Blog Archives
The theatre of life, Susan Budd
Iridescence Peter Wells Random House, $34.95, ISBN 1869415833 With its gorgeously frilled and furbelowed Victorian crinolines, melodrama and high camp, Iridescence is strongly reminiscent of Peter Wells’s screenplay for Desperate Remedies, which blew the mandatory bucolic naturalism of New Zealand…
Tagged with: Issue 63, Peter Wells, Random House, Spring 2003, Susan Budd
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Telling it like it is, Brent Southgate
I am an Insect Simon Pollard Reed, $19.95, ISBN 1869487400 The Life-size Guide to New Zealand Wildflowers Andrew Crowe Penguin, $24.95, ISBN 0143018477 Pick Up a Pack: a guide to tramping and camping the New Zealand way Keith Olsen Reed,…
Tagged with: Andrew Crowe, Brent Southgate, Issue 63, Janet Hunt, Keith Olsen, Mark Inglis, Penguin, Random House, Reed, Simon Pollard, Spring 2003
Posted in Biography, Children, Literature, Natural History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Children, Literature, Natural History, Non-fiction, Review
Risky business, Bernadette Hall
Young Knowledge: The Poems of Robin Hyde (ed) Michele Leggott Auckland University Press, $49.99, ISBN 1869402987 I have known griefs o more than three – Tooth aching, Child-bearing, And the voice breaking Those silent frontiers Of dream, held hazardously.…
Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Bernadette Hall, Issue 63, Michele Leggott, Spring 2003
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Journeys and sympathies, Anna Jackson
Home Boys Bernard Beckett Longacre Press, $18.95, ISBN 1877135887 Lin and the Red Stranger Ken Catran Random House, $16.95, ISBN 1869415779 Tiggie Tompson’s Longest Journey Tessa Duder Penguin, $16.95, ISBN 0143318128 Finding myself questioning the whole genre of young…
Tagged with: Anna Jackson, Bernard Beckett, Issue 63, Ken Catran, Longacre Press, Penguin, Random House, Spring 2003, Tessa Duder
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults
Angels in the meat-grinder, Les Cleveland
While You’re Away: New Zealand Nurses at War 1899-1948 Anna Rogers Auckland University Press, $39.95, ISBN 1869403010 Nursing might be one of the few remaining professions not entirely driven by greed or self-interest. Anna Rogers assembles a chronicle of service…
Tagged with: Anna Rogers, Auckland University Press, Issue 63, Les Cleveland, Spring 2003
Posted in Health, History, Non-fiction, Review, War
Posted in Health, History, Non-fiction, Review, War
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…
The dark night of the decent bloke, Peter Wells
The Scornful Moon Maurice Gee Penguin, $34.95, ISBN 0143018752 Anyone who has heard Maurice Gee read can summon up his tone of voice: discerning, patient and artful. He is a shrewd observer of the human condition with, at times, an…
Tagged with: Issue 63, Maurice Gee, Penguin, Peter Wells, Spring 2003
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Their side of the story, Megan Hutching
Fighting with the enemy: New Zealand POWs and the Italian Resistance Susan Jacobs Penguin, $34.95, ISBN 0143018620 On 10 July 1943 Allied forces attacked Italy, landing in Sicily. Two weeks later the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was overthrown in an…
Tagged with: Issue 63, Megan Hutching, Penguin, Spring 2003, Susan Jacobs
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War
The historian who opened our eyes, Jock Phillips
Posted in Comment