Blog Archives

The thinking person’s romance, Dennis McEldowney

Posted on June 1, 2001 by NZ Books

The Beetle in the Box: a love story Chris Else Vintage, $24.95, ISBN 1869414527 Anyone who has sat on the selection panel for a writer’s fellowship knows that the worst thing applicants can do is include a bald précis of…

Tagged with: Chris Else, Dennis McEldowney, Issue 48, June 2001, Vintage
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Letters – Issue 48

Posted on June 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Trade and politics I have a number of comments on Terence O’Brien’s review, in your March issue, of New Zealand in World Affairs, Volume III, 1972-1990, which I edited. The first is about New Zealand’s long and successful rearguard action…

Tagged with: Issue 48, June 2001
Posted in Letters

The traffic in perceptions, Janet Hughes

Posted on June 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Talking Pictures: Selected Poems Riemke Ensing HeadworX, $26.95, ISBN 0473068044 The cover of Riemke Ensing’s latest collection sends mixed typographic signals. You read Selected Poems first, at the top; but it’s in italic, and grey, so it defers to the…

Tagged with: HeadworX, Issue 48, Janet Hughes, June 2001, Riemke Ensing
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Issue 48 | June 2001

Posted on June 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Volume 11 | Number 2 | Issue 48 | June 2001 Mary Varnham: Gavin McLean, Wellington – The First Years of European Settlement 1840-1850; Winsome Shepherd, Wellington’s Heritage – plants, gardens, and landscape; Julia Millen, Kirkcaldie & Stains –…

Tagged with: Issue 48, June 2001
Posted in Contents

Poem – John Ridland

Posted on June 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Spring, 1940 (Christchurch) This morning Mary Ursula Bethell saw “Suddenly a weeping willow green, Beside the mechanic street.” Meantime Frank Thomas, Gear-changing effortlessly his fine machine, Motored over the “grey, stone-heavy bridge” To his garage – his garage –…

Tagged with: Issue 48, John Ridland, June 2001
Posted in Poem

Story time, Ian Richards

Posted on June 1, 2001 by NZ Books

City of Reeds Tina Shaw Penguin Books, $24.95, ISBN 014029791X City of Reeds, Tina Shaw’s third novel, is a large and accomplished work. It’s an example of a relatively new departure in New Zealand fiction: the story-telling novel. This sort…

Tagged with: Ian Richards, Issue 48, June 2001, Penguin Books, Tina Shaw
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

“No place for the flamboyant”, Stevan Eldred-Grigg

Posted on June 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Southern Capital Christchurch: Towards a City Biography 1850-2000 ed John Cookson & Graeme Dunstall Canterbury University Press, $39.95, ISBN 0908812876 Christchurch Changing Geoffrey Rice Canterbury University Press, $29.95, ISBN 0908812531 Christchurch is my home city. My heart and my brain…

Tagged with: Canterbury University Press, Geoffrey Rice, Graeme Dunstall, Issue 48, John Cookson, June 2001, Stevan Eldred-Grigg
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Springing a trap for islands, Phil Barton

Posted on June 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Captain Cook’s World: Maps of the Life and Voyages of James Cook RN John Robson Random House, $59.95, ISBN 1869414098 The publisher’s blurb states that the book under review “is an atlas, chronology and biography of the life and voyages”…

Tagged with: Captain Cook, Issue 48, James Cook, John Robson, June 2001, Phil Barton, Random House
Posted in Art, Biography, History, Non-fiction, Pacific, Review

Not plain sailing, Anne French

Posted on June 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Shapes on the Wind David Lewis HarperCollins, $29.95, ISBN 073226801X In 1934, when I was seventeen, I celebrated my last days at boarding school by building a canoe/kayak and informing the headmaster that I was going home in it…

Tagged with: Anne French, David Lewis, HarperCollins, Issue 48, June 2001
Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review

Roads to nowhere? Ruth Butterworth

Posted on June 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Building the Constitution ed Colin James Institute of Policy Studies, $45, ISBN 090893548X Some time in 1997, with the prolonged aftermath of the first MMP election still agitating the establishment and mightily diverting the rest of us, the idea gained…

Tagged with: Colin James, Institute of Policy Studies, Issue 48, June 2001, Ruth Butterworth
Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review