Blog Archives
Ways of cooking it – a smorgasbord of art books, Mark Amery
If you were to place all of the volumes on New Zealand art in one bookcase, you’d be presented with one rather higgledy-piggledy collection. Together they would tell an odd tale of short-lived publishing lines, changing institutional agendas, different and…
The historian’s story, Brian Turner
Looking for the Phoenix – A Memoir W H Oliver Bridget Williams Books, $39.95, ISBN 1877242985 When W H (Bill) Oliver says that, by and large, New Zealand’s been a “good place” for him, one senses that at times he’s…
Tagged with: Brian Turner, Bridget Williams Books, Issue 58, W H Oliver, Winter 2002
Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review
Back to the future, Shelagh Duckham Cox
The Hopeful Traveller Fiona Farrell Vintage, $26.95, ISBN 1869415175 This island novel starts either in 1851 with a rail journey to the Crystal Palace in London or in 2001 in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the two…
Another thing about Jake, Otto Heim
Jake’s Long Shadow Alan Duff Vintage, $29.95, ISBN 1869415116 The first impression of Alan Duff’s new novel makes you expect a work of probing substance. Its cover is reminiscent of Heretaunga Pat Baker’s Behind the Tattooed Face. Featuring Brian Brake’s…
Hard lines, David Grant
The Crisis in New Zealand Schools Martin Hames Education Forum in Association with Dunmore Press, $29.95, ISBN 0864694105 My initial reaction was that The Crisis in New Zealand schools would be redolent with jargon and full of half-truths and misinformation…
Tagged with: David Grant, Dunmore Press, Dunmore Publishing, Education Forum, Issue 58, Martin Hames, Winter 2002
Posted in Education, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Education, Non-fiction, Review
Poem – Jan Kemp
from Two tohunga waiata on one crescent “Writing is learning how to die” – Ilse Aichinger Purely accidental the addresses were similar only the street numbers differed and the minds of the men and what they said under the…
In command of his talent, Lydia Wevers
The Ballad of Fifty-one Bill Sewell HeadworX, $19.95, ISBN 0473092540 A couple of years ago I wrote a favourable review of Bill Sewell’s long poem Erebus (1999). He rang and thanked me after he read it; part of what he…
Tagged with: Bill Sewell, HeadworX, Issue 58, Lydia Wevers, Winter 2002
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
A room of one’s own, Jane Tolerton
Away from Home: The Story of Victoria House Frances Porter Bridget Williams Books, $29.95, ISBN 1877242977 Girls “on the cusp of independence”, as the back cover of this book puts it, are the stuff of many a story. But that…
Tagged with: Bridget Williams Books, Frances Porter, Issue 58, Jane Tolerton, Winter 2002
Posted in History, Review, Sociology
Posted in History, Review, Sociology
Free speech (at a price), Lynley Hood
Posted in Comment