Blog Archives
Outstanding achievement or pitiful war? Janet Hunt
Making a New Land: Environmental Histories of New Zealand Eric Pawson and Tom Brooking (eds) Otago University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9781877578526 Making a New Land: Environmental Histories of New Zealand is a revised, expanded and renamed edition of Environmental Histories…
Tagged with: Eric Pawson, Issue 108, Janet Hunt, Otago University Press, Summer 2014, Tom Brooking
Posted in History, Natural History, Review, Sociology
Posted in History, Natural History, Review, Sociology
Continuity and change, Simon Murfitt
Above the City: A History of Otago Boys’ High School 1863-2013 Rory Sweetman Otago Boys’ High School Foundation, $75.00, ISBN 9780473247720 It was with some trepidation that I approached this book. It is a weighty hard-cover history, running to 440…
Tagged with: Issue 108, Otago Boys’ High School Foundation, Rory Sweetman, Simon Murfitt, Summer 2014
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Worlds old and new, Nicholas Reid
Purgatory Rosetta Allan Penguin, $30.00 ISBN 9780143571025 James Cook’s New World Graeme Lay Fourth Estate, $37.00 ISBN 9781775540410 There’s one current phenomenon in New Zealand literature that I’m watching with great interest. It’s the fact that, with a few honourable…
Tagged with: Fourth Estate, Graeme Lay, Issue 108, Nicholas Reid, Penguin, Rosetta Allan, Summer 2014
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
“The retrospective glance”, Bronwyn Dalley
Journey to a Hanging: The Events that Set New Zealand Race Relations Back by a Century Peter Wells Vintage, $45.00 ISBN 9781775533900 As a child, I owned a Webster’s Illustrated Dictionary. My brother had bought it in mail-order instalments over…
Tagged with: Bronwyn Dalley, Issue 108, Peter Wells, Summer 2014, Vintage
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Larger than life, Simon Upton
Richard Seddon: King of God’s Own – The Life and Times of New Zealand’s Longest-serving Prime Minister Tom Brooking Penguin, $65.00 ISBN 9780143569671 I grew up in a very complacent country which didn’t really take its history seriously. New Zealand…
Tagged with: Issue 108, Penguin, Simon Upton, Summer 2014, Tom Brooking
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Ticking on by, Catherine Robertson
Carnival Sky Owen Marshall Vintage, $38.00 ISBN 9781775535827 The White Clock Owen Marshall Otago University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9781877578632 Both of Marshall’s latest works centre on confrontations with mortality, and both do a fine job of showing that these are…
Tagged with: Catherine Robertson, Issue 108, Otago University Press, Owen Marshall, Summer 2014, Vintage
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
The cost of living, Don Brash
The New Zealand CPI at 100: History and Interpretation Sharleen Forbes and Antong Victorio (eds) Victoria University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780864739667 To my considerable surprise, I enjoyed this book, and learnt much more than I expected from the diversity of…
Tagged with: Antong Victorio, Don Brash, Issue 108, Sharleen Forbes, Summer 2014, Victoria University Press
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review