SRB Picks of the Week 19 July 2008

:By Jeremy Rose

No, I’m not going to have a kvetch about the wretched Veitch affair, I just couldn’t resist the headline. A story combining three of the media’s pet obsessions violence, celebrity and cover-ups was always going to be recipe for saturation coverage. All it needs now is for some sordid sex tapes to emerge and a Royal connection and it will be a tabloid full house. But even with just three of the five, the Sunday Star Times deemed it important enough to dedicate 100 percent of its comment section to the affair and the bulk of its news coverage to boot. Okay, maybe a little kvetching’s in order. Read more »

SRB Picks of the Week 12 July 2008

:By Jeremy Rose

My childhood bedroom was about 10 metres from the Johnsonville railway line – halfway between Simla Crescent and Boxhill Stations – and the passing trains rattled the Victorian sash-windows next to my bed. The English Electric DM/D Class Units that plied the line had a powerful Cyclops-like headlight and the shadows it cast raced around my bedroom walls.

So why the nostalgia? Read more »

SRB Picks of the Week 6 July 2008

:By Jeremy Rose

I can’t help myself from looking at people’s books when I visit their houses. So last week when I went to interview Niue’s former premier, Young Vivian, at his home in the village of Hapuku I found myself scanning the titles scattered around his home. Vivian boasts of waking up the village by ringing the Church bell at 6am, seven days a week, so it wasn’t a surprise to see a well-read copy of the Bible on the table. But I was pleasantly surprised to see a copy of Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. Read more »

SRB Picks of the Week 20 June 2008

:By Jeremy Rose

The phrase, “Speaking Truth to Power”, popular among progressives, irritates me. It’s as if those using it think the powerful are simply ignorant of the facts and if only a few brave souls were prepared to tell them the error of their ways the massive inequalities in power and wealth that plague the world would fade away. But I have no such doubts about the blunt and truthful open letter from Bolivian President Evo Morales to the European Union. Read more »

SRB Picks of the Week 13 June 2008

The release of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Finalists earlier this week unleashed something of a literary tempest. Graham “Bookman” Beattie declared on his blog that the judges’ decision to shortlist just four – rather than the usual five – books in the fiction category would “create the greatest controversy” around the awards in many years. And he’s done his best to ensure his prediction comes true. Read more »

SRB Picks of the Week 07 June 2008

:By Jeremy Rose

The slander continues. That an historian, economist and writer of W B Sutch’s standing is best remembered for a botched attempt by the “Security Intelligence Service” to have him convicted of treason is a tragedy. Sutch’s SIS file released last week is interesting both for what’s included and what’s not. The spooks noted that his nickname was “Greasy” during his teaching years – but were unable to establish with certainty that his eyes were brown. Read more »

SRB Picks of the Week 30 May 2008

:By Jeremy Rose

In this week’s SRB Picks: Was Shakespeare an Italian Jewess? Janet Frame and the Marx Brothers, and; the Charleston Heston of the motorcar Jeremy Clarkson at Britain’s premier literary fest. Read more »

SRB Picks of the Week 23 May 08

:By Jeremy Rose

Collectors of obscure Wellington poetry collections may remember a book by Israeli historian Benny Morris’s father, Ya’acov. It was published shortly before the end of Ya’acov’s term as Israeli ambassador to New Zealand in the 1980s. Truth be told the verse wasn’t that memorable but it contained an ode to one of my school-mate’s foreskin that’s kind of hard to forget. Read more »

SRB Picks of the Week 15 May 08

:By Jeremy Rose

In this week’s SRB picks: Kiwi writers getting noticed in Britain, Istanbul city of sleuths, Fritzl’s fictional forebears and Auckland’s Writers and Readers Festival gets underway. Read more »

SRB Picks of the Week 9 May 08

:By Jeremy Rose

How different would the World have been if the young Karl Marx had followed his heart and pursued his love of literature? What if playwright David Mamet had pursued his equally passionate love of professional fighting? And the Red Ballloon flies over Paris again. All this and more in this week’s SRB picks. Read more »