Let the River Stand Vincent O’Sullivan, Penguin, $24.95 Amongst conceptions of history, at least in its articulations with fiction and with postmodernism as perception of a contemporary cultural movement, grand narratives of human progress give way to local detail, to…
Zigzag William Taylor (ed), Penguin, $19.95 Slide the Corner Fleur Beale, Ashton Scholastic Take Me to Your Leaders Gaelyn Gordon, Tui Harper/Collins, $14.95 Those who support New Zealand literature for children and young adults have always claimed the justification for…
Patrick White Mark Williams, Macmillan, 1993, $45.95 During the early 1960s Patrick White wrote an admiring letter to Janet Frame; she replied 22 years later. The Tasman is often wider than it looks, but this belies some more direct correspondences…
The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Volume Two 1870‑1900, Bridget Williams Books/ Department of Internal Affairs, $130.00 Te Timatanga ‑ Tatau Tatau: Early Stories from Founding Members of the Maori Women’s Welfare League, Maori Women’s Welfare League/ Bridget Williams Books,…
Gadfly: The Life and Times of James Shelley Ian Carter, Auckland University Press, $39.95 Many who know him thought that Professor James Shelley was the most unforgettable man they had ever known. Gwen Somerset recalled him as a comet lighting…
Writing a New Country: A collection of essays presented to E H McCormick in his 88th year James Ross, Linda Gill and Stuart McRae (eds), privately published, James Ross, 495 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland Of Pavlova, Poetry and Paradigms:…
Undiplomatic Dialogue: Letters between Carl Berendsen and Alister McIntosh, 1943-52 Ian McGibbon (ed), Auckland University Press in Association with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Historical Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs, $29.95 When Sir Carl…
Rather like New Zealanders, Lauris Edmond
What makes literary festivals so popular? Are writers themselves fascinating to meet in the flesh, or is it the lure of a spectator sport for intellectuals, conferring a greater cachet than rugby or baseball and just as exciting? The Vancouver…
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