The Conductor Sarah Quigley Vintage, $39.99, ISBN 9781869795061 Any author setting out to write a novel with a man or woman of acknowledged genius at its centre is setting herself a Herculean task. When the genius is also a…
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If music be … Elspeth Sandys
Tagged with: Elspeth Sandys, Issue 95, Sarah Quigley, Spring 2011, Vintage
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Frightening truths, Elspeth Sandys
Hand Me Down World Lloyd Jones Penguin Books, $40.00, ISBN 9780143205098 Let me start by nailing my colours to the mast. Despite my aversion to the idea of “best” books, whether it take the form of lists (the top…
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Tagged with: Autumn 2011, Elspeth Sandys, Issue 93, Lloyd Jones, Penguin Books
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Always a price to pay, Elspeth Sandys
Living as a Moon Owen Marshall Vintage, $34.99, ISBN 9781869792510 Opening Owen Marshall’s latest collection of short stories, beginning, somewhat apprehensively, to read, I wondered if the faint niggle I always feel when I read Marshall’s work would stay with…
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Tagged with: Elspeth Sandys, Issue 91, Owen Marshall, Spring 2010, Vintage
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Might and rights, Elspeth Sandys
Field Punishment No 1: Archibald Baxter, Mark Briggs and New Zealand’s Anti-Militarist Tradition David Grant, paintings by Bob Kerr Steele Roberts, $34.99, ISBN 9781877448461 In his introduction to Field Punishment No 1, David Grant expresses his satisfaction that New Zealand…
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Tagged with: Autumn 2010, Bob Kerr, David Grant, Elspeth Sandys, Issue 89, Steele Roberts
Posted in Art, History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Art, History, Non-fiction, Review
Whisper and shuffle, Elspeth Sandys
Adam’s Ale Bronwyn Tate Brava Publications, $30.00, ISBN 9780473133986 Reading a novel written while the author was dying and published posthumously, is, inevitably, an experience tinged with sadness. I knew Bronwyn Tate only slightly, but I admit I’ve been unable…
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Tagged with: Brava Publications, Bronwyn Tate, Elspeth Sandys, Issue 84, Summer 2008
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Poem – Elspeth Sandys
Bold words, Elspeth Sandys
The Story of a New Zealand River Jane Mander Random House, $29.99, ISBN 9781869413897 I have been a fan of The Story of a New Zealand River ever since my discovery of it in a secondhand bookshop in London in…
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Tagged with: Autumn 2008, Elspeth Sandys, Issue 81, Jane Mander, Random House
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Worlds away, Elspeth Sandys
Shadow Waters Chris Baker Huia, $27.00, ISBN 1869692357 Black Earth White Bones Chris Else Random House, $27.99, ISBN 9781869418625 Overdue New Releases Matt Johnson Longacre Press, $29.99, ISBN 1877361429 Holocaust Tours Julian Novitz Vintage, $27.99, ISBN 9781869417284 Apart from the…
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Tagged with: Chris Baker, Chris Else, Elspeth Sandys, Huia, Issue 80, Julian Novitz, Longacre Press, Matt Johnson, Random House, Summer 2007, Vintage
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Sherry with Olive, Elspeth Sandys
Elspeth Sandys finds that a room of one’s own – no matter where or next to whom – is still something to write home about. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a writer needs a room of her…
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