Helen: Portrait of a Prime Minister Brian Edwards Exisle Publishing, $44.95, ISBN 0908988206 Biography is a fraught art. If the subject is dead, then the Author is reliant upon a myriad of sources, often contradictory, to capture the essence of…
Tread Softly For You Tread On My Life: New & Collected Writings Michael King Cape Catley, $34.95, ISBN 0908561881 “This is the sort of letter that doesn’t look well in a Biography,” Rupert Brooke wrote Eddie Marsh in September 1913. Brooke…
He Tipua: The Life and Times of Sir Apirana Ngata Ranginui Walker Viking, $69.95, ISBN 0670911887 In the Foreword, Sir Henare Ngata, son of Sir Apirana, on Behalf of the Ngata family and the Ngati Porou people, thanks Dr Ranginui…
Featherstone Kirsty Gunn Faber & Faber, $34.95, ISBN 0571212476 The epigraph is an entry in an imagined handbook. It provides information you’d expect from a motoring guide about a small town you’ve never visited before, and it’s in the same format…
Unquiet World: The Life of Count Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk Stephanie de Montalk Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 086473414X I completely misunderstood this book. I did what I usually do to begin reviewing a book. I checked for a subtitle,…
faithsinger Rosie Scott Vintage, $24.95, ISBN 1869414667 “It’s a delightful reversal that I’ve become more radical as I’ve gotten older. I get so enraged by the kind of social injustice I feel”: Rosie Scott in an interview with Rob O’Neill…