Blog Archives

Thud and blunder, Tony Simpson

Spy  C H Kit Bennetts Random House, $37.00, ISBN 186941831X Spy is about the claim that Bill Sutch spied for the KGB. I was well-acquainted with Sutch, and we met from time to time in the 70s to talk about

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War

The bit in between, Tony Simpson

Women and Children Last: The Burning of the Emigrant Ship Cospatrick Charles R Clark University of Otago Press, $39.95, ISBN 187737214 5 This is the world’s most immigrant society. Every single person living here is either an immigrant or descended

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Posted in History, Non-fiction

Self-help or help yourself, Alice Te Punga Somerville & Tony Simpson

Pakeha and the Treaty: Why It’s Our Treaty Too Patrick Snedden Random House, $27.95, ISBN 186941683X I read Snedden’s Pakeha and the Treaty while diligently chomping my way through two books from a distinctly different genre: No More Clutter! and

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

One of the survivors, Tony Simpson

A Radical Writer’s Life  Dick Scott Reed, $39.99, ISBN 0790009765 The society in which I grew up largely no longer exists, immolated in the “reforms” of the 80s and 90s. It would be wrong to consider that an entirely bad

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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review

Over there, Tony Simpson

New Zealand and the Second World War  Ian McGibbon Hodder Moa Beckett, $40.00, ISBN 1869589548 A Fair Sort of Battering: New Zealanders remember the Italian Campaign ed Megan Hutching HarperCollins, $40.00, ISBN 1869505050 The Desert Railway  Brendan Judd Penguin, $29.95,

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War

The short story of non-fiction, Tony Simpson

When Famous People Come to Town Damien Wilkins On Kissing Kate Camp On Longing Vincent O’Sullivan Four Winds Press, $14.95 each, ISBN 0958237506; 0958237514; 0958237530 Shortly after these little books, none much longer than 50 pages, were published in September

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Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Review

Meet the monsters, Tony Simpson

Three Labour Leaders: Nordmeyer, Kirk, Rowling  ed Margaret Clark Dunmore Press, $29.95, ISBN 086469394X Mirrors on the Hill: Reflections on New Zealand’s Political Leaders  Keith Eunson Dunmore Press, $29.95, ISBN 086469385 To the uninitiated, looking in askance from without, politics

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Towards a decent feed, Lois Daish

A Distant Feast. The Origins of New Zealand’s Cuisine Tony Simpson Godwit, $34.95, ISBN 1 86962 037 2 One of the most important pieces of baggage any immigrant brings with them to their new home is a knowledge of how

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Like lambs … Tony Simpson

In The Instability of a Dependent Economy, arguably the most important book so far written on the realities of New Zealand politics, C G F Simkin concludes that the successful management of our economy depends on the relative balance between

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Posted in Comment

“’Tis desperate, so ‘tis” Tony Simpson

Burnt Barley Peta Mathias Vintage, $29.95, ISBN 1869414276 Irish at Heart Marie Gray HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 1865903449 It’s bound to continue to be one of the curiosities of this century – as it was of the last – that however

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Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review
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