Blog Archives
What’s been lost, Louise O’Brien
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
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Can Auckland be saved? Redmer Yska
The Life and Times of Auckland Gordon McLauchlan Penguin Books, $40.00, ISBN 9780143007500 Urban Village: The Story of Ponsonby, Freemans Bay and St Mary’s Bay Jenny Carlyon and Diana Morrow Random House, $70.00, ISBN 9781869418373 New Local Government Minister Rodney…
Tagged with: Autumn 2009, Diana Morrow, Gordon McLauchlan, Issue 85, Jenny Carlyon, Penguin Books, Random House, Redmer Yska
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Lives of nouns and adjectives, Gordon McLauchlan
A Fish in the Swim of the World Ben Brown Longacre, $34.99, ISBN 1877361410 Family Silver Richard Shallcrass Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 0864735332 Something for the Birds Jacqueline Fahey Auckland University Press, $39.99, ISBN 186940355X Terra Incognito Douglas Wright…
Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Autumn 2007, Ben Brown, Douglas Wright, Gordon McLauchlan, Issue 77, Jacqueline Fahey, Longacre, Penguin, Richard Shallcrass, Victoria University Press
Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review
Word-drunk in Auckland, Gordon McLauchlan
Auckland Writers and Readers Festival 2006 The announcement that The Sea had won last year’s Man Booker prize came through while I was reading it, and I have to confess I was perplexed and then annoyed – both by the…
An end to cultural thumb-sucking, Gordon McLauchlan
Great New Zealand Argument: Ideas About Ourselves ed Russell Brown Activity Press, $29.95, ISBN 95826340X For decades after 1930, a year seldom passed without a book or long magazine article by a New Zealander or a visiting scholar examining New…
Telling it like it was (perhaps), David Hill
A Life’s Sentences Gordon McLauchlan Penguin, $39.95, ISBN 0143019163 Sorry, I’m a Stranger Here Myself Peter Bland Vintage, $29.95, ISBN 1869416325 Both these books call themselves/are called memoirs. I’ve never liked the word; I find a back-of-hand-to-brow affectation in it.…
Tagged with: David Hill, Gordon McLauchlan, Issue 67, Penguin, Peter Bland, Spring 2004, Vintage
Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review
Lifting the lid of the national box, Stevan Eldred-Grigg
The Penguin History of New Zealand Michael King Penguin, $29.95, ISBN 0143018671 A Short History of New Zealand Gordon McLauchlan Penguin, $29.95, ISBN 0143019082 One day at the start of the 21st century, happening to be staying in a hotel…
Tagged with: Autumn 2004, Gordon McLauchlan, Issue 65, Michael King, Penguin, Stevan Eldred-Grigg
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Editorial — Issue 61
Copycat crime A few decades ago a newspaper ran in full without permission a crucial chapter of an enthusiastically awaited political book on the eve of its publication. I remember this for the copyright dispute it provoked more than for…
Reviewing the reviewers, Gordon McLauchlan
Posted in Comment