Mountains of the South John Gordon and John Rundle, Random Century, $49.95 There was a time when big “glossies” were of real significance to the book trade. Large-format pictorials with high production values which showed beautiful New Zealand at its…
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,…
100 New Zealand Poems Bill Manhire (ed), Godwit, $29.95 Some years ago I edited a small anthology of New Zealand poetry. It was a truly hellish experience. Some poets wanted to know how much space had been given to rivals,…
Top of the Greasy Pole Neale McMillan, McIndoe, $29.95 The record of political leadership in New Zealand is not inspiring. Out of 37 Premiers and Prime Ministers since 1854 only two could be called outstanding, rather than merely memorable. There…
Sir Joseph Ward: A Political Biography Michael Bassett, Auckland University Press, 1993, $39.95 There is a paradox in the 6 November election. Voters objecting to the trend of the past 10 years toward less and weaker government have, in their…
Seven Days on Mykonos Anne French, Auckland University Press, $19.95 To know who you are, you have to have a place to come from, says Seamus Heaney. But if you are a New Zealander, you also have to have a…
The Tudor Style Elizabeth Smither, Auckland University Press, $19.95 Guardians, not Angels Stephen Oliver, Hazard Press, $19.95 Distances Rob Jackaman, Hazard Press, $19.95 Days Beside Water Gregory O’Brien, Auckland University Press, $19.95 Malachi Gregory O’Brien, Little Esther Books, $13.00, available…
Wrenched from the alphabet, Mark Williams
Iain Sharp and I were contemporaries in the English department at Auckland University in the early 1970s. In the first year of our masters programme we collaborated on a series of parodies of the poems that had appeared in Arthur…
Posted in Comment, Literature, Poetry