Blog Archives
Margaret Atwood in New Zealand, Anne Else
Beginnings and Endings Mostly I want to read what writers write, not look at r listen to them. But in the mid-1980s, I went to hear Margaret Atwood. Murder in the Dark had recently appeared, and she read “Happy…
Poem – Owen Marshall
Mechanical grief And I see you, fortuitously, in the cheapest chicken lot in town, tucked hard against a corrugated fence, with your bald front tyres sponging in a wind flogged puddle. Sullen rain has washed the many days of…
All shook up, Charlotte MacDonald
Magnitude Eight Plus: New Zealand’s Biggest Earthquake Rodney Grapes Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 0864733400 Poor Baron Von Alzdorf, owner of Wellington’s largest brick building, a hotel, was the township’s only casualty in the earthquake which struck at 9.17 pm…
Tagged with: Charlotte Macdonald, Issue 48, June 2001, Rodney Grapes, Victoria University Press
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Science
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Science
Turning the pages, Keith Maslen
A Book in the Hand: Essays on the History of the Book in New Zealand ed Penny Griffith, Peter Hughes and Alan Loney Auckland University Press, $39.95, ISBN 1869402316 These fifteen essays, based on papers given at the first New…
Tagged with: Alan Loney, Auckland University Press, Issue 48, June 2001, Keith Maslen, Penny Griffith, Peter Hughes
Posted in Essays, History, Literature, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Essays, History, Literature, Non-fiction, Review
The two cultures, Ray Henwood
As a science undergraduate in the mid-1950s I was aware of C P Snow’s attempts to awaken people to the problem of the two cultures. Perhaps my growing interest and work in theatre had given me an edge over my…
Extraordinary eyes, Vivienne Jepsen
Love in the Land of Midas Kapka Kassabova Penguin, $29.95, ISBN 0140298797 I have to say, at the outset, that I enjoyed reading Kapka Kassabova’s second novel. It’s a good story, told in such a way as to keep the…
Tagged with: Issue 48, June 2001, Kapka Kassabova, Penguin, Vivienne Jepsen
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
The thinking person’s romance, Dennis McEldowney
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
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Flying with the godwit, Rupert Glover
Wings of the Nation: A History of the New Zealand National Airways Corporation, 1947-78 Peter Aimer The Bush Press, $49.95, ISBN 0908608861 Wings of the Nation is subtitled A History of the New Zealand National Airways Corporation, 1947-78, but it…
Tagged with: Issue 48, June 2001, Peter Aimer, Rupert Glover, The Bush Press
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review
Electoral debrief, Ruth Laugesen
Left Turn: The New Zealand General Election of 1999 ed Jonathan Boston, Stephen Church, Stephen Levine, Elizabeth McLeay & Nigel S Roberts Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 0864734042 Up the hill from Parliament, a clutch of Victoria University’s political scientists…
Tagged with: Elizabeth McLeay, Issue 48, Jonathan Boston, June 2001, Nigel S Roberts, Stephen Church, Stephen Levine, Victoria University Press
Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review