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Well-drawn characters

18/2/2019

Oriental Parade: A Novel Of Inter-Woven Stories
by David Fountain

Creating the small Wellington boutique, Hotel Oriental, around and through which all of the characters’ stories are told, was such a wonderful way to construct this book. Setting up the main players in Roger and Bethany with their infectious curiosity is ingenious. It builds the drama of some of the tales and delivers the humour in others.
Another constant throughout is the talented hotel chef, Rene who, despite being mainly behind the kitchen door, helps to complete a very real picture indeed and I found myself feeling that I too was a guest in Hotel Oriental, such was the atmosphere that formed around me as I read. Perhaps watching a drama unfold from my table in the dining room as I ate breakfast or sharing in the conversation at the reception desk with the next influx of guests. This was cleverly achieved without being overly descriptive and allowed me to conjure up my own idea of what the hotel and its surrounds might look like.
From overseas students supplementing their incomes, to a secretive orchestral conductor, vigilante justice meted out by a sub-group of Masons, to a confusion over the ownership of a beautiful jade-handled hairbrush, from love stories to intrigue and even murder there is much to keep the reader’s attention. Despite this variety, the style is even and Roger and Bethany are always on hand to ensure that we never stray very far from the door of the hotel.
When we do leave the comfort of Hotel Oriental, we might learn of poachers who help make Rene’s menu so mouth-watering, or the life of the ex-owner of the lovely old house that became the hotel, or even the love that draws couples together despite time and distance.
Although I found the epilogue did not detract from anything preceding it, I would have been just as satisfied if the stories had been left as they had ended in their respective chapters. It might have been nice to have been left to imagine what followed on from some of these marvellous tales but, that said it did close the book tidily. I do enjoy a believable plotline and well-drawn characters to guide the way and this delivered both. I may even book in for my next holiday….

Review by George Hollinsworth

Title: Oriental Parade: A Novel Of Inter-Woven Stories
Author: David Fountain
Publisher: Fountainworks Ltd
ISBN: 9780473415471; EISBN 9780473415488 (ebook kindle amazon)
RRP: $34.95 NZD
Available: Paperback: Unity Booksellers, Wgton; National Library Store Wgton; Bruce McKenzie Books Palmerston Nth. Ebook @AmazonKindle

Mysteries and eccentricity

11/2/2019

Wild Garlic
by Peter Thomas

When River Rhein leaves Auckland’s North Shore to begin a new life in a remote cabin built by her ex-husband’s grandfather in a tiny West Coast settlement, she scarcely imagines that she is taking herself and small son into danger and long-standing intrigue.
     Anyone who has ever moved from a city into a small community will identify with the warm welcome, tinged with friendly curiosity, that River and 2-year-old Davy receive from Kurupaenui’s handful of permanent residents. However, nothing can prepare her for being woken by a cannon salute the next morning. The story behind this noisy awakening is the first indication of just how different Kurupaenui folk are to the city people River has left behind.
     Thomas lets River tell her story in a chatty, colourful style that drew me into her situation immediately. Evocative descriptions of the West Coast paint a vivid picture of its isolation and ruggedness.
     Several unsettling events in the cabin soon after her arrival warn River that there is something amiss in this outwardly idyllic place and in fact, as the story unfolds it is clear that Wild Garlic’s plot has all the ingredients of a gripping thriller.
     However, Thomas has used the daring technique of alternating fiction (River’s escape from Auckland, the mystery surrounding the cabin and her fledging relationships with Kurupaenui’s inhabitants) with chunks of non-fiction which range from the story of HMS Revenge (1577-91), dealing with stress, the plight of Romany people in Nazi Germany and astronomy. While the inclusion of this factual information, related by the people in the village, each according to his or her background, tells River more about her neighbours, I felt that it interrupted the flow of the story: the information is often delivered in the context of a conversation which has degenerated into a lecture with River reduced to the role of listener. I would have preferred Thomas to have aimed less at ‘teaching’ River (and his readers) and to have invested more in developing the intriguing plot.
     Wild Garlic spans several generations and embraces different cultures, religions and socio-political views: the very nature of the plot means that there is a dark thread running through it and I would have liked to see the characters involved much more in solving the mystery that surround River’s cabin.
     Even more daring, perhaps even reckless, than this mix of fact-fiction is River’s frequently repeated contempt for the National Party and Auckland’s North Shore. Considering how many potential viewers this could alienate, I feel Thomas could have played down River’s opinion of her ex-husband’s politics and their neighbourhood.

