Blog Archives
Issue 118 | Winter 2017
Volume 27 | Number 2 | Issue 118 | Winter 2017 C K Stead: “The Year Was 69” (poem) Sarah Ross: Sue Wootton, Strip Ashlee Nelson: Sarah Laing, Mansfield and Me: A Graphic Memoir Dinah Priestley: Sharon Murdoch (with…
Truths both bald and stretched, Eirlys Hunter
The Diamond Horse Stacy Gregg HarperCollins, $25.00, ISBN 9780008124397 Grandad’s Wheelies Jack Lasenby Penguin Random House, $17.00, ISBN 9780143507338 Rona Chris Szekely Huia, $15.00, ISBN 9781775501985 The Impossible Boy Leonie Agnew Penguin Random House, $20.00, ISBN 9780143309062 Reading fiction allows…
Tagged with: Chris Szekely, Eirlys Hunter, HarperCollins, Huia, Issue 118, Jack Lasenby, Leonie Agnew, Penguin Random House, Stacy Gregg, Winter 2017
Posted in Children, Literature, Review
Posted in Children, Literature, Review
Filling historical gaps, Claire Mabey
Daylight Second Kelly Ana Morey HarperCollins, $37.00, ISBN 9781775540526 I am certain that I’ve seen Phar Lap. Somewhere, in the back of my memory, is a child’s-eye view of a very large horse in a glass case in a museum,…
Tagged with: Claire Mabey, HarperCollins, Issue 118, Kelly Ana Morey, Winter 2017
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Rewards, challenges, surprise, Roger Robinson
The Collected Poems of Alistair Te Ariki Campbell Victoria University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9781776560677 Alistair Te Ariki Campbell always surprised us. He surprised the severely nationalistic poetry establishment of the post-WWII era with laments and elegies and mythic landscapes of…
Tagged with: Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Issue 118, Roger Robinson, Victoria University Press, Winter 2017
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Revisiting the 1930s, Tony Simpson
The Broken Decade: Prosperity, Depression and Recovery in New Zealand 1928–1939 Malcolm McKinnon Otago University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9781927322260 In 1968, I left my home town of Christchurch and came to Wellington to work as a producer in radio in…
Tagged with: Issue 118, Malcolm McKinnon, Otago University Press, Tony Simpson, Winter 2017
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
Changing times, David Grant
The New Zealand Labour Party 1916–2016 Peter Franks and Jim McAloon Victoria University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9781776560745 Researching a history of conservative political parties in New Zealand would be relatively straight-forward. The Reform/National Parties have, from their early beginnings to…
Tagged with: David Grant, Issue 118, Jim McAloon, Peter Franks, Victoria University Press, Winter 2017
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Poem – Mark Pirie
Goodnight It can end like this, you know, your arms round her waist filling the void you’d thought was destined for someone else … but perhaps a coffee will do, you think, or another kiss, another hug, or just a…
New Zealand’s bloodiest campaign, Steven Loveridge
New Zealand’s Western Front Campaign Ian McGibbon Bateman, $80.00, ISBN 9781869539269 Efforts to explain and/or convey WWI’s Western Front have endured for a century. Libraries could be stocked with military histories investigating the operation of armies, the performance of commanders…
Tagged with: Bateman, Ian McGibbon, Issue 118, Steven Loveridge, Winter 2017
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War
Town and country, Simon Upton
The Big Smoke: New Zealand Cities 1840-1920 Ben Schrader Bridget Williams Books, $60.00, ISBN 9780947492434 I live in a very large city – Paris. It is a melting-pot of anonymity, dynamic and dangerous. There are futuristic experiments in eco-design and…
Tagged with: Ben Schrader, Bridget Williams Books, Issue 118, Simon Upton, Winter 2017
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
“No country for old men”
Posted in Comment, Poetry