Louis Johnson: Selected Poems ed Terry Sturm Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 086473350X There’s a short poem by Louis Johnson which I’ve always admired. It’s called “Intemperance” and it tells us a lot in a very short space, both about…
Waltzing with Matilda: Should New Zealand join Australia? Bob Catley Dark Horse Publishing, $29.95, ISBN 0958214611 A chilling graph presented to Auckland business leaders on 14 May undermines Bob Catley’s thesis. Auckland, the graph showed, lost 3.4% in GDP per…
Ellie and the Shadow Man Maurice Gee Penguin Books, $34.95, ISBN 0141004177 Responses to Maurice Gee’s Ellie and the Shadow Man, his fourteenth adult novel and his twenty-sixth book, will probably vary between the extremes marked by two of my…
Two Over Three on Goodtime Sugar: The New Zealand TAB turns 50 David Grant Victoria University Press, $49.95, ISBN 0864734018 David Grant’s history of the Totalisator Agency Board should come with a warning: it is not to be approached by the…
Earth Colours: Selected Poems L E Scott HeadworX, $24.95, ISBN 0473068036 Declamatory and full of urgent desire to thrust the reader into different realities, L E Scott’s poems stride across big subjects. Earth Colours reflects 30 years of Scott’s poems…
Elsie Locke, Hugh Laracy
Elsie Locke (1912-2001) History-writing properly done is a complicated business, calling in varying measures and forms for effort, skill and artistry. It requires diligent research to gather the factual raw material. It requires subtlety to assemble the shards of information…
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