Review by Carolyn McKenzie
Writer, freelance proofreader, copy editor, & translator from Italian to English.
Carolyn kindly offers accommodation at reasonable rates for FlaxFlower writers
in Thames (Waikato) and Ventimiglia Alta (Liguria, Italy). carolynmckenzie@libero.it

Title: Wild Garlic
Author: Peter Thomas
Publisher: Good Hope
ISBN: 9780994118844
RRP: $22.50
Available: Paper: order from bookshops; Good Hope Publishing House, PO Box 596 Picton 7250, petergoodhope@gmail.com; or Copy Press www.copypress.co.nz
Kindle ebook from Amazon

Stimulating and enlightening

7/2/2019

Social Science Research in New Zealand: An Introduction
edited by Martin Tolich and Carl Davidson

This book’s focus, made clear right from the mihi whakatau (traditional greeting) that precedes the introduction, is on New Zealand and particularly on the responsibilities social scientists in this country have towards Māori and the spirit and detail of the Treaty of Waitangi.
It is in part a manual for social science students, particularly post-graduate students required to embark on their own research projects, and as such it succeeds very well indeed.
The sections of the book that are devoted specifically to the mechanics of research (mostly written by the editors, who are both sociologists) provide a meticulous guide, covering everything from an understanding of the purpose of research, through research design and the collection and analysis of data, and the drafting, testing and redrafting of the results.
The relative merits and problems associated with quantitative and qualitative research methods and inductive and deductive logic are considered, and by the time the last chapter is reached the contributions of the various authors make it seem self-evident that a mixed approach is almost always the best one to adopt.
An especially welcome feature of the technical sections is that the authors have explained the associated terminology so lucidly that such jargon is revealed to be simply a kind of precise and useful short-hand, and not the hermeneutic obfuscation that it might otherwise be taken for.
Both students and the general reader will find much of interest in those sections of the book that provide illustrations of the techniques described, and that demonstrate some of the directions that Social Science research in New Zealand is taking. This is fascinating stuff, and, for the student, will stimulate a desire to undertake research of their own.
But the editors asked the contributors to ensure that they wrote for ‘an educated lay audience rather than an academic or technical one’, and indeed the non-specialist reader will gain much from, for example, Barry Smith’s section on ‘Research with Māori’ and Lily George’s analysis of the complexities and tensions relating to the same issue, and from Marita Leask’s feminist perspectives, Louisa Allen’s engaging account on the use of photo elicitation and analysis, and Susan Morton’s description of the techniques involved in longitudinal research undertaken in the ‘Growing up in New Zealand’ Study.
The book demonstrates inter-disciplinary approaches that add depth and value to research in the social sciences, and how the borders between social science and the humanities are more apparent than real. As examples, Chris Brickell’s essay tracing what it meant (and means) to be a teenager in New Zealand relies largely on historical records, and Jane Kelsey’s article on secondary sources makes incisive comments regarding the way rhetoric and secrecy are used to influence attitudes and outcomes. Though not specifically discussed, no doubt literature and the other arts could also contribute to an understanding of social issues.
In the conclusion, the editors remind us that social research results help shape public debate and government policies, and thus the laws. An understanding of how research works is therefore of importance to us all. This book goes a long way towards providing just such an understanding, and it does so in a way that is stimulating as well as enlightening.

