Blog Archives
The long and the short of it, Jock Phillips
A Peculiar Gentleman: George Rusden – A Life John O’Leary Australian Scholarly, $50.00, ISBN 9781925333404 The World, the Flesh and the Devil: The Life and Opinions of Samuel Marsden in England and the Antipodes, 1765-1838 Andrew Sharp Auckland University Press,…
Tagged with: Andrew Sharp, Auckland University Press, Australian Scholarly, George Rusden, Issue 118, Jock Phillips, John O’Leary, Samuel Marsden, Winter 2017
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review
A most “vigorous afterlife”, Roger Blackley
Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand: The Māori Portraits Ngahiraka Mason and Zara Stanhope (eds) Auckland University Press and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, $75.00, ISBN 9781869408565 This extremely elegant book, with its unusual, tall-and-thin “hyper-portrait” format, brings the artist Gottfried…
Tagged with: Gottfried Lindauer, Issue 118, Ngahiraka Mason, Roger Blackley, Winter 2017, Zara Stanhope
Posted in Art, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Art, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
The unnerving detritus of what was, Jane Westaway
The Shops Steve Braunias and Peter Black (photographer) Luncheon Sausage Books, $40.00, ISBN 9780908689941 Once upon a time, I met people who owned a shop. I was young and impressionable and, on my first visit, was dazzled by a window…
Tagged with: Issue 118, Jane Westaway, Luncheon Sausage Books, Peter Black, Steve Braunias, Winter 2017
Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Review
A continuum of community, Chris Bourke
New Zealand Jazz Life Norman Meehan (Tony Whincup photographer) Victoria University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9781776560929 In the 1984 “mockumentary” This is Spinal Tap, the fictional rock band was positive about its declining fan base. “We are more selective about our…
Tagged with: Chris Bourke, Issue 118, Norman Meehan, Tony Whincup, Victoria University Press, Winter 2017
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Music, Non-fiction, Review
Protect, promote, and attract an audience, Wayne Hope
Māori Television: The First Ten Years Jo Smith Auckland University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781869408572 The birth of the Māori Television Service in March 2004 coincided with nationwide protests against the Labour government’s plan to entrench, legislatively, Crown ownership of the…
Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Issue 118, Jo Smith, Wayne Hope, Winter 2017
Posted in Māori, Media, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Māori, Media, Non-fiction, Review
Making friends with Mansfield, Ashlee Nelson
Mansfield and Me: A Graphic Memoir Sarah Laing Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9781776560691 The graphic form is in some ways a more complex undertaking than straightforward prose, for a graphic text must concern itself not only with the words…
Tagged with: Ashlee Nelson, Issue 118, Katherine Mansfield, Sarah Laing, Victoria University Press, Winter 2017
Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review
The scars remain; the story must be told, Helena Wiśniewska Brow
Budapest Girl: An Immigrant Confronts the Past Panni Palásti Matai River Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780473343712 “Who wants to talk about the past anymore? And who wants to hear?” It’s a challenge to the author from a former Budapest schoolmate, one…
Tagged with: Issue 118, Matai River Press, Panni Palásti, Winter 2017
Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Memoir, Non-fiction, Review
Beginning with myths
The novelist Hamish Clayton rereads Lloyd Jones’s The Book of Fame I first read Lloyd Jones’s The Book of Fame soon after it had won the Deutz Medal for fiction, at the then-Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2001. It…
Turning a blind eye, Rae Varcoe
Doctors in Denial: The Forgotten Women in the “Unfortunate Experiment” Ronald W Jones Otago University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780947522438 My first acquaintance with National Women’s Hospital was as a final-year medical student in 1968. It was an unpleasant experience of…
Tagged with: Issue 118, Otago University Press, Rae Varcoe, Ronald W Jones, Winter 2017
Posted in Health, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Health, Non-fiction, Review
Poem – John Davidson
Parsifal We all shoot the swan in youthful trespass ignorant of our misdeed. Not all of us, though, get off so lightly and get a second chance to be embraced as saviour fool. And the second chance, if it comes…