Blog Archives

Fracture Country, Brian Turner

It’s Saturday 21 September, 3:45 p.m. I’m lying flat on my back in Ward 3B, Room 11, Dunedin Hospital. Four of us, flat on our backs, for this is fracture country. Ron, a farmer from Saddle Hill, broke his tibia

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A peculiarly contemporary figure, Erik Olssen

The Verse of Edward Tregear K R Howe (ed), Nagare Press, Palmerston North, 1991, $20 The Singer in a Songless Land, A Life of Edward Tregear 1846-1931 K R Howe, Auckland University Press, 1991, $39.95 Edward Tregear was one of

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Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review

Valuable studies of medicine and health, Bronwyn Dalley

A Healthy Country: Essays on the Social History of Medicine in New Zealand Linda Bryder (ed), Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1991, $29.95 A Question of Adoption Anne Else, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1991, $29.95 Selfish Generations? The Ageing of New

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Posted in Health, History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Compact and elegant, Elric Hooper

Ngaio Marsh Margaret Lewis, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1991, $29.95 This is more a meditation on a book than a detached and ruthless review. I must declare bias on two counts. First I was a pupil and latter-day friend of

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

New beginning in ethnic history, Rory Sweetman

Half the World from Home: Perspectives on the Irish in New Zealand 1860-1950, Donald Harman Akenson, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 1990, $39.95 Since the pioneering efforts of Richard Davis in the late 1960s the New Zealand Irish have been largely

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Two illuminating lives, Juliet Rowe

Aunts and Windmills Pauline O’Regan, Bridget William Books, Wellington, 1991, $24.95 May May Davis, Crewenna, Nelson, 1990, $19.90 Pauline O’Regan has expanded those tantalising glimpses of life in a small rural community described in her first book A Changing Order, into a

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Posted in Autobiography, Memoir, Non-fiction

South Island creation myths, Ranginui Walker

Tikao Talks Herries Beattie, Penguin Books, Auckland, 1990, 160pp, with photographs and index of personal names, $29.95 Tikao Talks consists of the reminiscences of Teone Taare Tikao on Maori traditions as recorded by the historian Herries Beattie. The book was first

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Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review

Freyberg as epic hero, Les Cleveland

Bernard Freyberg VC, Soldier of Two Nations Paul Freyberg, Hodder and Stoughton, London/ Auckland, 1991, $69.95 Greatness in a political leader or a soldier can be seen as the ability to direct momentous events to inspire a large number of

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review, War

The nature of political power, Paul Spoonley

The Treaty Now William Renwick, GP Books, Wellington, 1990, $24.95 Mana Tiriti: The Art of Protest and Partnership Haeta, Project Waitangi and City Art Gallery, Wellington City Council, Daphne Brasell Associates Press, Wellington, 1991, $24.95 The Treaty Now examines the development

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Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review

Editorial – Issue 3

J M Thomson: Looking forward As we near the end of our first year we have a better sense of our purpose and direction and are able to make adjustments and changes. First, the Peppercorn Press is a registered charity

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