Blog Archives

Shocks and conversations, Mark Williams

Posted on May 26, 2019 by NZ Books

The Friday Poem: 100 New Zealand Poems
Steve Braunias (ed)
David Bateman, $25.00,
ISBN 9780473450281

Short Poems of New Zealand
Jenny Bornholdt (ed)
Victoria University Press, $35.00,
ISBN 9781776562022

Two new poetry anthologies: one featuring beautifully composed small poems selected across the New Zealand literary landscape from Arnold Wall, born in 1869, to twelve-year-old “Mary”; in the other, poems published between 2015 and 2018 that are various in length, sometimes full of delinquency, and keen to display a spikey newness.

Tagged with: David Bateman, Issue 126, Jenny Bornholdt, Mark Williams, Steve Braunias, Winter 2019
Posted in Literature, Poetry

Not just bits of cloth, Jennifer Shennan

Posted on December 5, 2015 by NZ Books

New Zealand’s Historic Samplers – Our Stitched Stories
Vivien Caughley
David Bateman, $50.00
ISBN 9781869538668

Vivien Caughley’s opening definition of a sampler is “an embroidered cloth which records a stitched pattern, often the alphabet and numerals, sometimes pictures, and stitch techniques … They often commemorate events personal and national.” Through the 160 following pages, we learn much from the intriguing strands of story that Caughley draws from her selection of “self-expression with needle and thread” found in national, regional and private collections throughout the country. We readily concur with her closing ascription of samplers, not as “just bits of cloth” but as “another way history can be studied and illustrated”.

Tagged with: David Bateman, Issue 112, Jennifer Shennan, Summer 2015, Vivien Caughley
Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review

Those are pearls that were his eyes, Lindsay Missen

Posted on June 9, 2015 by NZ Books

Fingers: Jewellery for Aotearoa New Zealand: 40 Years of Fingers Jewellery Gallery
Damian Skinner and Finn McCahon-Jones
David Bateman, $60.00,
ISBN 9781869538620

Place and Adornment: A History of Contemporary Jewellery in Australia and New Zealand
Damian Skinner and Kevin Murray
David Bateman, $70.00,
ISBN 9781869538200

If you have an interest in New Zealand craft jewellery, it’s very likely you’ll enjoy Fingers: Jewellery for Aotearoa New Zealand: 40 Years of Fingers Jewellery Gallery. The layout is a scrapbookish mélange of photos of work, reproductions of associated print design, and numerous group shots of the principal craftspeople involved. If you’re old enough to recall the four decades covered, here is a treasure trove of illustrative material to be searched through and remembered.

Tagged with: Damian Skinner, David Bateman, Finn McCahon-Jones, Issue 110, Kevin Murray, Lindsay Missen, Winter 2015
Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review

Unicorn in the cabbage patch, Desmond Bovey

Posted on June 1, 2013 by NZ Books

Aesop’s Kiwi Fables: Paintings Ray Ching David Bateman, $50.00, ISBN 9781869538453 I spotted Ray Ching’s new book, Aesop’s Kiwi Fables, in our local post office-cum-bookstore. I stopped buying picture books some time ago; they have become so glossily tempting that…

Tagged with: David Bateman, Desmond Bovey, Issue 102, Ray Ching, Winter 2013
Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review

Glamorous facelift, Stella Ramage

Posted on March 1, 2013 by NZ Books

Two Hundred and Forty Years of New Zealand Painting Gil Docking (with additions covering 1970-1990 by Michael Dunn and 1990-2010 by Edward Hanfling) David Bateman, $100.00, ISBN 9781869538040 Publishers presumably ask themselves some questions before undertaking a new book. What…

Tagged with: Autumn 2013, David Bateman, Edward Hanfling, Gil Docking, Issue 101, Michael Dunn, Stella Ramage
Posted in Art, History, Non-fiction, Review

Eminent people and unmade beds, Ann Beaglehole

Posted on March 1, 2013 by NZ Books

My Life in Two Halves: A Memoir Betty Gilderdale David Bateman, $30.00, ISBN 978186953832 Before I Forget Jacqueline Fahey Auckland University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781869405816 The Lost Woman Sydney Smith Text, $40.00, ISBN 9781921922480 Freud, who supposedly said that he…

Tagged with: Ann Beaglehole, Auckland University Press, Autumn 2013, Betty Gilderdale, David Bateman, Issue 101, Jacqueline Fahey, Sydney Smith, Text
Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review

What’s been lost, Louise O’Brien

Posted on September 1, 2012 by NZ Books

The Silence Beyond: Selected Writings Michael King (introduction by Rachael King) Penguin, $42.00, ISBN 9780143565567 The Passionless People Revisited Gordon McLauchlan David Bateman, $30.00, ISBN 9781869537906 The Silence Beyond is a new and posthumous selection of rare and…

Tagged with: David Bateman, Gordon McLauchlan, Issue 99, Louise O’Brien, Michael King, Penguin, Rachael King, Spring 2012
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Minding the gap, Tom Brooking

Posted on March 1, 2012 by NZ Books

People, People, People: A Brief History of New Zealand Stevan Eldred-Grigg David Bateman, $24.95, ISBN 9781869538132 In 1980 Stevan Eldred-Grigg wrote a provocative study of the great estate owners of the South Island which proved beyond any semblance of doubt…

Tagged with: Autumn 2012, David Bateman, Issue 97, Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Tom Brooking
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Like granny used to, Tony Simpson

Posted on September 1, 2010 by NZ Books

New Zealand Food and Cookery David Burton David Bateman, $59.99, ISBN 9781860537289 Over the last two or three years it has been almost impossible to turn on the television in the early evening or to go into a bookshop…

Tagged with: David Bateman, David Burton, Issue 91, Spring 2010, Tony Simpson
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Maori territory, Mark Derby

Posted on December 1, 2009 by NZ Books

Nga Tama Toa: The Price of Citizenship: C Company 28 (Maori) Battalion 1939-1945 Monty Soutar David Bateman, $69.99, ISBN 9781869535933 The East Coast leader Apirana Ngata, for all his political and rhetorical gifts and his unquestioned public-spiritedness, could evidently be…

Tagged with: David Bateman, Issue 88, Mark Derby, Monty Soutar, Summer 2009
Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review, War