The Bells of Saint Babel’s: Poems 1997-2001 Allen Curnow Auckland University Press, $19.95, ISBN 1869402421 There is much to admire in Curnow’s first completely new book since The Loop in Lone Kauri Road (1986). To the fore is his great technical…
Angel of the Anzacs: The Life of Nola Luxford Carol van Grondelle Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 0864733976 Nola Luxford left New Zealand in 1919, at the age of 23, for Hollywood. She never quite made the Big Time in…
Scarface and the Angel William Taylor Longacre Press, $14.95, ISBN 1877135445 Afterwards David Hill Mallinson Rendel, $14.95, ISBN 090878354X Twenty-Four Hours Margaret Mahy Collins, $16.95, ISBN 0007113722 Leon Frances Cherry Mallinson Rendel, $14.95, ISBN 0908783582 Here’s a batch of four…
A Wise Adventure: New Zealand and Antarctica 1920-1960 Malcolm Templeton Victoria University Press, with the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Wellington, $39.95, ISBN 0864734034 Antarctica is often presented as “a pole apart” because of its peripheral location, geographical isolation,…
Room Laurence Fearnley Victoria University Press, $24.95, ISBN 0864733909 Dr Amelia Walsh is an abortionist and the room of the title is her consulting room. A succession of women sit in her patient’s chair and respond in various ways to…
Remaking New Zealand and Australian Economic Policy: Ideas, Institutions, and Policy Communities Shaun Goldfinch Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 0864733933 Shaun Goldfinch’s Remaking New Zealand and Australian Economic Policy is the latest version of what is becoming the standard account…
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…