This selection of good New Zealand books worth considering for children at Christmas is made from titles which have appeared or won awards in the last year. The choice was based on the book’s overall quality, potential pleasure as a…
The Quick World, Autobiography Volume 3 Lauris Edmond, Bridget Williams Books, $29.95 The Quick World completes Lauris Edmond’s promised autobiographical trilogy, and documents the most recent 15 or so years of her life. I find that I have come more and…
Kate Sheppard: A Biography. The fight for women‘s votes in New Zealand: the life of the woman who led the struggle Judith Devaliant, Penguin, $34.95 Recognition of the role Kate Sheppard played in New Zealand history has been slow, and…
The Autobiography of My Father Martin Edmond, Auckland University Press, $29.95 There is an entry in the book of New Zealand literary politics which reads: Edmond, Trevor, schoolteacher, husband of Lauris, poet (late-flowering); father of (inter alia) Martin, scriptwriter, see…
Colonial Constructs: European Images of Maori 1840-1914 Leonard Bell, Auckland University Press, $69.95 The language of art historical discourse has become more complex and demanding since Leonard Bell published his first book, The Maori in European Art, in 1980. Now, it…
Why Things Fall Chris Else, Tandem, $24.95 Love and War Elspeth Sandys, Vintage, $24.95 Jim’s Elvis Colleen Reilly, John McIndoe, $19.95 Why Things Fall at first glance seems quite a departure from Chris Else’s earlier ficciones, Dreams of Pythagoras (1981). Grounded in a…