Blog Archives

Issue 52 | March 2002

  Volume 12 | Number 1 | Issue 52 | March 2002 Michael Laws: Brian Edwards, Helen: Portrait of a Prime Minister Editorial Shelagh Duckham Cox: Kirsty Gunn, Featherstone Simone Drichel: Alan Duff, Szabad Diana Bridge: “The route” (poem) Kim

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Contents

Redefining war art, Roger Blackley

I was no soldier: An artist’s war diary Ted Lewis Steele Roberts, $39.95, ISBN 1877228494 I  was no soldier tells the story of an art teacher’s experiences of World War 2. Ted Lewis volunteered in January 1941 for the medical

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Art, History, Non-fiction, Review, War

The perils of proximity, Michael Laws

Helen: Portrait of a Prime Minister Brian Edwards Exisle Publishing, $44.95, ISBN 0908988206 Biography is a fraught art. If the subject is dead, then the Author is reliant upon a myriad of sources, often contradictory, to capture the essence of

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Without guilt or apology, Harry Ricketts

Tread Softly For You Tread On My Life: New & Collected Writings Michael King Cape Catley, $34.95, ISBN 0908561881 “This is the sort of letter that doesn’t look well in a Biography,” Rupert Brooke wrote Eddie Marsh in September 1913. Brooke

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Autobiography, Essays, Non-fiction, Review

Bestriding two worlds, Alan Ward

He Tipua: The Life and Times  of Sir Apirana Ngata Ranginui Walker Viking, $69.95, ISBN 0670911887 In the Foreword, Sir Henare Ngata, son of Sir Apirana, on Behalf of the Ngata family and the Ngati Porou people, thanks Dr Ranginui

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Jaunts and junkets, Linda Burgess

The Swing Around Barbara Anderson Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 0864734220 There’s a certain anxiety that accompanies writing this review. Embarrassingly, it’s to do with a fear of mixing metaphors (as opposed to, say, starting a sentence with an adverb.)

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Not the Wairarapa? Shelagh Duckham Cox

Featherstone Kirsty Gunn Faber & Faber,  $34.95, ISBN 0571212476 The epigraph is an entry in an imagined handbook. It provides information you’d expect from a motoring guide about a small town you’ve never visited before, and it’s in the same format

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Something nobody counted on, Bill Hastings

Unquiet World: The Life of Count Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk Stephanie de Montalk Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 086473414X I completely misunderstood this book. I did what I usually do to begin reviewing a book. I checked for a subtitle,

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Biography, Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

Faith’ll fix it, Catharina Van Bohemen

faithsinger Rosie Scott Vintage, $24.95, ISBN 1869414667 “It’s a delightful reversal that I’ve become more radical as I’ve gotten older. I get so enraged by the kind of social injustice I feel”: Rosie Scott in an interview with Rob O’Neill

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Poem – Diana Bridge

The route If you want more than to brush your face against nature, eyes clinging briefly to swatches of sky, their blues deepening as you watch, hit-and-missing leaves, damp paintings patched seamless together – if you want more than the

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Poem
Search the archive
Search by category