Blog Archives
The impudent what-if, Geoff Cush
New Zealand as it Might Have Been Stephen Levine (ed) Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 0864735456 “Counterfactual” is the term preferred by the 15 writers here, who are mostly historians or political scientists, and mostly based at Victoria University of…
Tagged with: Geoff Cush, Issue 79, Spring 2007, Stephen Levine, Victoria University Press
Posted in Fiction, History, Literature, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Fiction, History, Literature, Non-fiction, Review
Poem – Jan FitzGerald
Nest Consider this pouch of air, thatch of cloud, tightly woven against a sky loosely strung. This swirl of wind is threaded to miracles. In this scoop of heaven, time coddles echoes, joggle of eggs, shuffle of fledglings, in…
Stamping one’s mark, Edmund Bohan
The Governors: New Zealand’s Governors and Governors-General Gavin McLean Otago University Press, $59.95, ISBN 1877372250 Amassing Treasures for All Times: Sir George Grey, Colonial Bookman and Collector Donald Jackson Kerr Otago University Press, $59.95, ISBN 1877372218 Gavin McLean’s book is,…
Tagged with: Donald Jackson Kerr, Edmund Bohan, Gavin McLean, Issue 79, Otago University Press, Spring 2007
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Surviving immigration, Coral Atkinson
The Smell of an Oily Rag Cherry Simmonds Random House, $27.99, ISBN 1869418492 Purple Heart Ta’afuli Andrew Fiu Random House, $27.99, ISBN 1869418042 A New Zealand joke, current in the 1970s, entailed asking how one knew when a 747 carrying…
Tagged with: Cherry Simmonds, Issue 79, Random House, Spring 2007, Ta’afuli Andrew Fiu
Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Autobiography, Non-fiction, Review
All aboard Moa’s Ark, Bob Brockie
Ghosts of Gondwana: The History of Life in New Zealand George Gibbs Craig Potton Publishing, $49.99, ISBN 1877333484 Extinct Birds of New Zealand Alan Tennyson and Paul Martinson Te Papa Press, $64.99, ISBN 0909010218 Ghosts of Gondwana is a remarkable…
Tagged with: Alan Tennyson, Bob Brockie, Craig Potton Publishing, George Gibbs, Issue 79, Paul Martinson, Spring 2007, Te Papa Press
Posted in Natural History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Natural History, Non-fiction, Review
Intimations of mortality, Michael Hulse
Blame Vermeer Vincent O’Sullivan Victoria University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780864735515 The Black River C K Stead Auckland University Press, $25.00, ISBN 978869403850 Sol Andrew Johnston Victoria University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9789864735492 The Ponies Bernadette Hall Victoria University Press, $25.00, ISBN…
Tagged with: Andrew Johnston, Auckland University Press, Bernadette Hall, C K Stead, Hazard Press, Issue 79, Kevin Ireland, Michael Hulse, Spring 2007, Victoria University Press, Vincent O’Sullivan
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Bursting the bubble, Tim Wong
Aramoana: Twenty-two Hours of Terror Bill O’Brien Penguin, $28.00, ISBN 014300624X I was only nine years old when David Gray killed 13 people, too young to remember with any sadness or clarity the tragedy beamed into our living rooms that…
Tagged with: Bill O’Brien, Issue 79, Penguin, Spring 2007, Tim Wong
Posted in History, Memoir, Non-fiction
Posted in History, Memoir, Non-fiction
Red pen pedants, Anna Rogers
Posted in Comment