Blog Archives

Taking poetry for a walk, John Allison

Millionaire’s Shortbread  Mary-Jane Duffy, Mary Cresswell, Mary Macpherson, Kerry Hines University of Otago Press, $29.95, ISBN 187727643X Len & other poems Jo Thorpe Steele Roberts, $$19.95, ISBN 187722894X Soundings Cilla McQueen University of Otago Press, $29.95, ISBN 1877276383 I once

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

“Something like a cult”, Margaret Clark

Treasury: The New Zealand Treasury 1840-2000 Malcolm McKinnon Auckland University Press, $50, ISBN 1869402960 At the launch of this book a former assistant secretary to the Treasury pointed out to me that this is an administrative history of the Treasury,

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Forerunner or footnote? Kim Worthington

Mason: The Life of R A K Mason Rachel Barrowman Victoria University Press, $49.95, ISBN 0864734638 Many people will be familiar with the broad outline of the life of the man Allen Curnow called New Zealand’s “first wholly original, unmistakably

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Hills, weather, houses, Norman Bilbrough

Why Go To The Riviera: Images of Wellington Peter Shaw Godwit, $99.95, ISBN 1869621018 When Evelyn Page arrived in Wellington in 1947 she was captured by the capital’s energy and bustle. She often painted scenes from her car, even obtaining

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Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review

A stitch-up, Louise O’Brien

Hummingbird James George Huia, $34.95, ISBN 1877283665 The Mango’s Kiss Albert Wendt Vintage, $34.95, ISBN 1869415809 Hummingbird, James George’s second and very readable novel, recounts the unlikely convergence of four sharply drawn characters, who, for very different reasons, find themselves

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Letters – Issue 62

Well said, Elspeth! Congratulations to Elspeth Sandys on her Comment piece in the December New Zealand Books, “In search of the ‘good’ writer”. My own choice of a good writer but not so good human being would have been Evelyn

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Posted in Letters

Girl behind the good keen man, Jane Tolerton

When did I first see the cover of Jean Watson’s Stand in he Rain – that strong, elegant black cover with a woman looking as if she has been doing exactly that? And the photograph of the author on the back

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Posted in Imprints

Heart of the matter, Catharina van Bohemen

The Heart Sutra Caren Wilton University of Otago Press, $29.95, ISBN 187727660X Bosom Buddies: Women’s Stories about Friendship, Love and Life  [Editor not given] Black Swan/Random House, $26.95, ISBN 1869415842 Got the T-shirt? Now buy the book. Bosom Buddies: Women’s

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Short stories

Men (mostly) behaving well, W K Hastings

Gay Men, Sex and HIV Heather Worth Dunmore Press, $39.95, ISBN 864694342 As chief censor, I recently classified The Gift, a documentary directed by Louise Hogarth about gay men’s relationships with a virus. It interviews men who “bareback”, who choose

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Posted in Gender, Health, Non-fiction, Review

Poem – David Eggleton

The Book Reviewer   His tatty raincoat conceals a country, rolled-up sleeves reveal many wristwatches. He airily waves away rainbows of neckties and pulls a smoke from a dark pocket. But his book-side manner is a corrupt text, for, though

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Posted in Poem
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