Blog Archives
Drawing in the air, Martin Edmond
The Desire of the Line: Ralph Hotere – Figurative Works Kriselle Baker Auckland University Press, $49.95, ISBN 1869403436 Pine Ralph Hotere and Bill Manhire Otakou Press, $800 (signed) $350 (unsigned), [no ISBN] In Dunedin in the mid-1990s, researching the Clairmont…
Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Bill Manhire, Issue 74, Kriselle Baker, Martin Edmond, Otakou Press, Ralph Hotere, Winter 2006
Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review
It’s theatre, really, David Larsen
I’ve lost track of how often my ass has fallen asleep from boredom at literary festivals. I’ve lost track of how often I was supremely disappointed by a writer’s public persona. I used to be as earnest and serious and…
Enter a messenger, David Hill
Our English teacher in form five was a nice, ineffectual guy. He stuttered, so in typically compassionate boys’ school style, we called him “Static”. His discipline was pretty tenuous; some of the second-year fifth formers (this was the 1950s: score…
Poem — C K Stead
The rower Did grandfather Stead (she wants to know) row for Oxford or Cambridge – or (as sometimes asserted) for one then the other? These claims for him I long ago dismissed but she’s heard there’s a pewter mug…
Gold dust in the goose bath, Harry Ricketts
The Goose Bath: Poems Janet Frame (ed Pamela Gordon, Denis Harold and Bill Manhire) Vintage, $39.99, ISBN 1869417658 How The Goose Bath acquired its title is a good story and a characteristic one. The bath itself, as Frame’s niece Pamela…
Tagged with: Bill Manhire, Denis Harold, Harry Ricketts, Issue 74, Janet Frame, Pamela Gordon, Winter 2006
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
It was hell, Gavin McLean
Diary of a Kiwi Soldier in World War II Cecil Coughlan (ed Garrie Coughlan) Reed, $19.99, ISBN 1007900104X No Better Death: The Great War Diaries and Letters of William G Malone ed John Crawford (with Peter Cooke) Reed, $49.99, ISBN…
Tagged with: Gavin McLean, Issue 74, Winter 2006
Posted in Letters, Memoir, Non-fiction, Review, War
Posted in Letters, Memoir, Non-fiction, Review, War
Not quite Camelot, Simon Upton
For the Record: Lange and the Fourth Labour Government ed Margaret Clark Dunmore Publishing, $34.95, ISBN 1877399108 The hold-a-conference, publish-a-book industry continues in full swing with the appearance of For the Record: Lange and the Fourth Labour Government. This volume,…
Tagged with: Dunmore Publishing, Issue 74, Margaret Clark, Simon Upton, Winter 2006
Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Poem — Elizabeth Smither
Carol’s eggs Each girl child contains her eggs. Carol keeps under her bed one dozen in a carton, safe from plundering friends and flatmates. Eggs make a meal, a girl is eggs. Poached or scrambled, eggs are quick. In…
Earshot rules, Nelson Wattie
Languages of New Zealand ed Allan Bell, Ray Harlow and Donna Starks Victoria University Press, $49.95, ISBN 0864734905 When I returned to New Zealand in 1989 after a quarter-century in Europe, I was naturally curious about how European languages fared…
Tagged with: Allan Bell, Donna Starks, Issue 74, Nelson Wattie, Ray Harlow, Victoria University Press, Winter 2006
Posted in Language, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Language, Non-fiction, Review