Dark of the Moon and Beak of the Moon, Philip Temple, Penguin, each $24.95 Sailor, explorer, writer, mountaineer: Philip Temple was all of those things when I first met him in the 1970s. Originally from England ‑ he emigrated as…
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Blog Archives
Revelling in the actuality of the past, Ralph Johnson
The House of Strife Maurice Shadbolt, Hodder and Stoughton, $39.95 Life is no uniform uninterrupted march or flow. It is a thing of histories, each with its own plot, its inception and movement towards its close. – John Dewey,…
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Tagged with: Hodder and Stoughton, Issue 11, Maurice Shadbolt, Ralph Johnson, Summer 1993
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Fiction, history and art of displacement, Brian Edwards
Let the River Stand Vincent O’Sullivan, Penguin, $24.95 Amongst conceptions of history, at least in its articulations with fiction and with postmodernism as perception of a contemporary cultural movement, grand narratives of human progress give way to local detail, to…
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Tagged with: Brian Edwards, Issue 11, Penguin, Summer 1993, Vincent O’Sullivan
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Unacknowledged legislators, Diane Hebley
Zigzag William Taylor (ed), Penguin, $19.95 Slide the Corner Fleur Beale, Ashton Scholastic Take Me to Your Leaders Gaelyn Gordon, Tui Harper/Collins, $14.95 Those who support New Zealand literature for children and young adults have always claimed the justification for…
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Tagged with: Ashton Scholastic, Collins, Fleur Beale, Gaelyn Gordon, Issue 11, Penguin, Summer 1993, Tui Harper, William Taylor
Posted in Children, Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults
Posted in Children, Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults
A major Australasian critic, Charles Ferrall
Patrick White Mark Williams, Macmillan, 1993, $45.95 During the early 1960s Patrick White wrote an admiring letter to Janet Frame; she replied 22 years later. The Tasman is often wider than it looks, but this belies some more direct correspondences…
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Tagged with: Charles Ferrall, Issue 11, Macmillan, Mark Williams, Summer 1993
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Collecting and classifying, Charlotte Macdonald
The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Volume Two 1870‑1900, Bridget Williams Books/ Department of Internal Affairs, $130.00 Te Timatanga ‑ Tatau Tatau: Early Stories from Founding Members of the Maori Women’s Welfare League, Maori Women’s Welfare League/ Bridget Williams Books,…
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Tagged with: Bridget Williams Books, Charlotte Macdonald, Department of Internal Affairs, Issue 11, Maori Women's Welfare League, Summer 1993
Posted in Biography, History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
Arnoldian seriousness, too, William Renwick
Gadfly: The Life and Times of James Shelley Ian Carter, Auckland University Press, $39.95 Many who know him thought that Professor James Shelley was the most unforgettable man they had ever known. Gwen Somerset recalled him as a comet lighting…
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Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Ian Carter, Issue 11, James Shelley, Summer 1993, William Renwick
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Amidst the bric-à-brac, Harvey McQueen
Writing a New Country: A collection of essays presented to E H McCormick in his 88th year James Ross, Linda Gill and Stuart McRae (eds), privately published, James Ross, 495 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland Of Pavlova, Poetry and Paradigms:…
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Tagged with: Christine Franzen, E H McCormick, Harry Orsman, Harvey McQueen, Issue 11, James Ross, Laurie Bauer, Linda Gill, Stuart McRae, Summer 1993, Victoria University Press
Posted in Essays, Literature, Review
Posted in Essays, Literature, Review
Rather like New Zealanders, Lauris Edmond
What makes literary festivals so popular? Are writers themselves fascinating to meet in the flesh, or is it the lure of a spectator sport for intellectuals, conferring a greater cachet than rugby or baseball and just as exciting? The Vancouver…
Posted in Comment