Blog Archives

“Silks across the birdcage”, Lloyd Jones

First Past the Post: An Anthology of New Zealand Racing Stories ed Brian Phillips Random House, $29.95, ISBN 1869414152   I’m more amused than seriously persuaded of Phar Lap’s place on National Radio’s Golden Kiwis series. At the risk of

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Short stories, Sport

Poem – Kate Camp

Admit one   Cranes like cranes above the city. The city is a poem that says no matter what boat you take you cannot find the boat to take you from yourself to yourself. The man who is part of

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“They all knew”, Peter Russell

Strawberries with the Führer Helga Tiscenko Shoal Bay Press, $29.95, ISBN 1877251038   The first chapters of Helga Tiscenko’s memoir of her life are in large part a tale of the ordinary. Her childhood with her younger sister Sigrid in

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Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review

The rhythm method, Paola Bilbrough

From the Author of Nick Ascroft Victoria University Press, $19.95, ISBN 0864733887 Animals Indoors Stephanie de Montalk Victoria University Press, $19.95, ISBN 0864733895 A close-up of a bat’s face and prehensile paws adorn the cover of Nick Ascroft’s first collection

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Poem – John Dickson

a note concerning names   the early spring evening was warm and close and while I walked the dog there was grass and trees and a moon and something else in me the intimate safety of names Later, I listened

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The facts of lives, Bryan Gilling

Set in a Long Place: A Life from North to South Maurice Andrew Hazard Press, $29.95, ISBN 1877161586   Sorry to Bother You, Doctor Shirley Ferguson Cape Catley, $27.95, ISBN 0908561806 Bridging the Centuries Valerie Cowan Cape Catley, $24.95, ISBN

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Posted in Autobiography, Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Modern, John Campbell

Full Circle: A Modern Morality Tale Bob Jones Hazard Press, $24.95, ISBN 1877161764   Modern Morality Tale.” Let’s begin with those  words.  And of those words, there’s one in particular I really want you to think about: ”Modern”. “Modern” is a

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Blue-stockinged heroines, Rosemary McLeod

Rocking the Cradle: Contraception, Sex and Politics in New Zealand Helen Smyth Steele Roberts, $29.95, ISBN 1877228168   Women will recognise the subtext of Helen Smyth’s history as a record of their own families; not the families posing stiffly in

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Posted in Gender, Health, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

“Out of emptiness breaking”, Janet Wilson

Collected Poems  Ruth Dallas 2nd ed, Otago University Press, $29.95, ISBN 1877133868 The Black Horse and other stories  Ruth Dallas Otago University Press, $24.95, ISBN 187713385X Today, at 80, Ruth Dallas is, apart from Allen Curnow, New Zealand’s most venerable living poet.

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Poetry, Review, Short stories

Letters – Issue 46

Reviewing the reviewer I am writing in response to the review of my book The Ambush, which appeared in the August issue of your magazine. Laurence Jenkins accuses me of “the clumsy telling of a not-very-interesting story”. Let’s take a

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Posted in Letters
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