The Story of the Kakapo: Parrot of the night Philip Temple and Chris Gaskin, Hodder and Stoughton, Auckland, $9.95 Matarawa House Rhondda Greig, Hazard Press, Christchurch, 1991, $21.50 For the many summertime trampers such as myself, the name of Philip Temple…
The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume One, 1769-1869, Allen and Unwin (Bridget Williams Books) and the Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1990, $120 Christendom is essentially a construct of biography. The Gospels relate the temporal genealogy, life and death…
You Are My Darling Zita Glenn Busch, Godwit, Auckland, 1991, $44.95 Glenn Busch has created an extraordinary book. Through the stories of six ‘ordinary people’ he has crafted a revealing and deeply moving account of the process of ageing. Hours…
Pakeha: The Quest For Identity in New Zealand Michael King (ed), Penguin Books, Auckland, 1991, $24.95 I came to this book already blooded from a remarkably bad-tempered review by Maurice Shadbolt, in which he variously described the contributors as numb…
Minding Children: Managing Men: Conflict and Compromise in the Lives of Postwar Pakeha Women Helen May, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1992, $34.95 Did Pakeha women after the Second World War happily retreat into their home – tying on their aprons,…
From The Word Go Murray Edmond, Auckland University Press, 1992, $16.95 Small Stories of Devotion Dinah Hawken, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 1991, $19.95 Murray Edmond’s fifth collection is an uneven performance. This poet’s strength lies in his powers of observation…