New Zealand in World Affairs: Vol. 3, 1972-1990 ed Bruce Brown Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 0864733720 In his introduction to this third volume in the history of modern New Zealand international relations, covering 1972-1990, Merv Norrish suggests the…
Looking for the Local: Architecture and the New Zealand Modern Justine Clark & Paul Walker Victoria University Press, $59.95, ISBN 0864733879 Publishing architecture is never easy. Partly this is a problem of trying to accommodate within the medium of…
Travelling to New Zealand ed Lydia Wevers Oxford University Press, $59.95, ISBN 0195584112 It was literally the sort of pub where the conversation stops when a stranger walks in. Only there were just three customers, plus the proprietor, in…
High Times in the High Country: The Life of a Musterer W V Kerr and John Kerr Penguin, $34.95, ISBN 0140294422 Easy Riders: Cruising the Long White Cloud Paul and Val Davis HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 1869503570 Blokes and Boats: Text Bill McCarthy, photography…
Guilt Charlotte Grimshaw Abacus, $29.95, ISBN 0349111960 Among the chorus of young women’s voices emerging presently in NZ writing, Charlotte Grimshaw’s is strong and distinctive. Her two novels Provocation and Guilt are set mainly in Auckland and evoke a…
The Writer at Work: Essays C K Stead Otago University Press, $39.95, ISBN 1877133957 I write on a Waitangi Day on which the Prime Minister has chosen to attend celebrations in Wellington and Auckland but not at Waitangi. The…
The Uncle’s Story Witi Ihimaera Penguin, $34.95, ISBN 0140298924 Witi Ihimaera’s eighth novel impressively rounds off his third decade in the market for fiction. Faithful readers will no doubt spot many echoes of earlier Ihimaeras in this latest work.…