Blog Archives
Reassuring handbooks, Marie Bell
What Makes a Good School? G P Books, Wellington, 1990, $12.95 Your Toddler Mary Stevenson and David Geddis, G P Books, Wellington, 1990, $12.95 What Makes a Good School? is timely. It aims to help parents, particularly those on boards…
Tagged with: G P Books, Issue 3, Mary Stevenson and David Geddis, Spring 1991
Posted in Education, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Education, Non-fiction, Review
Hard-edged social realism, Vincent O’Sullivan
The Shining City Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Penguin, Auckland, 1991, $24.95 Once upon a time there was the working class. It lived in wretched houses, did boring jobs, spoke with a consistently vulgar vitality, and as a sort of class badge, said…
Tagged with: Issue 3, Penguin, Spring 1991, Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Vincent O’Sullivan
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
A peculiarly contemporary figure, Erik Olssen
The Verse of Edward Tregear K R Howe (ed), Nagare Press, Palmerston North, 1991, $20 The Singer in a Songless Land, A Life of Edward Tregear 1846-1931 K R Howe, Auckland University Press, 1991, $39.95 Edward Tregear was one of…
Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Erik Olssen, Issue 3, K R Howe, Nagare Press, Spring 1991
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review
Valuable studies of medicine and health, Bronwyn Dalley
A Healthy Country: Essays on the Social History of Medicine in New Zealand Linda Bryder (ed), Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1991, $29.95 A Question of Adoption Anne Else, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1991, $29.95 Selfish Generations? The Ageing of New…
Tagged with: Anne Else, Bridget Williams Books, David Thomson, Issue 3, Linda Bryder, Spring 1991
Posted in Health, History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
Posted in Health, History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
Compact and elegant, Elric Hooper
Ngaio Marsh Margaret Lewis, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1991, $29.95 This is more a meditation on a book than a detached and ruthless review. I must declare bias on two counts. First I was a pupil and latter-day friend of…
Tagged with: Bridget Williams Books, Elric Hooper, Issue 3, Margaret Lewis, Ngaio Marsh, Spring 1991
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
New beginning in ethnic history, Rory Sweetman
Half the World from Home: Perspectives on the Irish in New Zealand 1860-1950, Donald Harman Akenson, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 1990, $39.95 Since the pioneering efforts of Richard Davis in the late 1960s the New Zealand Irish have been largely…
Tagged with: Donald Harman Akenson, Issue 3, Rory Sweetman, Spring 1991, Victoria University Press
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
Two illuminating lives, Juliet Rowe
Aunts and Windmills Pauline O’Regan, Bridget William Books, Wellington, 1991, $24.95 May May Davis, Crewenna, Nelson, 1990, $19.90 Pauline O’Regan has expanded those tantalising glimpses of life in a small rural community described in her first book A Changing Order, …
Tagged with: Bridget Williams Books, Crewenna, Issue 3, Juliet Rowe, May Davis, Pauline O'Regan, Spring 1991
Posted in Autobiography, Memoir, Non-fiction
Posted in Autobiography, Memoir, Non-fiction
South Island creation myths, Ranginui Walker
Tikao Talks Herries Beattie, Penguin Books, Auckland, 1990, 160pp, with photographs and index of personal names, $29.95 Tikao Talks consists of the reminiscences of Teone Taare Tikao on Maori traditions as recorded by the historian Herries Beattie. The book was…
Tagged with: Herries Beattie, Issue 3, Penguin Books, Ranginui Walker, Spring 1991
Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
Freyberg as epic hero, Les Cleveland
Bernard Freyberg VC, Soldier of Two Nations Paul Freyberg, Hodder and Stoughton, London/ Auckland, 1991, $69.95 Greatness in a political leader or a soldier can be seen as the ability to direct momentous events to inspire a large number of…
Tagged with: Bernard Freyberg, Hodder and Stoughton, Issue 3, Les Cleveland, Paul Freyberg, Spring 1991
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review, War
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review, War
Fracture Country, Brian Turner
Posted in Comment