Blog Archives

Unpeaceful co-existence, Isa Moynihan

Gate Crasher and Other Stories Frances Cherry Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, $25.00,  ISBN 186942056X Flashpoint  Frances Cherry Scholastic New Zealand, $16.99,  ISBN 1869437438 Frances Cherry’s first collection, The Daughter-in-law and Other Stories, was published in 1986, and her first

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Boudicca does it for a jar of mead, David Hill

A Short History of Sheep in New Zealand Richard Wolfe Random House, $29.99, ISBN 1869418204 Instructions for New Zealanders Richard Wolfe Random House, $34.99, ISBN 1869418506 The Smell of Powder: A History of Duelling in New Zealand Donald Kerr Random

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

Sounds like us, John Pagani

ZB: The Voice of an Iconic Radio Station Bill Francis HarperCollins, $36.99, ISBN 186950612X A radio station is not just intangible, but purely transient. Voices change, frequencies change, even the name of the station changes. All that’s left to bridge

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Posted in History, Media, Non-fiction

Catching it on the run, Don Aimer

Lake of Coal: The Disappearance of a Mining Township David Cook Craig Potton Publishing and Ramp Press, $49.99, ISBN 1877333522 Once upon a time, under the fluffy Waikato clouds out west of the unlovely Huntly, was a place called Rotowaro

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Posted in Non-fiction, Photography, Review

Poem – Fiona Kidman

Marilyn at Malibu   In that other country the one we call home on the faded apricot wall of my study hangs a great big silver framed portrait of Marilyn Monroe at Malibu standing on a terrace drinking champagne out

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Posted in Poem

Rethinking ourselves, Tim Hazledine

Speaking Truth to Power: Public Intellectuals Rethink New Zealand Laurence Simmons (ed) Auckland University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781869403799 I was thrilled to be asked to review this book. You see, I am a bit of a public intellectual myself, yet

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Posted in Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Seamless, Renée

Stitch: Contemporary New Zealand Textile Artists Ann Packer Random House, $59.99, ISBN 1869417887 I know Ann Packer’s work from her articles in newspapers and magazines, and never go anywhere without her little gem, Crafty Girls’ Road Trip.  So it was

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Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review

Letters – Issue 79

Against the grain Please allow me to correct errors of fact and interpretation in Martin Edmond’s review of my biography of Mervyn Taylor (NZB, Winter 2007). Edmond claims Taylor’s “best, and best-known, works are woodblock prints”. They are not. So

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Posted in Letters

Dead ends and hairpin bends, Nick Bollinger

Highway of Legends: On the Road with the Kings and Queens of Country Music Dianne Haworth HarperCollins, $29.99, ISBN 1869505891 The road is a place, both real and metaphorical, central to the life of any professional musician. It is where

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Posted in Memoir, Music, Non-fiction, Review

Editorial – Issue 79

The haunting Street banners calling for donations to the annual City Mission book sale had us each confidently scanning our shelves for give-aways, applying a literary version of that wardrobe rule – haven’t worn it for at least two seasons?

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Posted in Editorial
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