Review by Tony Chapelle

Title: Social Science Research in New Zealand: An Introduction
Authors: Martin Tolich and Carl DavidsonPublisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 9781869408848
RRP: $69.99
Available: bookshops

First collection impresses

1/2/2019

Plague Ship & Other Tales: Dark Fancies & Strange Whimsies
by Jonathan Natusch

This is the author’s first collection of short stories, numbering twenty in all. I was impressed by the variety, not only of subject matter but also of style.
From the horror and suspense of tales such as “The Marionette” and “In the Wall”, the wit and satire of “The Trouble With Time Travel” and “Selected Cards From A Defence Lawyer’s Tarot Deck”, to the futuristic threat to the human race of the title story “Plague Ship”, I was largely entertained.
Some of the offerings are short, as in the case of the very funny “The Trouble With Time Travel” at one and a half pages, without losing effect. A lot of the stories have a strong science fiction theme, with some reading like they would not be out of place in a Dr Who episode, but I felt the title story to be the jewel in the crown.
“Plague Ship” is well constructed as a short story and could well make for the basis of a full novel. The characters are realistically drawn and the story told in timeline (not always in order) as a count-down to the clincher. The sudden outbreak and rapidly spreading virus taking the world completely by surprise requires the best medical minds to unravel the mystery and find a cure. The question of where it came from remains unanswered but the why is delivered in the final two sentences. Nicely done, Mr Natusch. This is truly a science fiction thriller and it could sit quite comfortably in such a compendium alongside a sample from Ian M. Banks’ “State Of The Art”.
The selections and the order in which they appear in this publication are what make the book such an entertaining read. The longer, and sometimes darker tales, are nicely balanced with the shorter ones and the mix avoids what some collections suffer from – sameness. When turning the pages can take the reader from the ghost of a New Zealand gang member rising from the dead to wreak revenge, to a very clever alternative take on a famous fairy tale, or from the arty surrealism of Carl’s hangover, to the satire constructed from a Tarot deck, there is little room for monotony.
The book concludes with “The Last Romantic”. Built from the preface of an excerpt from Lord Byron’s poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” regarding the beauty of nature and a world unspoiled by humankind, it closes the collection wonderfully. I am sure there are many who would be envious of Simeon Coppell’s choice of the perfect life. Well, maybe….
Altogether a great read.

Review by George Hollinsworth

Title: Plague Ship & Other Tales : Dark Fancies & Strange Whimsies
Author: Jonathan Natusch
Publisher: Occasionally Erudite Publications
ISBN: 978-0-473-41663-8
RRP: $19.99
Available: Softcover from bookdepository.co.uk, amazon.com or by emailing publisher jgnatusch@gmail.com

Coffee-table book for ecologists

28/1/2019

Rivers Rare: The first 25 years of Project River Recovery 1991–2016
by Neville Peat, with Brian Patrick & Aalbert Rebergen

It was with some excitement that I picked up this book to read. I’m a great supporter of protecting bodies of water from the ravages of human intervention and pollution, so gung-ho I went in only to discover it was not quite what I expected.
     Rivers Rare is about an ecological project (Project River Recovery), officially set up in 1991 to observe, save and protect the native flora and fauna of New Zealand’s Waitaki catchment braided rivers subject to ‘hard engineering control’, primarily by the hydroelectric power scheme in place above these rivers. It is a project funded by Meridian Energy and Genesis Energy in co-operation with the Department of Conservation. This book is a historical record of small beginnings, big undertakings, and chronicles the work of the staff and helpers involved in Project River Recovery to clear the rare braided rivers of introduced and native-life-threatening plants and animals in order to save native species and their homes from extinction.
     What is a braided river? I like this beautiful quote from page 6 to help one understand: ‘From the air, braided rivers are a network of shimmering silver ribbons, more pretty than powerful. But gently powerful and unpredictable they are, always creating new channels, new twists and turns, and reworking the gravel islands and sand bars into new shapes.’ The constant about braided rivers is that they constantly change.
     At first I enjoyed the flow of this work, learning about how the rivers operate unpredictably and the life that they sustain, also how rare they and their inhabitants are in this world. It got a bit too technical for me though, too scientific for this arty mind.
     This small book represents a huge amount of work, the first 25 years of a project full of ecological highs and lows, but all the facts and figures, all the scientific language seems particularly tailored for those in the know and closely affected by the findings. It is a celebration of sorts, even if the results aren’t satisfactory in all cases, a coffee-table book for ecologists perhaps?
     My thoughts were on water quality itself, something that wasn’t quite mentioned enough for me, but I am glad to have learned a little about the native life trying to live in a rare slice of New Zealand.
     This book will suit those with scientific minds, and perhaps anyone attempting an ecological report for a university paper? Rivers Rare feels like a findings report that belongs quite comfortably in a university reference section for serious review.

