Blog Archives

“No message – Harpo”, Marilyn Duckworth

Posted on September 1, 2012 by NZ Books

The second of two extracts from Marilyn Duckworth’s 2012 Janet Frame lecture. Women novelists in our country were once spread thinly. Sylvia Ashton-Warner, Ruth France, Janet Frame: barring popular romance, that was about it. On Marmite jars as a child,…

Tagged with: Issue 99, Janet Frame, Marilyn Duckworth, Spring 2012
Posted in Byline, Lecture

In the crocodile swamp, Marilyn Duckworth

Posted on June 1, 2012 by NZ Books

In the first of two extracts from her 2012 Janet Frame lecture, Marilyn Duckworth looks back on her literary life. Reflections can startle when one peers across more than 50 years – the length of my time as a published…

Tagged with: Issue 98, Janet Frame, Marilyn Duckworth, Winter 2012
Posted in Byline, Lecture

Friends and other strangers, Murray Bramwell

Posted on March 1, 2008 by NZ Books

Playing Friends Marilyn Duckworth Vintage, $27.99, ISBN 9781869418694 Trendy But Casual Paula Morris Penguin Books, $28.00, ISBN 9780143006398 It’s that time in later middle age when school reunions have become like a dawn (or twilight) parade of veterans and survivors.…

Tagged with: Autumn 2008, Issue 81, Marilyn Duckworth, Murray Bramwell, Paula Morris, Penguin Books, Vintage
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

The art of the odd, Janet Wilson

Posted on September 1, 2002 by NZ Books

Swallowing Diamonds Marilyn Duckworth Vintage, $26.95, ISBN 1869415485 In Marilyn Duckworth, New Zealand has its finest writer of the absurd. Although others have written about states of unreality or non-reality – most particularly Janet Frame, younger novelists like Elizabeth Knox,…

Tagged with: Issue 59, Janet Wilson, Marilyn Duckworth, Spring 2002, Vintage
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Kissing and telling, Heather Murray

Posted on August 7, 2000 by NZ Books

Camping on the Faultline: A Memoir Marilyn Duckworth Vintage, $29.95, ISBN 1 86941 413 6 Writing in the London Review of Books (16 March 2000), nga Clendinnen notes the changing reader attitude to autobiographical writing. While once a reader came…

Tagged with: Heather Murray, Issue 44, Marilyn Duckworth, Vintage
Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review

Domestic and dystopian, Elizabeth Crayford

Posted on March 5, 1998 by NZ Books

The House Within Fiona Kidman Vintage $29.95 ISBN 1 86941 316 4 Studmuffin Marilyn Duckworth Vintage $29.95 ISBN 1 86941 329 6 In the week this review was written (mid-December 1997), Wellingtonians were invited to hear Lois Daish and Fiona…

Tagged with: Elizabeth Crayford, Fiona Kidman, Issue 32, Marilyn Duckworth, Vintage
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Identity crises, Ruth Butterworth

Posted on December 4, 1996 by NZ Books

Cherries on a Plate ed Marilyn Duckworth Random House, $25.95 ISBN 1 86941 287 7 Six Clever Girls Who Became Famous Women Fiona Farrell Penguin Books, $24.95 ISBN 0 140 25356 4 England has social class; India and America have…

Tagged with: Fiona Farrell, Issue 26, Marilyn Duckworth, Penguin Books, Random House, Ruth Butterworth, Winter 1996
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Short stories

Of an age, Heather Murray

Posted on October 7, 1995 by NZ Books

River Lines Elspeth Sandys Hodder Moa Beckett, $29.95, ISBN 3 4059998 7 Leather Wings Marilyn Duckworth Random House Vintage, $24.95, ISBN 1 86941 261 3 Zoology Sheridan Keith Penguin, $24.95, ISBN 0 14025281 9 The House Guest Barbara Anderson Victoria…

Tagged with: Barbara Anderson, Elspeth Sandys, Heather Murray, Hodder Moa Beckett, Issue 20, Marilyn Duckworth, Penguin, Random House Vintage, Sheridan Keith, Summer 1995, Victoria University Press
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Women among the puritans, Heather Murray

Posted on December 22, 1994 by NZ Books

A Barbarous Tongue Marilyn Duckworth Vintage New Zealand (first pub Hutchinson & Co, 1963), $24.95 Fooling Marilyn Duckworth Hazard Press, $9.95 Marilyn Duckworth stands alone in New Zealand fiction, occupying a lofty and lonely spot few others have had the…

Tagged with: Hazard Press, Heather Murray, Issue 16, Marilyn Duckworth, Summer 1994, Vintage New Zealand
Posted in Fiction, Literature

Inner worlds, outer worlds, Jane Parkin

Posted on September 1, 1993 by NZ Books

Seeing Red Marilyn Duckworth, Vintage, $19.95 Fifteen Rubies by Candlelight Shonagh Koea, Vintage, $19.95 Reading Shonagh Koea’s stories in Fifteen Rubies by Candlelight is like sampling a box of good, rich chocolates. Read (or eat) too many at once and…

Tagged with: Issue 10, Jane Parkin, Marilyn Duckworth, Shonagh Koea, Spring 1993, Vintage
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review