Samuel Marsden – Altar Ego, by Richard Quinn

Dunmore Press, 2008, $35. Reviewed by MARK DERBY (PLUS: An alternative review by BOB MALLOY)

I was predisposed to like this book. I enjoy a good old historical hatchet job, one which chops at the pedestal of a figure of probity and renown to reveal the clay feet and bad breath which earlier biographers have overlooked or discreetly sanitised. And Samuel Marsden is a prime candidate for forensic literary comeuppance. The plump, purse-mouthed parson has had it far too easy at the hands of historians in this country, where he is practically revered. In Australia, by contrast, he is widely reviled even though, as Richard Quinn notes here, Marsden shuttled across the Tasman for much of his career and did not appear to change his spots as he did so. So which Marsden is the more real – the stern yet saintly soul-saver who has a posh girl’s school named after him in Wellington, or the vindictive flogger who became a watchword for High Church hypocrisy in Port Jackson? I opened this book eager to find out. Read more »

Jewish weddings in Mogador: The illuminated ketuba from Mogador, Morocco by Asher Knafo & David Bensoussan

Les Éditions du Lys & Ot Brit Kodesh. Reviewed by LEON BENBARUK

This is not just a coffee table book, it is a reference and a historical collection of ketubot (marriage contracts) which, as an art form, has more or less disappeared following the industrial revolution – just as other Sephardic historical documents have gone. One wonders why the Sephardic world has been maligned by the Ashkenazi-dominant culture. in this case, it is Moroccan Jewish historiography and history which is being marginalised. Read more »

22 September: Short/Sharp/Script (1)
One hour, five different dramas: actors perform rehearsed readings of work produced by MA (Script) students at the Institute of Modern Letters. Chaired by Ken Duncum. Read more »

Media Release
Sammy Joins the Shooting Stars and Way to Play, Sammy!
by Michele Cox
Michele Cox knows a thing or two about football….She is the Ambassador for the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup 2008, which will be hosted in New Zealand from 28 October until 16 November. She is also a member of FIFA’s Committee for Women’s Football and the Women’s World Cup, and has run her own football academy for talented young female footballers. After ten years in the national team, receiving numerous New Zealand Player of the Year awards, and winning two Cup Finals with a top German team, Michele Cox brings her knowledge and passion for the game to these children’s football books. Read more »

PRESS RELEASE
I am pleased to announce that ‘Viola Beadleton’s Compendium of Seriously Silly and Astoundingly Amazing Stories Volume Two’ has now been released in selected stores around Wellington.
Leading NZ literary lights such as Jenny Argante – co-founder of literary journal Bravado, and Janis Freegard – winner of 2001 BNZ Katherine Mansfield award, can be found on the pages of this volume of the Compendium, alongside other talented poets and short story writers. Read more »

Bloodline by Michael Green

Random House New Zealand, Reviewed by JANE BLAIKIE

Bloodline opens with scenes of fear and mayhem at Changi airport, Singapore, as a super-SARS pandemic takes hold. So flying out of Christchurch for Singapore, I opened the book with a mild thrill of recognition and hopes of a few hours of happy escapism. But this was not to be. Bloodline is a white-supremacy survivalist fantasy. Read more »

The Secret of Spirits Bay by Stephen Barker

HarperCollins New Zealand Reviewed by ROWAN BLAIKIE

It was about a boy called Tom Bowman who loves to run on the beach, he loves to race. Then he meets a friend called Ana and her cousin Jake, who have a grandfather called Mata. Tom spends lots of time with his friends until he notices a mystery boy who he becomes interested in Read more »

A review/interview with Greg McGee and his memoirs TALL TALES (SOME TRUE)(Penguin Books) by David Geary

I feel like I’ve marked Greg McGee many times. On the rugby field, he’s the kind of guy I’d line up against at the back of the lineout. The ball would be thrown in, he’d soar above me (with some subtle help off my shoulder) palm it perfectly down to his halfback, then be out the backline before I’d recovered my balance. On the way, he’d have time to share a joke with the ref about how I should be called Zigzag, ‘cause when I jumped a ciggie paper is about all you’d fit between my sprigs and the turf. And as I wheezed off after him, I’d think – ‘Ah, so that’s what it takes to be an All Black.’ Read more »

Media release
As David Veart left home for the first time in the early 1970’s, his mother presented him with the essential Edmonds Cookery Book and a lifelong passion for cookbooks was born.

Since that gift from his mother, David Veart has accumulated a library of over 500 cookbooks and, along the way, has developed a devotion for recipes and cooking; shortly, he will become a published food historian Read more »

AUDIO INTERVIEW

Best selling author Robert Muchamore tells Hanahiva Rose that he’s “relatively loaded now” that he’s selling 900,000 copies of his Cherub series of books about spy kids each year. He admits to being a complete nerd at school who never would have made it through the Cherub training, reveals his favorite character, and that he had ambitions to become a writer of “literary” books for adults.

Read more »