The Tie That Binds: The Relationship Between Ministers and Chief Executives Colin James Institute of Policy Studies and the New Zealand Centre for Public Law, Victoria University of Wellington, $25.00, ISBN 0908935676 Public service reform was not a major election…
Nuclear New Zealand: Sorting Fact from Fiction Andrew McEwan Hazard, $39.99, ISBN 187727058X In July 2002, on the 36th anniversary of the first French nuclear tests on the Mururoa Atoll, John Doom of Papeete’s Association Mururoa e Tatou announced that an…
A Tramper’s Journey Mark Pickering Craig Potton Publishing, $29.99, ISBN 1877333174 Ride: The Story of Cycling in New Zealand The Kennett Brothers The Kennett Brothers, $39.95, ISBN 095834907X Just this week, someone I know who cannot bear to be more…
Next to Gods: A Cleaner’s Story Don Franks Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958251487 On Getting Old Kevin Ireland Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958251479 On Going to the Movies Peter Wells Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958251460 I have…
Margaret Mahy: A Writer’s Life Tessa Duder HarperCollins, $39.95, ISBN 1869504852 Margaret Mahy’s 1995 novel The Other Side of Silence presents itself as the autobiography of its female hero (whose name, too, is “Hero”). At the end, however, the first…
A Radical Writer’s Life Dick Scott Reed, $39.99, ISBN 0790009765 The society in which I grew up largely no longer exists, immolated in the “reforms” of the 80s and 90s. It would be wrong to consider that an entirely bad…
This Piece of Earth: A Life in My New Zealand Garden Harvey McQueen Awa Press, $34.95, ISBN 0958253838 Reading Harvey McQueen’s account of a year’s engagement with his garden has confirmed what I’ve thought for a long time: you have…