Blog Archives
Bright fine gold, Peter Calder
Diggers, Hatters and Whores: The Story of the New Zealand Gold Rushes Stevan Eldred-Grigg Random House, $55.00, ISBN 9781869419257 In the closing pages of this comprehensive, even magisterial, historical survey, the author quotes the observation by Joan Stevens in The…
Tagged with: Issue 86, Peter Calder, Random House, Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Winter 2009
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Debuts and returns, Linda Burgess
Enemy at the Gate Philippa Werry Scholastic New Zealand, $17.99 ISBN 9781869438135 Old Drumble Jack Lasenby HarperCollins, $16.99, ISBN 978169506742 Chicken Feathers Joy Cowley and David Elliot (illus) Puffin Books, $17.95, ISBN 9780143303909 Five (and a bit) Days in the…
Tagged with: David Elliot, HarperCollins, Issue 86, Jack Lasenby, Joy Cowley, Linda Burgess, Michelle Kelly, Philippa Werry, Puffin Books, Random Books, Rebecca Cundy, Scholastic New Zealand, Val Bird, Winter 2009
Posted in Children, Literature, Review
Posted in Children, Literature, Review
Cannibalism and communion, Andrew Fieldsend
This Horrid Practice: The Myth and Reality of Traditional Maori Cannibalism Paul Moon Penguin Books, $40.00, ISBN 9780143006718 Macaulay said that history was sometimes fiction, sometimes theory. But Paul Moon’s provocative and controversial book sets out to establish objective facts…
Tagged with: Andrew Fieldsend, Issue 86, Paul Moon, Penguin Books, Winter 2009
Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
Between rocks and hard places, David Hill
The Real McKay Graham Bishop Otago University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781877372223 The Amazing World of James Hector Simon Nathan and Mary Varnham (eds) Awa Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780958275071 The first time I went on a Geological Society field trip, we…
Tagged with: Awa Press, David Hill, Graham Bishop, Issue 86, Mary Varnham, Otago University Press, Simon Nathan, Winter 2009
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Review
Celebrating the singular, Julia Millen
Sit There and Draw That! Helen Crabb (“Barc”): Artist and Teacher Patricia Fry Steele Roberts, $29.99, ISBN 9781877448546 Bill’s Story: A Portrait of W A Sutton Pat Unger Canterbury University Press, $39.99, ISBN 9781877257704 Painting Out the Past: The Life…
Tagged with: Canterbury University Press, Helen Crabb, Issue 86, Julia Millen, Longacre Press, Pat Unger, Patricia France, Patricia Fry, Richard Donald, Steele Roberts, W A Sutton, Winter 2009
Posted in Art, Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Art, Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Poem — Tim Upperton
History Turn the pages, slowly. Each word afloat on narrative’s sea, each glyph the principal character in its own story, each clinging on for dear life. A is aleph, an ox. Upside down, its blank, horned face blazes through…
Refusing to come quietly, Nepia Mahuika
Ngai Tahu: A Migration History – The Carrington Text Rawiri Te Maire Tau and Atholl Anderson (eds) Bridget Williams Books with Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu, $69.99, ISBN 9781877242397 The Beating Heart: A Political and Socio-economic History of Te Arawa …
Tagged with: Atholl Anderson, Bridget Williams Books, David Armstrong, Huia, Issue 86, Nepia Mahuika, Rawiri Te Maire Tau, Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu, Vincent O’Malley, Winter 2009
Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
The sound of the cuckoo, Doug Munro
Samuel Marsden: Altar Ego Richard Quinn Dunmore Publishing, $34.95, ISBN 9781877399350 As a New Zealand schoolboy in the 1960s, I knew the Rev Samuel Marsden (1765-1838) as the great and good man who introduced Christianity to the Maori in 1814.…
Tagged with: Dunmore Publishing, Issue 86, Richard Quinn, Samuel Marsden, Winter 2009
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
That old stuff, Coral Atkinson
The Sea Between Carol Thomas HarperCollins, $36.99, ISBN 9781869507626 Weathered Bones Michele Powles Penguin Books, $28.00, ISBN 9780143011248 Flashback Forward John Cairney Black Swan, $29.99, ISBN 9781869419219 After generations of being like adolescents with no interest in “that old stuff”,…
Tagged with: Black Swan, Carol Thomas, Coral Atkinson, HarperCollins, Issue 86, John Cairney, Michele Powles, Penguin Books, Winter 2009
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review