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Issue 28 | June 1997

Volume 7 | Number 2 | Issue 28 | June 1997   Nelson Wattie: Shadbolt the storyteller Aorewa McLeod, Selina Tusitala Marsh, Sia Figiel’s exciting talent Michael Bassett: revisiting John Banks Sir Geoffrey Palmer: what should be done about ACC Len

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Thin issues, rich wit, a gang and a psychopath, Heather Murray

The Journey Home Cathie Dunsford Spinifex Press Pty Ltd (Australia), $24.95, ISBN 1 875559 54 X Dr Beale’s Wednesday Liz Falkner Arrow, Random House, $17.95, ISBN 1 86941 297 4 The Visitation Sue Reidy Black Swan, $19.95, ISBN 0 552 99696

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

The most exciting recent book, Aorewa McLeod 

where we once belonged Sia Figiel Pasifica Press, $24.95, ISBN 0 908597 27 4 When I heard Sia Figiel in 1995, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the Auckland University English department common room, read/tell the second story in this collection

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The tides of labour, Len Richardson

Holding the Balance: A History of New Zealand’s Department of Labour 1891-1995 John E Martin Canturbury University Press, $49.95 limp, $69.95 cased, ISBN 0 908812 61 2 John Martin’s Holding the Balance is, in his own words, “a reassertion of

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Energy, compost and mulch, Lydia Wevers

Just Another Art Movement. It’s a cunning phrase, suggesting a knowing self-deprecation but also the tiny beginnings from which the noble bush of a future literary landscape might grow.Something has already grown, as I look at the pile of JAAMs

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Posted in Literature, Review

‘And what happened next?’ Our stories, Nelson Wattie

Dove on the Waters Maurice Shadbolt David Ling Publishing, $39.95, ISBN 0 908990 40 5 In 1959, having just left a provincial home town and moved to the astonishingly big city of Auckland, I was busy trying out various ways

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Valuable memories for reform, Geoffrey Palmer

Compensation for Personal Injury in New Zealand —  Its Rise and Fall Ian Campbell Auckland University Press, $39.95, ISBN 1 86940 150 6 Ian B Campbell is 80 years old and has written an absorbing book on the accident compensation

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Awards and Celebration

Children’s awards The Bantam and the Soldier, which New Zealand Books featured in a special review in issue No 23, won the New Zealand Post children’s book award of the year. The remarkable children’s (anti-)war story was written by Jennifer

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Posted in Awards, Comment

Almost at any cost, Bill Sewell

Work in progress Poets should always have something else to do. Of course, most have to make a living and, unless a poet is in sufficient demand as a performer, that usually means being part of the everyday workforce. And

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Letters – Issue 28

Not so blind While Paul White in “(Not) to the consumer’s taste (New Zealand Books, March 1997) substantiates much of his interesting criticism of wine writers, there are a couple of points on which he is factually incorrect. He states

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Posted in Letters
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