Blog Archives

In the service of one’s country, Mary Varnham

Posted on March 17, 2019 by NZ Books
Le Quesnoy 1918: New Zealand’s Last Battle Christopher Pugsley Oratia, $45.00, ISBN 9780947506490 My father served on the Western Front, having signed up at the age of 17 or thereabouts. He came from a lonely farm in the Akatarawa Valley,…
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Posted in Non-fiction, Review, War

Moments of brilliance — Mary Varnham

Posted on December 1, 2011 by NZ Books
Mary Varnham surveys the reviewing industry from behind the publisher’s desk. Save me, please. A publisher writing an article about book reviewing and reviewers is akin to a chef writing about restaurant critics: may as well stick your head in…
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Posted in Comment

Death of the golden goose, Mary Varnham

Posted on June 1, 2010 by NZ Books
Mary Varnham of Awa Press laments the senselessness of slimmed-down awards. In 2006 a modest paperback of just 25,000 words and one eight-page colour insert section won a Montana New Zealand Book Award in the awkwardly named “Lifestyle and Contemporary…
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Posted in Byline

Between rocks and hard places, David Hill

Posted on June 1, 2009 by NZ Books
The Real McKay Graham Bishop Otago University Press, $45.00,  ISBN 9781877372223 The Amazing World of James Hector  Simon Nathan and Mary Varnham (eds) Awa Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780958275071 The first time I went on a Geological Society field trip, we…
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Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review

Values, principles and faith, Mary Varnham

Posted on September 1, 2006 by NZ Books
The House of Reed 1907-1983: Great Days in New Zealand Publishing Edmund Bohan Canterbury University Press, $39.95, ISBN 187725732X Books and Boots: The Story of New Zealand Publisher, Writer and Long Distance Walker Alfred Hamish Reed Ian Dougherty Otago University…
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Posted in History, Literature, Non-fiction, Review

The triumph of reinvention, Mary Varnham

Posted on June 1, 2001 by NZ Books
Wellington – The First Years of European Settlement 1840-1850 Gavin McLean Penguin Books, $29.95, ISBN 0140288635 Wellington’s Heritage – plants, gardens, and landscape Winsome Shepherd Te Papa Press, $49.95, ISBN 0909010730 Kirkcaldie & Stains – A Wellington Story Julia Millen…
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Posted in History, Memoir, Natural History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Comment, Mary Varnham

Posted on June 4, 1998 by NZ Books
Restrained discourse in a windowless room: Writers and Readers Week 1998 The literary stars have come out. The firmament crackles with dramatic disclosure. Questioners leap to their feet, arguing electrifyingly for wild and esoteric points of view. There are young…
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