Blog Archives

Awestruck at Otira, Neville Bennett

At Home on the Road Jill Malcolm New Holland, $24.95, ISBN 1877246658 Southern Journeys: South Island People and Places Roy Sinclair Random House, $34.95, ISBN 186941439X There is a kea in my garden. When I hang out the washing, a…
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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

A shed of one’s own, Neville Bennett

Blokes and Sheds Jim Hopkins (text) & Julie Riley (photography) HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 1 86950 278 7 Back Down the Track Barry Crump Hodder Moa Beckett, $39.95, ISBN 1 86958 672 7 To assert “blokes’” values – albeit very mildly…
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Posted in Gender, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

For a laugh, try satire, Neville Bennett

Kiwi Jokers: The Rise and Rise of New Zealand Comedy Matt Elliott HarperCollins, $29.95, ISBN 1 86950 248 5 The Penguin Book of New Zealand Jokes John Barnett & Lesley Kaiser in assn with Brian Schaab Penguin, $19.95, ISBN 0…
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Posted in Non-fiction, Review

Spying and all that, Neville Bennett

Seeing Red — undercover in 1950s New Zealand George Fraser Dunmore Press, $24.95, ISBN 0864692552 From 1953 to 1956 the Canadian authorities posted E H Norman as their high commissioner in Wellington. They were “hiding” him in an unimportant post…
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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Truculent non-globalisers, Neville Bennett

In all the industrialised nations of the OECD voters seem determined to chastise politicians. Despite this pattern, commentators are continually surprised that voters are so truculent, even vindictive. In many cases, the economy and employment has been growing but electors…
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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law

And a partridge (or not), Neville Bennett

Science is wonderful. Only this week I hear some clever Americans have transplanted a gene from an Antarctic fish into a tomato. Apparently we will not get a tomato with scales or fins but one that is not frost tender.…
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Posted in Comment

Now for Spinoza, Neville Bennett

Nobel Prize for literature  Recently I met Oe Kenzaburo, the Japanese novelist who won this year’s Nobel Prize for literature. To the envy of a group of bystanders, Mr Oe spoke to me and autographed my “meishi” or business card.…
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Posted in Comment

Neville Bennett: Signalling a trout rush

Trophy Trout Bob South Viking Press, $34.95 Some years ago huge untapped resources of crayfish were discovered in the Chathams. A rush developed and the resource was raped. It was merely another rush, in a national history which has seen…
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Posted in Non-fiction, Review, Sociology, Sport
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