Blog Archives
Intimate Stranger: reminiscences of Dan Davin ed Janet Wilson Steele Roberts, $29.95, ISBN 1877228249 Before I start on the book, I will allow myself a grumble about the cover. This shows in the foreground a highlighted profile of Dan, characteristically…
The Falling: A Memoir Alan Loney Auckland University Press, $29.95, ISBN 1869402502 The simplest way to begin unwrapping the gift of this book is to start with the title: The Falling: A Memoir. Notice the first word, the definite article:…
“Nothing is more important to a country,” one-time Australian Treasurer and Prime Minister Paul Keating told the Knowledge Wave conference in August, “than the way it thinks about itself.” Right now, this country, barely a nation, thinks it is small,…
The Arts & Crafts Movement in New Zealand 1870-1940 Ann Calhoun Auckland University Press, $89.95, ISBN 1869402294 This is a large and handsome art book. Its hardcover, square format, copious illustrations and intelligent design suggest an honoured place on the…
Health and Public Policy in New Zealand ed Peter Davis and Toni Ashton Oxford University Press, $55.00, ISBN 0195584171 This thoughtful and stimulating book, edited by two of New Zealand’s foremost scholars of health policy, deserves a wide audience both…
Spectacular Babies ed Bill Manhire HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 1869503775 Boys’ Own Stories: Short Stories by New Zealand Men ed Graeme Lay Tandem Press, $24.95, ISBN 1877178691 Five years ago, I remember jumping up and down in frustration in front of…
Essential New Zealand Poems ed Lauris Edmond and Bill Sewell Godwit, $29.95, ISBN 1869620879 Why is it that fictional teachers are always teachers of English? How many times do you see on television or at the movies teachers attempting to…
snowing down south warm breath breathed out of our bodies into the overnight air and condensed to an ice crust on the glass with a sodden mitten tip push plates of glitter lace across the surface to make an…
No, not sour grapes People will always bitch about literary awards, and literary awards will always seem inherently unfair. This year’s Montana New Zealand Book Awards will have thrown up their share of sniping, backbiting and dis-appointed egos. Some…
Shebang: Collected Poems 1980-2000 David Howard Steele Roberts, $24.95, ISBN 1877228591 I associate volumes of Collected Poems with poetic fame – long sequence of small books, most now out of print, requiring a full collection to satisfy the demands of…
Independence and after, Colin James
Posted in Comment