Blog Archives

Issue 55 | October 2002

Posted on October 1, 2002 by NZ Books

Volume 12 | Number 4 | Issue 55 | October 2002 Tim Hazledine: Jane Kelsey, At the Crossroads. Three Essays Editorial Letters “Imprints”: Peter Wells Jane Stafford: Derek Challis and Gloria Rawlinson, The Book of Iris: A Life of Robin…

Tagged with: Issue 55, Spring 2001
Posted in Contents

Whizzbangs and big bangs, Fleur Beale

Posted on September 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Follow the blue Brigid Lowry Allen & Unwin, $19.95, ISBN 186508400X Letters from the Coffin Trenches Ken Catran Random House, $16.95, ISBN 1869415094 The Sleeper Wakes David Hill Puffin, $15.95, ISBN 0141313242 The High Wind Blows David Hill Puffin, $15.95,…

Tagged with: Allen & Unwin, Brigid Lowry, David Hill, Fleur Beale, Issue 55, Ken Catran, Puffin, Random House, Spring 2001
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults

Tripping our light fantastic, Adrienne Simpson

Posted on September 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Fantasy and Folly: the lost world of New Zealand musicals 1880-1940 Peter Harcourt Steele Roberts, $39.95, ISBN 1877228656 The dearth of published research on the history of entertainment in New Zealand would be reason enough to welcome the late Peter…

Tagged with: Adrienne Simpson, Issue 55, Peter Harcourt, Spring 2001, Steele Roberts
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review

Standing tall, Rosemary Norman

Posted on September 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Essential New Zealand Short Stories ed Owen Marshall Godwit, $39.95, ISBN 1869620941 There isn’t any compromise with essential, and not much leeway either so it was a relief to read the introduction and find the editor’s explanation for using it…

Tagged with: Godwit, Issue 55, Owen Marshall, Rosemary Norman, Spring 2001
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Short stories

Kissing and telling, Chris Else

Posted on September 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Within the Kiss Charlotte Randall Penguin, $27.95, ISBN 0141006382 When I was young and stupid, I used to believe that reading a novel meant that you had to try to understand what the author wanted to say. If the writing…

Tagged with: Charlotte Randall, Chris Else, Issue 55, Penguin, Spring 2001
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Editorial – Issue 55

Posted on September 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Enemies of promise “Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising.” That was Cyril Connolly in 1938, warning of the dangers threatening writers of the time. More specifically, in his ground-breaking part-memoir, part-critical volume Enemies of Promise,…

Tagged with: Bill Sewell, Harry Ricketts, Issue 55, Spring 2001
Posted in Editorial

Missing Iris, Jane Stafford

Posted on September 1, 2001 by NZ Books

The Book of Iris: A Life of Robin Hyde Derek Challis and Gloria Rawlinson Auckland University Press, $69.95, ISBN 1869402677 Often the genesis of a biography is as interesting as the work itself. Robin Hyde died in 1939 in London…

Tagged with: Derek Challis, Gloria Rawlinson, Issue 55, Jane Stafford, Robin Hyde, Spring 2001
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Letters – Issue 55

Posted on September 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Removing distinctions of race Richard Hill’s review “Beyond Treaty illiteracy” (August 2002 issue) purports to emphasise the crucial importance of language as a means of communication. Who disagrees? Unfortunately, his review is bizarrely unreadable. He opens with a few general…

Tagged with: Issue 55, Spring 2001
Posted in Letters

Revelling in idiosyncrasy, Diane Brown

Posted on September 1, 2001 by NZ Books

The Bag Lady’s Picnic Frankie McMillan Shoal Bay Press, $24.95, ISBN 1877251097 Creative Juices. New Writing ed Emma Neale Flamingo, $29.95, ISBN 1869504100 “We want more Kiwi dialogues,” my advanced ESOL class told me. I toyed with the idea of…

Tagged with: Diane Brown, Emma Neale, Flamingo, Frankie McMillan, Issue 55, Shoal Bay Press, Spring 2001
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Short stories

World-class in Timaru, Mark Williams

Posted on September 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Chemistry Damien Wilkins Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 0864734271 In a 1913 guide book, Forest and Ice, Blanche Baughan describes the Franz Josef glacier: “the grandeur of great, ordained descent, embodied here in a white stairway of the gods, magnificently…

Tagged with: Damien Wilkins, Issue 55, Mark Williams, Spring 2001, Victoria University Press
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review