Captain James Cook: A Biography Richard Hough Hodder & Stoughton, $54.95 Explorers do not always present easy subjects for biographers. Often the central achievements take up a relatively small portion of their lives and the doggedness and perseverance required for…
Live from the Battlefield Peter Arnett Hodder & Stoughton, $49.95 Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Australia and Fleet Street were the beacons for every New Zealand journalist without a house full of kids or one of those painfully faithful…
Moa: The Story of a Fabulous Bird PhilipTemple and Chris Gaskin, Hodder & Stoughton, $11.95 Old Blue: The Rarest Bird in the World Mary Taylor, Ashton Scholastic, $19.95 The South Island ‘sightings’ of the elusive moa provide a timely context…
Natural History of New Zealand Nic Bishop, Hodder & Stoughton, $59.95 Yet another natural history of New Zealand, I hear you say, but this one is sufficiently different, attractive and up-to-date to appeal to the wide audience that is known…
Food is Fun for Young Cooks Dianne Lowry and Jan van der Voo, Book 2 Hodder & Stoughton, Auckland, 1991, $19.95 This book states it is ‘a perfect introduction for 7-12 year-olds to the delights of cooking’. About a quarter…
The Great New Zealand Fossil Book: Pictures of Ancient Life in an Evolving Land Ron Brazier, Ian Keyes and Graeme Stevens, DSIR Geology and Geophysics, Wellington, 1990, $49.95 On Shaky Ground: a Geological Guide to the Wellington Metropolitan Region Graeme…
New Zealand Architecture from Polynesian Beginnings to 1990 Peter Shaw, photographs by Robin Morrison, Hodder & Stoughton, Auckland, 1991, $59.95 ‘New Zealand’s European-derived architectural history may be short but it should be accorded the same respect we now give as a…
The Kite Ron Bacon and Kelvin Hawley, Hodder & Stoughton, Auckland, 1991, $10.95 Out Walked Mel Paula Boock, John McIndoe, Dunedin, 1991, $16.95 A picture-book format, and a story that doesn’t quite match: which could be a short-story for slightly older…
Speaking to Miranda Caroline Macdonald Hodder & Stoughton, Auckland, 1990, $19.95 Even in the present increasingly sophisticated field of writing for young adults, Caroline Macdonald is something of a phenomenon. Her first book won the prestigious Esther Glen Medal, and her…