Blog Archives

What’s been lost, Louise O’Brien

The Silence Beyond: Selected Writings Michael King (introduction by Rachael King) Penguin, $42.00, ISBN 9780143565567   The Passionless People Revisited Gordon McLauchlan David Bateman, $30.00, ISBN 9781869537906   The Silence Beyond is a new and posthumous selection of rare and

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Life in the bush, by the bay, Dougal McNeill

Speaking Frankly: The Frank Sargeson Memorial Lectures 2003-2010 Sarah Shieff (ed) Cape Catley, $31.99, ISBN 9781877340277   Celebrating Katherine Mansfield: A Centenary Volume of Essays Gerri Kimber and Janet Wilson (eds) Palgrave Macmillan, $162.00, ISBN 9780230277731   It was a

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Essays, Lecture, Literature, Non-fiction, Review

Lifting the lid of the national box, Stevan Eldred-Grigg

The Penguin History of New Zealand Michael King Penguin, $29.95, ISBN 0143018671 A Short History of New Zealand Gordon McLauchlan Penguin, $29.95, ISBN 0143019082 One day at the start of the 21st century, happening to be staying in a hotel

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Poem – Fleur Adcock

Historian dies in fiery crash (i.m. Michael King, 1945-2004)   And all our competence in words fails us. When the horror’s beyond exaggeration, go back. Try not to imagine it. But not only “historian”: his wife too – and just when

See more ›

Tagged with: , , ,
Posted in Poem

The historian who opened our eyes, Jock Phillips

Michael King I got to know Michael King as a student at Victoria University in the mid-1960s. It was an exciting time. There was marching in the streets, heated late-night discussions over instant coffee. We were getting out from under.

See more ›

Tagged with: , , ,
Posted in Comment

War tourism, Les Cleveland

One Flag, One Queen, One Tongue: New Zealand, the British and the South African War ed John Crawford and Ian McGibbon Auckland University Press, $39.99, ISBN 1869402936 Landscapes of Conflict: A Field Guide to the New Zealand Wars Nigel Prickett

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War

Back in the frame, Elizabeth Alley

An Inward Sun: The World of Janet Frame Michael King, contemporary photographs by Reg Graham Penguin Books, $39.95, ISBN 0143018388 So much has already been said. It is an irony that Janet Frame’s life, so often described as that of our

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , ,
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

“Ikey” and I, Paul Morris

At the Edge of Memory: A Family Story Michael King Penguin, $34.95, ISBN 0143018159 In his new book, Michael King revisits his Kiwi Irish Catholic background, focusing on his experiences of anti-semitism. Nuns explained that God had withdrawn His blessing

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Antipodean apparatchik, Barry Gustafson

Tomorrow Comes the Song: A Life of Peter Fraser Michael Bassett and Michael King Penguin Books, $49.95, ISBN 0140297936 The late Professor John Roberts once told me a story about his father “Big Jim” Roberts, nicknamed “the uncrowned King of

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Argument without end, Michael King

The Shaping of History: Essays from The New Zealand Journal of History ed Judith Binney Bridget Williams Books, $49.95, ISBN 1877242179 Histories, Power and Loss: Uses of the Past – a New Zealand Commentary ed Andrew Sharp and Paul McHugh

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
Search the archive
Search by category