worker rebels, Gavin McLean
British Capital, Antipodean Labour: Working the New Zealand Waterfront 1915-1951 Anna Green Otago University Press, $39.95, ISBN 187713399X A few weeks ago, a retired port agency manager asked me who was “this Anna Green lady” and did I know anything…
Tagged with: Anna Green, August 2001, Autumn 2001, Gavin McLean, Issue 49, Otago University Press
Posted in Health, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Posted in Health, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review