Review by Penny M Geddis

Title: Rivers Rare: The first 25 years of Project River Recovery 1991–2016
Author: Neville Peat, with Brian Patrick & Aalbert Rebergen
Publisher: Project River Recovery, Dept of Conservation
ISBN: 9780478150995
RRP: $36.99
Available: online and instore University Bookshop https://www.unibooks.co.nz/

Book for parent-child interaction

24/1/2019

Mini Whinny: Happy Birthday to Me!
by Stacy Gregg
Illustrations by Ruth Paul

I just love a quality hardcover children’s book!
Especially when it is well bound and has glossy pages. And each page contains bright pictures with lots of action going on. And this is definitely one of those.
This book is for any child who loves horses.
It’s simply for any child whether short or tall, curvy or as straight as a beanpole.
It’s about having different feelings, like feeling bad or grumpy, and how to cope with them.
It’s about feeling small and unnoticed in a world of big: about wanting to be special: about NOT wanting to share.
So now in this story it’s official. It is the OFFICIAL HORSE BIRTHDAY 1st August. That means every horse, not just some, every single horse gets to celebrate its birthday on 1 August.
But is Mini Whinny happy about this arrangement? No, she’s definitely not happy.
Mini Whinny wants to have her own special birthday. She throws a tantrum and stomps around and makes some noise about it. Fancy having to share her very special birthday with all those other horses!
She comes up with a plan.
In the middle of the night, when everyone is asleep, she rearranges the birthday decorations and celebration into her own stall where she will have her own party.
But there is no one to cheer her on when she blows out all the candles on the carrot cake, or smashes the piñata, or anything. She is alone, in tears, and finds it is not much fun after all.
Kindly Palomina comes to her rescue.
Surely celebrations are more fun when shared with friends?
Can the pair make things better for all the horses?
This is an excellent book for joint interaction between parent and child.

Review by Susan Tarr

Title: Mini Whinny: Happy Birthday to Me!
Author: Stacy Gregg Illustrator: Ruth Paul
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 978-1-77543-537-2
RRP: $19.19
Available: bookshops

Emotional ride for sci-fi and paranormal fans

19/1/2019

Take Flight
by JL Pawley

The second book in the Generation Icarus series, 'Take Flight', dives immediately into an adrenaline-fueled opening scene.
    When the Flight’s mountain hideaway is shattered by the abrupt arrival of mercenaries acting on behalf of the Evolutionary Corporation, most of the Flight is captured. Those remaining at large, flee towards the uncertain sanctuary offered by the religious group, the Angelists.
    The storyline unfolds through chapters with alternating characters’ point of view. This structure effectively conveyed the storyline and added character depth. Explosive revelations about Raven and Owl’s past answered the questions left open in ‘Air Born’.
    The story is based in the United States, but has a distinctive ‘kiwi’ flavour with the inclusion of Tui, a New Zealand teenager, who has plenty of mana.
    The Evolutionary Corporation crosses moral boundaries by mistreating the Flight, designating them as mere ‘lab rats’. But, even within the depths of depravity, they find allies willing to risk their own lives to help the Flight. New bonds and emotional connections are forged within the Flight’s tight formation.
    ‘Take Flight’ is an emotional ride and the ‘Generation Icarus’ stories would make a phenomenal movie series, one that would appeal to sci-fi and paranormal fans of the Hunger Games or Divergent Series.

