Blog Archives

Our biggest brashest city, Diane Brown

Auckland before the Harbour Bridge Graham Stewart Grantham House, $69.95, ISBN 1869340868. Almighty Auckland? ed Ian Carter, David Craig and Steve Matthewman Dunmore Press, $34.95, ISBN 0864694520 History is big these days but it wasn’t when I was young. My

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Men (mostly) behaving well, W K Hastings

Gay Men, Sex and HIV Heather Worth Dunmore Press, $39.95, ISBN 864694342 As chief censor, I recently classified The Gift, a documentary directed by Louise Hogarth about gay men’s relationships with a virus. It interviews men who “bareback”, who choose

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Posted in Gender, Health, Non-fiction, Review

Steady as she goes, Colin James

Holyoake’s Lieutenants ed Margaret Clark Dunmore Press, $29.95, ISBN 8864694369 I came across Norm Shelton a day or two after Jack Marshall sacked him in February 1972 at the end of the Holyoake era. He had a pile of complimentary

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Figuring out art history, Damian Skinner

FigureWork: The Nude and Life Modelling in New Zealand Art Sandra Chesterman University of Otago Press, $59.95, ISBN 1877276375 The Image Always Has the Last Word: On Contemporary New Zealand Painting and Photography Laurence Simmons Dunmore Press, $49.95, ISBN 0864694121

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Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review

Journalism without the mortgage, Verica Rupar

What’s News? Reclaiming Journalism in New Zealand ed Judy McGregor and Margie Comrie Dunmore Press, $37.95, ISBN 0864694164 When Bogey whispers “Kid”, the clocks stop. When Ingrid Bergman asks “Was that cannon fire, or is it my heart pounding?”, the

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Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review

Hard lines, David Grant

The Crisis in New Zealand Schools Martin Hames Education Forum in Association with Dunmore Press, $29.95, ISBN 0864694105 My initial reaction was that The Crisis in New Zealand schools would be redolent with jargon and full of half-truths and misinformation

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Posted in Education, Non-fiction, Review

A bob each way, Jon Gadsby

The Other Side Of The Ditch: A cartoon century in the New Zealand-Australia relationship Ian F Grant Tandem Press, $19.95, ISBN 0958232008 Thoroughbreds, Trainers, Toffs and Tic Tac Men: A Cartoon History of Horse Racing in New Zealand David Grant

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Posted in History, Media, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Rescue mission, Nicholas Reid

A Fair and Just Solution – a History of the Integration of Private Schools in New Zealand  Rory Sweetman Dunmore Press, $34.95, ISBN 0864694148 Once upon a time there were, theoretically, two school systems in New Zealand. There were state

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Posted in Education, Non-fiction, Review

Digging through the permafrost, Stephen Levine

Season of Discontent: By-elections and the Bolger Government Raymond Miller and Helena Catt, Dunmore Publishing, 1993, $29.95 The “season of discontent” to which this book refers began within weeks of National’s victory in October 1990. When the Bolger Government found

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Finishing us off, Margaret Clark

Unfinished Business Roger Douglas, Random House, $29.95 The Tragedy of the Market Mike O’Brien and Chris Wilkes, Dunmore Publishing, $27.95 I remember the first time I set eyes on David Lange. The then recently elected member for Mangere had long,

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
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