Blog Archives

Streets, waters, winds, Kirsty Gunn

A Strange Beautiful Excitement: Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington 1888 – 1903 Redmer Yska Otago University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780947522544 “There is a handful of writers” begins Vincent O’Sullivan’s introduction to a rare and illuminating account of the city in which Katherine…
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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

A bit of fluff, Anne Else

A Woman’s Place Redmer Yska Penguin Books, $20.00, ISBN 97840143568087 A Woman’s Place is a small book in every sense. Penguin’s web page classes it as both “humour” and “gift book”. Though it does have pages and a cover, it…
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Posted in Gender, Non-fiction, Review

Never the whole truth, Spiro Zavos

Truth: The Rise and Fall of the People’s Paper Redmer Yska Craig Potton Publishing, $49.99, ISBN 9781877517303   During most of 1979 I lived with my family in Menton, in the south of France, trying to write the Great New…
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Posted in History, Media, Non-fiction, Review

Can Auckland be saved? Redmer Yska

The Life and Times of Auckland  Gordon McLauchlan Penguin Books, $40.00, ISBN 9780143007500 Urban Village: The Story of Ponsonby, Freemans Bay and St Mary’s Bay  Jenny Carlyon and Diana Morrow Random House, $70.00, ISBN 9781869418373 New Local Government Minister Rodney…
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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Reds under the bed, Redmer Yska

The Sixth Man: The Extraordinary Life of Paddy Costello James McNeish  Vintage, $34.99, ISBN  9781869418915 James McNeish’s masterly life of Paddy Costello tells how, in the summer of 1953, this Paris-based New Zealand diplomat escorted National PM Sid Holland around…
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Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Absolutely commercially, Jenny Robin Jones

Logan Campbell’s Auckland: Tales from the Early Years R C J Stone Auckland University Press, $45.00,  ISBN 9781869403935 Wellington: Biography of a City Redmer Yska Reed, $44.99, ISBN 0790011077 Auckland illuminated through stories of the past; Wellington reconstructed through careful…
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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Carry on conspiring, Redmer Yska

The Plot to Subvert Wartime New Zealand Hugh Price Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 0864735383 One Sunday morning at the end of March 1942, a safe-breaker fresh out of Waikeria Prison rang Cabinet Minister Bob Semple at home from a…
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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War

Standing up for it, Redmer Yska

God Defend New Zealand: A History of the National Anthem Ashley Heenan School of Music and University of Canterbury, $29.95, ISBN 0908718098 Hear Our Voices We Entreat: The Extraordinary Story of New Zealand’s National Anthems Max Cryer Exisle Publishing, $29.99,…
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Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Running away to sea, Redmer Yska

Swirly World: the solo voyages Andrew Fagan HarperCollins, $29.95, ISBN 186590402X Wet Behind the Ears: adventures of a runaway sailor Peter Taylor HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 1869504003 With the sea breathing down their necks, New Zealanders are drawn more than most…
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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

Happy days, Redmer Yska

I Live Here Now: Sarah Campion in 1950s New Zealand ed Rachel Scott Shoal Bay Press, $29.95, ISBN 1877251054 Over the summer of 2000, National Radio was the unlikely backdrop for a rumble over New Zealand in the 1950s. The…
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Posted in Essays, History, Media, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
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