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,…
Floating Worlds: Essays on Contemporary New Zealand Fiction Anna Jackson and Jane Stafford (eds) Victoria University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780864736017 The increased tempo of public debate in the last decade over issues such as public policy and the arts, canon…
Kiwi Compañeros: New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War Mark Derby (ed) Canterbury University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781877257711 For the great bulk of New Zealanders between 1936 and 1939 the Spanish Civil War was like any other civil war; it…
The Blind Singer Chris Price Auckland University Press, $24.99, ISBN 9781869404338 Vivid Familiar Stephanie de Montalk Victoria University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780864735980 The Tram Conductor’s Blue Cap Michael Harlow Auckland University Press, $24.99, ISBN 9781869404307 Pocket Edition Geoff Cochrane Victoria…
Aphrodite’s Island: The European Discovery of Tahiti Anne Salmond Viking, $65.00, ISBN 9780670073962 The publication of a new book by Anne Salmond is always an occasion worth celebrating and savouring. Aphrodite’s Island, about the European discovery of, and encounter with,…
Helen Clark: A Political Life Denis Welch Penguin Books, $40.00, ISBN 9780143202417 I admire Helen Clark, and I was pleased to be asked to review this book. Unlike David Lange, who flashed meteor-like across the parliamentary firmament, Clark became a…
In the Footsteps of Ethel Benjamin: New Zealand’s First Woman Lawyer Janet November Victoria University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9780864736079 The title is important. Janet November has not, in fact, written a biography of Ethel Benjamin, New Zealand’s first woman lawyer.…
Chance is a Fine Thing Philip Temple Vintage, $36.99, ISBN 9781869419851 In his preface to Chance is a Fine Thing, Philip Temple – writer, mountaineer, campaigner, explorer and historian – essays a distinction between memoir and autobiography. The latter, he…
Courier to Times New Roman — Paula Boock
Paula Boock surveys the pros and cons of moving from the dark side of TV script writing back to the novel. Damien Wilkins accuses me of being a scriptwriter at heart. Despite my protestations that this year I am writing…
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