Blog Archives
Issue 89 | Autumn 2010
Volume 20 | Number 1 | Issue 89 | Autumn 2010 Letters Andrew Wood: “Karl Wolfskehl (1869-1948)” (poem) Gregory O’Brien: “Low cloud, field of peonies, Martinborough” Ashleigh Young: Sam Hunt, Backroads: Charting a Poet’s Life Kathryn Walls: Tessa Duder…
Drawing-room stories, Stevan Eldred-Grigg
Old South: Life and Times in the Nineteenth-century Mainland Matthew Wright Penguin Books, $50.00, ISBN 9780143006510 Old South is a work that should be a welcome newcomer to the growing list of leading titles in New Zealand history. The book…
Tagged with: Autumn 2010, Issue 89, Matthew Wright, Penguin Books, Stevan Eldred-Grigg
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
The future world of 1881, John O’Leary
The Great Romance The Inhabitant; Dominic Alessio (ed) University of Nebraska Press, US$17.95, ISBN 9780803259966 At a time when James Cameron’s film Avatar is breaking box-office records, thanks largely to the hyper-vivid, computer-generated images of the planet Pandora provided by…
Tagged with: Autumn 2010, Dominic Alessio, Issue 89, John O’Leary, University of Nebraska Press
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Otherwise fine, Simon Upton
Poles Apart: Beyond the Shouting, Who’s Right About Climate Change Gareth Morgan and John McCrystal Random House, $39.99, ISBN 9781869790455 When I learnt that Gareth Morgan was writing a book on climate change I groaned. Out of politeness, it was…
Tagged with: Autumn 2010, Gareth Morgan, Issue 89, John McCrystal, Simon Upton
Posted in Non-fiction, Review, Science
Posted in Non-fiction, Review, Science
Still sacred lives, Helen Watson White
Red Studio: Forty-five Prints John Z Robinson Longacre Press, $39.99, ISBN 9781877460388 John Z Robinson is an artist in many media, and in two major modes. One is the ebullient use of colour in free-style painting; the other the witty,…
Tagged with: Autumn 2010, Helen Watson White, Issue 89, John Z Robinson, Longacre Press
Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review
Might and rights, Elspeth Sandys
Field Punishment No 1: Archibald Baxter, Mark Briggs and New Zealand’s Anti-Militarist Tradition David Grant, paintings by Bob Kerr Steele Roberts, $34.99, ISBN 9781877448461 In his introduction to Field Punishment No 1, David Grant expresses his satisfaction that New Zealand…
Tagged with: Autumn 2010, Bob Kerr, David Grant, Elspeth Sandys, Issue 89, Steele Roberts
Posted in Art, History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Art, History, Non-fiction, Review
A figure in motion, Stella Ramage
Art That Moves: The Work of Len Lye Roger Horrocks Auckland University Press, $60.00, ISBN 9781869404222 Last September I visited the blockbuster Salvador Dali exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. Glamorous and edifying though it was, I…
Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Autumn 2010, Issue 89, Len Lye, Roger Horrocks, Stella Ramage
Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review
Life cycles, Murray Bramwell
Somebody Loves Us All Damien Wilkins Victoria University Press, $38.00, ISBN 9780864736161 The title of Damien Wilkins’ sixth novel, Somebody Loves Us All, comes from a line by the American poet Elizabeth Bishop. The poem is called “Filling Station”…
Tagged with: Autumn 2010, Damien Wilkins, Issue 89, Murray Bramwell, Victoria University Press
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Letters – Issue 89
Fantasy London flat C K Stead thinks I am having a “fantasy” about a meeting I had with Dr Michael Bassett at Parliament in 1989 (NZB Summer 2009). Perhaps he has confused one meeting I describe with a later one.…
Love and war, Christine Johnston
Ned and Katina: A True Love Story Patricia Grace Penguin Books, $40.00, ISBN 9780143007401 Who could resist a love story set on Crete in 1945? Obviously Patricia Grace couldn’t. The celebrated author was approached by Ned’s and Katina’s family with…
Tagged with: Autumn 2010, Christine Johnston, Issue 89, Patricia Grace, Penguin Books
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review