Blog Archives

Our dark secrets, Tim Corballis and Ingrid Horrocks

Gothic NZ: The Darker Side of Kiwi Culture Misha Kavka, Jennifer Lawn, Mary Paul (eds) Otago University Press, $39.95, ISBN 1877372234 Strange goings-on in small towns. You know all about it – it’s the New Zealand gothic. It’s a familiar…
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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Short stories

The impudent what-if, Geoff Cush

New Zealand as it Might Have Been Stephen Levine (ed) Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 0864735456 “Counterfactual” is the term preferred by the 15 writers here, who are mostly historians or political scientists, and mostly based at Victoria University of…
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Posted in Fiction, History, Literature, Non-fiction, Review

Poem – Jan FitzGerald

Nest   Consider  this pouch of air,  thatch of cloud, tightly woven against a sky loosely strung. This swirl of wind  is threaded to miracles.   In this scoop of heaven,  time coddles echoes, joggle of eggs, shuffle of fledglings, in…
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Posted in Poem

Stamping one’s mark, Edmund Bohan

The Governors: New Zealand’s Governors and Governors-General Gavin McLean Otago University Press, $59.95, ISBN 1877372250 Amassing Treasures for All Times: Sir George Grey, Colonial Bookman and Collector Donald Jackson Kerr Otago University Press, $59.95, ISBN 1877372218 Gavin McLean’s book is,…
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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Red pen pedants, Anna Rogers

Book editor Anna Rogers on why even the best authors need saving from themselves.  For most people, a menu is a list of food choices. For an editor, a menu is a test: can the restaurateurs (not the restauranteurs) spell…
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Posted in Comment

Surviving immigration, Coral Atkinson

The Smell of an Oily Rag Cherry Simmonds Random House, $27.99, ISBN 1869418492 Purple Heart Ta’afuli Andrew Fiu Random House, $27.99, ISBN 1869418042 A New Zealand joke, current in the 1970s, entailed asking how one knew when a 747 carrying…
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Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review

Same notes, different tunes, Jenny DeBell

The Six Pack: Winning Writing from New Zealand Book Month 2006  John Campbell (introduction) New Zealand Book Month with Whitireia Publishing, $6.00, ISBN 1877192279 The Best New Zealand Fiction 3 Fiona Kidman (ed) Vintage, $34.99, ISBN 1869417976 Sunday 22: The…
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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Short stories

All aboard Moa’s Ark, Bob Brockie

Ghosts of Gondwana: The History of Life in New Zealand  George Gibbs Craig Potton Publishing, $49.99, ISBN 1877333484 Extinct Birds of New Zealand  Alan Tennyson and Paul Martinson Te Papa Press, $64.99, ISBN 0909010218 Ghosts of Gondwana is a remarkable…
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Posted in Natural History, Non-fiction, Review

Intimations of mortality, Michael Hulse

Blame Vermeer Vincent O’Sullivan Victoria University Press, $25.00,  ISBN 9780864735515 The Black River C K Stead  Auckland University Press, $25.00,  ISBN 978869403850 Sol Andrew Johnston Victoria University Press, $25.00,  ISBN 9789864735492 The Ponies Bernadette Hall Victoria University Press, $25.00,  ISBN…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
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