Colin James: New fizz This issue leads with two reviews of Laura Ranger. That is not because she is a curiosity, 10 years old and an accurate poet. It is because her first slim volume is the best book we…
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The pix are choice, Piet de Jong
The Story of Beer: Beer and brewing – a New Zealand History Gordon McLauchlan, Penguin, $39.95 If this book were a swimming pool, you’d break your neck every time you dived into it. Shallow maybe, but it probably achieves all…
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Tagged with: Autumn 1995, Gordon McLauchlan, Issue 17, Penguin, Winter 1995
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Issue 17 | March 1995
Redesigning the collectivist rudder, Michael Cullen
Simon Upton’s extended, but muted, cry of anguish (New Zealand Books, December 1994) marks a major intellectual maturing on the part of the New Zealand National Party’s only serious thinker. Had it been written in mid-Victorian Britain one would confidently…
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Tagged with: Autumn 1995, Issue 17, Michael Cullen, Winter 1995
Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Electricities: Work in progress, Gregory O’Brien
I am sitting in an Auckland dealer gallery pondering some photographs of Michael Smither’s paintings, including one New Plymouth public garden scene called “Poet’s Bridge”, the title of which strikes an encouraging note – there can’t be too many such…
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Tagged with: Autumn 1995, Issue 17, Winter 1995
Posted in Art, Literature, Non-fiction, Poetry, Review
Posted in Art, Literature, Non-fiction, Poetry, Review
(Not?) fading, Colin James
Cuttings David Lange, Jonathan Hudson and Associates, no price given Ex-Prime Ministers can be a nuisance. Edward Heath pricked at Margaret Thatcher who demeaned John Major. Sir Keith Holyoake connived at the supplanting of his successor by Sir Robert Muldoon…
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Tagged with: Autumn 1995, Colin James, David Lange, Issue 17, Jonathan Hudson and Associates, Winter 1995
Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Pure Broadway, Roger Robinson
Nights in the Gardens of Spain Witi Ihimaera, Secker & Warburg, $34.95 On the way home years ago after seeing Waituhi (the Witi Ihimaera/ Ross Harris opera), I remember remarking that Witi could someday write the book for a great…
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Tagged with: Autumn 1995, Issue 17, Roger Robinson, Secker & Warburg, Winter 1995, Witi Ihimaera
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Something rich and strange, David Groves
Stand Alone Stan, vol 2 of the quartet A Land Fit for Heroes Phillip Mann, Victor Gollancz, price not available This is Phillip Mann’s seventh book of fiction, an imaginative and philosophically coherent body of work, spanning over a decade.…
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Tagged with: Autumn 1995, David Groves, Issue 17, Phillip Mann, Victor Gollancz, Winter 1995
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Now for Spinoza, Neville Bennett
Nobel Prize for literature Recently I met Oe Kenzaburo, the Japanese novelist who won this year’s Nobel Prize for literature. To the envy of a group of bystanders, Mr Oe spoke to me and autographed my “meishi” or business card.…
Posted in Comment