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English spoken here, Tony Simpson

Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and Rise of the Anglo World 1783-1939 James Belich Oxford University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9780199297276 In an interview with The New Zealand Listener shortly after this book was published, the author posed an interesting

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

The sound of his own drum, Barry Gustafson

Nordy: Arnold Nordmeyer: A Political Biography Mary Logan Steele Roberts, $49.99, ISBN 9781877448331 Sir Arnold Nordmeyer (1901-89) was a Presbyterian minister, the son of a German seaman and a Northern Irish mother. A Labour MP from 1935-49 (Oamaru) and 1951-69

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Letters – Issue 88

  London flat Sue McCauley’s review of Fiona Kidman’s Beside the Dark Pool (NZB Spring 2009) slides over the chapter on the London flat purchase with vague dark nods of acceptance and approval and without questioning the facts. For me,

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Posted in Letters

Editorial – Issue 88

Going online Now in its 18th year, New Zealand Books is coming of age. Starting with this issue, you’ll be able to read us online as well as in print. Thanks to the foresight of our publisher Peppercorn Press and the generosity of

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Posted in Editorial

Crimes, creeks, concealment, Roger Robinson

Access Road Maurice Gee Penguin Books, $37.00, ISBN 9780143202448 Parliaments and law courts used to “access”, though only “recess” survives in current usage. Incoming tides and the rising sun also accessed. These days we fashionably access our emails or information

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Wandering at will, Margot Schwass

The Man in the Shed Lloyd Jones Penguin Books, $37.00, ISBN 9780143202509 Fourteen stories spanning nearly two decades are gathered together in this new collection from Lloyd Jones, his first book since Mister Pip. For all their deceptively familiar settings,

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Posted in Literature, Review, Short stories

Issue 88 | Summer 2009

  Volume 19 | Number 4 | Issue 88 | Summer 2009 Editorial Margot Schwass: Lloyd Jones, The Man in the Shed Roger Robinson: Maurice Gee, Access Road Letters Saskia Voorendt: Mandy Hager, The Crossing; Elizabeth Pulford, Blackthorn’s Betrayal; Janice

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Posted in Contents

Poem – Fleur Adcock

Elegy for Alistair    in mem Alistair Campbell (1925-2009) Now he is dead, who wrote “Now he is dead, who talked of wild places and skies inhabited by the hawk” – thereby captivating readers and composers, envious fellow-poets, multiple admirers

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Posted in Poem

Maori territory, Mark Derby

Nga Tama Toa: The Price of Citizenship: C Company 28 (Maori) Battalion 1939-1945 Monty Soutar David Bateman, $69.99, ISBN 9781869535933 The East Coast leader Apirana Ngata, for all his political and rhetorical gifts and his unquestioned public-spiritedness, could evidently be

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Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review, War
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