The Bookmen’s Dominion: Cultural Life in New Zealand 1920-1950 Chris Hilliard Auckland University Press, $34.99, ISBN 1869403622 Pat Lawlor’s “bookmen” or “frothblowers” were middle-aged men identifiable and, in a way, isolated not by such things as flamboyant attire, but by…
Theatre Country: Essays on Landscape and Whenua Geoff Park Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 0864734573 In his excellent address to the New Zealand Landscape conference in 2003, included in Theatre Country under the title “A Moment in History”, Geoff Park…
The Tears of Harry Wakatipu Jack Lasenby Longacre Press, $18.99, ISBN 1877361437 Stories about individuals surviving in the wilderness have a long history. The Old Testament represents the wilderness as the place of escape from the oppression and corruption of…
Black November: The 1918 Influenza Pandemic in New Zealand Geoffrey W Rice University of Canterbury Press, $39.95, ISBN 1877257354 Survive Bird Flu and Other Disasters Bronwen King Hazard Press, $14.99, ISBN 1877393185 This week’s papers contain news of progress in…
The Violinist in Spring Anna Smaill Victoria University Press, $24.95, ISBN 08647350222 Hourglass Sue Wootton Steele Roberts, $19.95, ISBN 187733877X The Devil in My Shoes Phil Kawana Auckland University Press, $21.99, ISBN 1869403525 Poetry is an elastic genre; there are…
Dante’s Heaven Jan Kemp Puriri Press, $30.00, ISBN 090894330X Beauty Sleep Kate Camp Victoria University Press, $24.95, ISBN 0864735111 The Gas Leak Anna Jackson Auckland University Press, $21.99, ISBN 1869403568 In the fragile world of poetry publishing it is always…
Between the Lines: A Cartoon Century of New Zealand Political History, 1906-2005 Ian F Grant New Zealand Cartoon Archive, $39.00, ISBN 0958232040 Jews, Maori, Chinese, unionists, socialists, Red-feds, imbibers, wowsers, women, wharfies and, most frequently of all, politicians, have all…