This collection of poetry features five extended poems that explore the concept of beauty and the nature of language, discussing serious philosophical ideas withzest, energy, wit, and humor. A unique volume featuring remembered and misremembered song lyrics from John Lennon, Lou Reed, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Ryan Adams, and Courtney Love, among others, it alsoincludes fragments from philosophers and poets of the sublime, especially William Wordsworth and John Ruskin, and from religious texts such as the Bible and the Tao-Te Ching. Through glimpses of imperfection, Wedde...

In this substantial monograph on celebrated artist Bill Culbert's work, Ian Webbe explores the ideas, materials and conditions that have formed his art over the past 50 years.

From jaunty and self-deprecating to serious and nostalgic, the poems in this collection paint a vivid portrait of Wellington businesses and institutions. Quietly hilarious, the verse captures the essence of Toyota, Tony s Tyre Service, Metalworx Engineering, Wellington Scrap Metal, the KFC on the corner of Pirie Street, and the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. At the heart ofthis collectionare three stunning sequences: an ode to walking the streets of Wellington, a gatheringof surreal and quirky moments, and a lyrical approach to the author s travels from Bangladesh to the south...

Christopher Hare has done well for himself: one of the world's top food writers, he has travelled to the best restaurants in the most exotic locations, accompanied by the chic dining companion known to readers of his lavish books as The Glace. But when the credit crunch ushers in a new age of austerity, it's uncertain whether his audience will still have an appetite for his thoughts on Robuchon and caramelized quail. Certainly Christopher's editor has had his fill. One evening, as he explores the budget options in a mediocre restaurant in off-season Nice--alone, for The Glace, his erstwhile...

From early childhood in postwar Blenheim to the remote regions of Bangladesh, from an English boarding school to 1960s Auckland, and from Jordan during the civil war of 1969-70 to family homes full of children, this dazzling book traces the many shifts in Ian Wedde's life. Haunted by the ghosts of his restless German and Scottish great grandparents, and of his wandering parents, Wedde is always looking over his shoulder as he writes. His companion throughout is his twin brother Dave, who shared their first home--their mother Linda's womb--and who, as the book ends, hosts a lunch where the...

"Trifecta "looks at the odds in the lives of the three children of Martin and Agnes Klepka. Martin was one of the refugees of Nazism who famously brought Modernist architecture and real coffee to New Zealand. Many years after his early death from a heart attack, Klepka s children are struggling in their different ways with the difficult legacy of their charismatic, overbearing father. Sandy, who was disliked by his father, is a cultural historian in the twilight of his career, disgraced, divorced and reduced to a .2 position at Auckland University. Veronica, who bored her father, is...