The People of Many Peaks, 1769-1869 Claudia Orange (ed), Bridget Williams Books and Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1991, $35.00 This book contains the biographies of 161 notable Maori leaders between 1769 and 1869 who appear in the first volume…
Selected Poems 1940-1989 Allen Curnow Viking hardback, $49.95 (Penguin paperback, Auckland, 1990, $27.95) When Allen Curnow published Continuum, his collected poems 1972-1988, he organized the book back-to-front: most recent poems at the beginning, earliest at the end. The selection, a career summary…
Grievous Bodily Craig Harrison, Penguin Books, Auckland, 1991, $24.95 Grievous Bodily, subtitled A Very Funny Novel, has been written with the film in mind. Not any old film, but a very funny film with enough references, cross-references and sight and sound gags to…
The Hanging Sky Shirley Corlett, Mallinson Rendel, Wellington, 1990, $55 (Paper $39.95) Beginning when ‘Man’ (this is no tale of humankind) first stepped upon the land ‘that had been part of Gondwanaland’ and ending with the present, The Hanging Sky is an epic…
The Ninth Floor – Inside the Prime Minister’s Office Harvey McQueen Penguin Books, Auckland, 1991, $24.95 The first few chapters of The Ninth Floor amazed me. I’m used to books about politics that hedge their bets. If they say something good about someone…
Wulfsyarn: A mosaic Phillip Mann, Gollancz, London, 1990, $45.95 Phillip Mann is contemporary New Zealand science fiction. The Chairperson of the Department of Theatre and Film at Victoria University, he has published five science fiction novels in less than ten years. The…
The Making of Wellington 1800-1914 David Hamer and Roberta Nicholls (eds) Victoria University Press, Wellington, 1990, $39.95 Colonial Capital, Wellington 1865-1910 Terence Hodgson Random Century, Auckland, 1990, $34.95 A study of the evolution of a city provides an excellent opportunity…
Forging a political language, Tony Simpson
In his 1946 essay ‘Politics and the English Language’ George Orwell remarks that ‘one ought to recognise that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting…
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