Blog Archives
Te Māhuri John C Moorfield, Longman Paul, $49.95 The first textbook of the Māori language published in New Zealand was Thomas Kendall’s A Korao no New Zealand; or the New Zealander’s First Book; being an attempt to compose some lessons…
Crimes of Neglect Stephanie Johnson, New Women’s Press, $21.95 Stephanie Johnson’s first novel charts the emotional wasteland of Beatrice: cellist, mother, veteran of relationships, and, in the eyes of her sisters and ex-husbands, disaster. Drifting from Teasedale to Christchurch to…
Waiheke Island. A History Paul Monin, Dunmore Press, $34.95 Aucklanders are in love with the romantic idea of a sizeable, liveable island just 20 kilometres from their urban sprawl. But Waiheke’s wide range of natural resources have always been desired…
Vital Writing 3. New Zealand Stories and Poems, 1991‑92 Andrew Mason (ed), Godwit, $29.95 Anti-criticism, for a meta-critical occasion. It is 1993. The cards are nearly all on the table … A deep breath … Changing motifs in speech, changes…
Iain Sharp: Letter from Auckland: Son of Landfall At the time of writing, it’s in the midst of a closing-down sale, like much of Auckland, but for the last couple of years there has been a music shop on the…
Frontier New Zealand: The Search for Eldorado 1800-1920 Duncan Mackay, Harper Collins, $34.95 The besetting sin of historical writing is hindsightism. That is to say, the creation of the illusion that because we have arrived at today’s destination then…
Norman Bilbrough looks at some short fiction currently available – and sorts the big from the small. Motel View Forbes Williams, Victoria University Press, $19.95 Animal Passions Sheridan Keith, New Women’s Press, $24.95 Just Like You Said It Would Be…
Tagged with:
Autumn 1993,
Bernard Gadd,
Brick Row Publishing,
ESAW Press,
Forbes Williams,
Issue 8,
New Women's Press,
Norman Bilbrough,
Oxford University Press,
Peter Entwisle,
Sheridan Keith,
Victoria University Press,
Vincent O’Sullivan
Posted in
Fiction,
Literature,
Review,
Short stories
New Territory: the Transformation of New Zealand 1984-1992 Colin James, Bridget Williams Books, $29.95 The cognoscente will first turn to chapter 15’s footnote 25, one of the longest in the book, where the author claims that Bruce Jesson misrepresents his…
A Pastoral Kingdom Divided: Cheviot 1889-94, W J Gardner, Bridget Williams Books, $45 Without a doubt, the much-publicised success of the land policies of the great Liberal party of the 1890s, of which the very essence was the subdivision and…
Tribute to Muriel Bradshaw Some years ago while collecting material for what became the Oxford History of New Zealand Music I visited Muriel Bradshaw in Christchurch. She was the widow of the formidable Dr J C Bradshaw, first Professor of…
Tagged with:
Autumn 1993,
Issue 8
Posted in
Letters