Blog Archives

Object lessons, Nicholas Reid

Posted on December 1, 2012 by NZ Books

The Thrill of Falling Witi Ihimaera Vintage, $38.00, ISBN 9781869799205   Recently, with the death of Margaret Mahy, New Zealand mourned the loss of one of its best-known writers for children. We can take comfort, however, from the fact that…

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Posted in Literature, Review, Short stories, Young adults

Getting it covered, Jenny Nicholls

Posted on December 1, 2012 by NZ Books

North & South magazine art director Jenny Nicholls looks into the future of book design. Recently I was sent a photography book published by Taschen – Mario Testino: Private View – to review. I had been looking forward to the…

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Posted in Comment, ebooks, Media

Hot gospels and wowserism, Paul Morris

Posted on December 1, 2012 by NZ Books

The Spirit of the Past: Essays on Christianity in New Zealand History  Geoffrey Troughton and Hugh Morrison (eds)  Victoria University Press, $50.00,  ISBN 9780864736543 Theology no longer forms part of a university education in the social sciences or humanities, where…

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Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Religion, Review

Matters of form, Julia Marshall

Posted on December 1, 2012 by NZ Books

Julia Marshall of Gecko Press wonders about the future of the book as artefact.  Recently, Frances, in charge of Gecko Press accounts, went to get her daily coffee at The Jimmy in Wellington and was asked where she worked. On her…

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Posted in Comment, ebooks

The invisible hand, Margot Schwass

Posted on December 1, 2012 by NZ Books

The Occupiers: New Zealand Veterans Remember Post-war Japan  Alison Parr Penguin Books, $45.00, ISBN 9780143567240 In Love and War: Kiwi Soldiers’ Romantic Encounters in Wartime Italy  Susan Jacobs Penguin Books, $40.00, ISBN 9780143567554 I detoured into these two books while…

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War

Cashing up, Jane Westaway

Posted on December 1, 2012 by NZ Books

Jane Westaway sells a book and wonders how.  Eleven years ago I published a novel. Last Wednesday I received my latest royalty statement. Somewhere out there, I understand, are authors who, along with their statements, get cheques that go some…

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Posted in Comment

Poem –  Peter Bland

Posted on December 1, 2012 by NZ Books

We call it winter   We call it winter, this Northland chill with its one-bar heater, its woollen cap, its hint of frost on the roof. But you have to laugh when you think of Eskimos crowding round a whale-oil…

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Posted in Poem

Poem – Harry Ricketts

Posted on December 1, 2012 by NZ Books

At the Frankfurt Book Fair: a triolet   We do our best to do our stuff, our quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle. A Lion in the Meadow meets Alan Duff: We do our best to do our stuff. The things…

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Posted in Poem

Only the lonely, Timothy G Jones

Posted on December 1, 2012 by NZ Books

The Lonely and the Alone: The Poetics of Isolation in New Zealand Fiction Doreen D’Cruz and John C Ross Rodopi, €85.00, ISBN 9789042034747 Loneliness holds a special place in New Zealand literature. If there is a single image that casts…

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Posted in Literature, Non-fiction, Review

Obsolescence is just the beginning, Peter Simpson

Posted on December 1, 2012 by NZ Books

Director of The Holloway Press Peter Simpson celebrates the joy of letterpress. The Holloway Press is dedicated to letterpress printing, a technology rendered largely obsolete by the dawn of the digital age. Letterpress printing – that is, the direct impression…

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