[Ed note: a FlaxFlower review of Air Born, the first book in the series, was published on this site in November 2017]

Review by WJ Scott
award winning author

Title: Take Flight
Author: JL Pawley
Publisher: Eunoia
ISBN: 9780994138736
RRP: $19.99
Available: order from bookshops

Drama and darkness in true story

14/1/2019

Innocence: a true story of a journey from darkness into light
Ludovic C.M. Romany

I fully support the premise of this biography. It highlights the appalling levels of abuse towards children particularly but also the violence prevalent in New Zealand society, the terrible levels of domestic abuse and the increasing abuse by women.
The need for us to confront the terrors forced on the innocent by those who are meant to love and protect is paramount. For anyone to speak up, to challenge those who committed the abuse, to face scepticism and disbelief from family and friends takes such courage. And for Wi Peepe, not only was his childhood one of severe neglect, abuse and crushing poverty, there were the later added struggles with substance abuse as well.
The author, Ludovic C.M. Romany begins with a foreword making what seems to be a vital explanation about his first meeting with the seven year old beggar, Wi Peepe. There was drama and darkness and this section left me expecting the resolution of their next meeting, when that first sad introduction would, years later, be acknowledged as a kind of powerful eureka moment – ‘That poor, lost starveling was you?’ Yet this never happened and for me this left a sizeable gap in their story.
     Belief is vitally important for anyone who has been abused and I wanted to believe everything I read. If even a third of what was stated happened to this man, then it would be terrible enough. Yet, things jarred.
     Another problem for me was that Wi chose to write in the first person, using the child he was as the story-teller. This is a difficult premise and it didn’t work for his young years. Too often the child of pre-school to mid-teens was given the maturity and understanding of adult hindsight. For example: ‘An old adage came to mind, ‘That out of every adversity comes some good.’ This from an eleven year old with the barest of education.
     I have an issue with the section given to the story of Wi’s capture and taming of a wild horse. Would an underfed, starving child of eleven have the strength to capture a wild horse? Would he have managed to control this bolting, terrified, unsaddled, unbridled creature? Would he have trained it to obey his hand commands, all in less than one hour? From the moment I read this I was unsure, and spoke with someone who has a lifetime of equestrian training and breaking behind her. The answer was no. If Wi did indeed manage this feat, I offer my sincerest apologies. But, I’m sorry, I have my doubts.
     There were strange contradictions.
Pg 86: ‘No one would believe me if I told them what Mum had done to me, or what Jimmy had done, for that matter.’ Yet time and again family members knew the character of the various abusers, at times had witnessed their terrible violence.
Pg 78: Uncle Bill: ‘He’ll end up killing someone soon and that’ll be it.’
I appreciate there are cultural differences at play, with a Pakeha reader of these Maori relationships, but surely loving grandparents or aunt and uncles as Wi had, would have moved heaven and earth to keep this child safe? They knew of the abuse but time and again they chose to not intervene to protect a child they loved. Then again, maybe that merely highlights another frightening aspect of domestic abuse. The enabling.
Pg 111/112 ‘The authorities knew of the difficulties and abuse in our home environment. They knew about the broken bones and the whippings.’ Yet there was no one to take Wi out of that environment until he was in his mid-teens? When Wi did experience great positivity from authorities, being sent to a Health Camp, given to loving foster care I’m unsure why he didn’t contact them again when he was returned to the people who abused him. I appreciate people in traumatic situations don’t and can’t always think straight yet Wi makes much of his maturity, his street-smarts, his survival skills, his ability to think clearly through these times. Surely with a beacon to walk towards and acknowledged arms to care, highly tuned survival skills would have led him where he would be safe?
     There are obviously plenty of things that need to be addressed in Pakeha and Maori society regarding drinking, violence and abuse, both physical and sexual. Wi bravely brings scenes to life that reinforce the images and the kind of people New Zealand was first introduced to in mainstream media through Once Were Warriors. God help the children growing up to perpetuate a life of abuse and fear through knowing no other life and God thank those like Wi who saw and experienced the worst yet came through with their humanity and ability to love and nurture.
     If I have my doubts about some things portrayed, I don’t doubt that awful, unforgivable things happened to a child who should only have known love.
     Kia kaha.

