Blog Archives

Express lane, John Horrocks

Posted on November 29, 2019 by NZ Books

Peat
Lynn Jenner
Otago University Press, $35.00,
ISBN 9781988531694

Lynn Jenner lives on the Kāpiti Coast, not far from the new expressway between Mackays Crossing and Peka Peka. She writes in Peat that thinking about the construction of the road meant that she needed “the close company of a writer as a bulwark against its enacted power and concrete”. Charles Brasch, whose work she hardly knew before she started her project, was the chosen author. The resulting book is a marvellous and unexpected combination of the two topics.

Tagged with: Issue 128, John Horrocks, Lynn Jenner, Otago University Press, Summer 2019
Posted in Literature, Non-fiction, Review

Yearning and erasure, John Horrocks

Posted on September 11, 2018 by NZ Books

He’s so MASC
Chris Tse
Auckland University Press, $30.00,
ISBN 1781869408879

The Facts
Therese Lloyd
Victoria University Press, $25.00,
ISBN 9781776561810

Dark Days at the Oxygen Café
James Norcliffe
Victoria University Press, $25.00,
ISBN 9781776560837

Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Chris Tse, Issue 123, James Norcliffe, John Horrocks, Spring 2018, Therese Lloyd, Victoria University Press
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Olympian heights, John Horrocks

Posted on August 31, 2016 by NZ Books

Striking Gold: New Zealand Hockey’s Remarkable Victory at the 1976 Olympics Suzanne McFadden Mary Egan Publishing, $40.00 ISBN 9780473343729 Striking Gold is the story of one of the great moments in New Zealand’s sporting history. The 1976 Olympics are remembered…

Tagged with: Issue 115, John Horrocks, Mary Egan Publishing, Spring 2016, Suzanne McFadden
Posted in Non-fiction, Review, Sport

Always an outlaw, John Horrocks

Posted on December 5, 2015 by NZ Books

John Horrocks revisits John A Lee’s novel Civilian into Soldier.

“Whoosh – the good old Christian bayonet”: this is the scribbled annotation to a 1937 press clipping in one of John A Lee’s scrapbooks. He was commenting on an editorial in the Wairarapa Standard. It said his novel about WWI, Civilian into Soldier, was “unfit to be placed upon the shelves of a respectable library or in the hands of a decent woman”.

Tagged with: Issue 112, John A Lee, John Horrocks, Summer 2015
Posted in Byline

On men of a certain age, John Horrocks

Posted on June 9, 2015 by NZ Books

The Conch Trumpet
David Eggleton
Otago University Press, $25.00,
ISBN 9781877578939

Wonky Optics
Geoff Cochrane
Victoria University Press, $25.00,
ISBN 9780864739810

Half Dark
Harry Ricketts
Victoria University Press, $25.00,
ISBN 9780864739841

Feeding the Birds
Kevin Ireland
Steele Roberts, $20.00,
ISBN 9781927242810

The job of reviewing poetry may one day be redundant. A neural-net programme could conceivably learn enough from previous responses to collections of poetry to make critical judgements, even write passable poetry. A large data set would be essential. Harry Ricketts, Geoff Cochrane, Kevin Ireland and David Eggleton have now produced a total of 55 books of poetry, a formidable starting-point even for a computer.

Tagged with: David Eggleton, Geoff Cochrane, Harry Ricketts, Issue 110, John Horrocks, Kevin Ireland, Otago University Press, Steele Roberts, Victoria University Press, Winter 2015
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Remembering, John Horrocks

Posted on June 1, 2013 by NZ Books

Under the Dundas Street Bridge Peter Olds Steele Roberts, $20.00, ISBN 9781877577833 Chords and Other Poems Sam Hunt Craig Potton Publishing, $30.00, ISBN 9781877338181 Voicetracks: Poems 2002-2012 Jan Kemp Puriri Press/Tranzlit, $32.50, ISBN 9780908943388 Like Paul McCartney singing “Remember” at…

Tagged with: Craig Potton Publishing, Issue 102, John Horrocks, Peter Olds, Puriri Press, Sam Hunt, Steele Roberts, Tranzlit, Winter 2013
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Died in the wool, John Horrocks

Posted on December 1, 2011 by NZ Books

Making Sheep Country: Mt Peel Station and the Transformation of the Tussock Lands Robert Peden Auckland University Press, $49.99, ISBN 9781869404857 The early pastoralists of the South Island, with their huge, remote holdings, their substantial homesteads, and their apparent…

Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Issue 96, John Horrocks, Robert Peden, Summer 2011
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Collecting and restoring, John Horrocks

Posted on December 1, 2010 by NZ Books

Where Your Left Hand Rests Fiona Kidman Godwit, $29.00, ISBN 9781869621773 As Fiona Kidman points out herself, it is half a lifetime ago since her first book of poems, Honey and Bitters, was published in 1975. Her new collection…

Tagged with: Fiona Kidman, Godwit, Issue 92, John Horrocks, Summer 2010
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Moving deeper, John Horrocks

Posted on March 1, 2010 by NZ Books

Mirabile Dictu Michele Leggott Auckland University Press, $27.99, ISBN 9781869404406 The Lustre Jug Bernadette Hall Victoria University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780864736086 Just This Brian Turner Victoria University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780864735911 One can expect that these new collections by three…

Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Autumn 2010, Bernadette Hall, Brian Turner, Issue 89, John Horrocks, Michele Leggott, Victoria University Press
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Porridge stirring, John Horrocks

Posted on March 1, 2008 by NZ Books

The Problem of Prisons: Correction Reform in New Zealand since 1840 Greg Newbold Dunmore Press, $49.95, ISBN 9790187399213 Mt Eden Prison in Auckland speaks of an era when punishment and incarceration were very visible. Its turreted buildings of black volcanic…

Tagged with: Autumn 2008, Dunmore Press, Dunmore Publishing, Greg Newbold, Issue 81, John Horrocks
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review