Review by TJ Ramsay

Title: Innocence: A true story of a journey from darkness into light
Author: Ludovic C M Romany
Publisher: Copy Press Books
ISBN: 9780995104006
RRP: $34.99
Available: bookshops

An absorbing read

7/1/2019

I Have Loved Me A Man: The Life & Times of Mika
by Sharon Mazer
with a Foreword by Witi Ihimaera

The author is an academic specialising in theatre and performance studies, and, as stated in the publisher’s explanatory publicity, in this book she ‘takes readers inside the social revolution that has moved New Zealand from the 1960s to the present day through the story of…gay Māori performance artist: Mika.’
Adopted at birth into a Pākehā family, Neil Gudsell, later Mika, is the natural son of a Pākehā mother and a Māori father. From an early age he knew that he was gay, and embraced that knowledge. Somewhat later, he discovered his Māori heritage, and that, too, he embraced with enthusiasm.
As an openly gay Māori adolescent in Timaru in the 1960s and 70s, it might be expected that his life would have been a constant struggle against prejudice and worse, but from the beginning Mika seems to have had an abundance of insouciant self-belief as well as considerable physical strength and athleticism, and thus was able to be what he is without disguise and only minimal overt hostility directed against him.
Later, in Christchurch, Mika (still Neil Gudsell at this stage) developed his physical and artistic skills through aerobics, jazzercise and various types of dancing, and from this base he established a career as a performer, and, for a time, as a television and movie actor.
With the support of others, such as Carmen and Dalvanius Prime, Mika developed his own style typified by an exuberant physicality and sexuality, and was soon directing, dancing, singing and generally starring in a series of performances in New Zealand and overseas, particularly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. There was always a political edge to these performances, a deliberate fostering of Gay Rights and Aids awareness, and they also incorporated the imitation of aspects of traditional Māori ritual, stylised Māori or Pasifika costume and set design and the use of props such as taiaha.
Mika’s idiosyncratic interpretation of Māori culture was not always welcomed by Māori traditionalists, nor did his ‘camp’ style have much appeal to those who saw it as something quite distinct from ‘high’ art. But, as the author notes, Mika is a performer, a ‘quintessential showman’, whose whole approach challenges any such distinctions. The author describes Mika’s performance art as ‘postcolonial camp’, and as such, as being ‘celebratory but not utopian, political without being prescriptive, and critical without losing its sense of humour.’
To some, the major interest in this book will be in the author’s analysis of the ways in which New Zealand society’s attitudes to matters of sexual identity and race have changed since the sixties. Others will be more interested in Mika the performer and the man. But an attempt to identify Mika is something like trying to shape a recognisable figure from quicksilver. Clearly there is something protean about him, just as there is about his performances. Perhaps the most identifiable trait is his empathy with young people, particularly Māori and Pasifika, who are struggling to establish a personal identity. In this regard, he has established a Trust with the mission to ‘ignite young minds and transform bodies towards better lives through the performing arts and physical culture.’
The book is copiously illustrated with photographs from Mika’s own collection. Some of these are decidedly uninhibited, but that is Mika’s style. As Witi Ihimaera says in his Foreword: ‘He’s still fabulous… Still a star.’
Whether your main interest is social history or the career of Mika himself, this is an absorbing read.

Review by Tony Chapelle

Title: I Have Loved Me A Man: The Life & Times of Mika
Author: Sharon Mazer
Publisher: University of Auckland Press
ISBN: 9781869408862
RRP: $59.99
Available: bookshops

A real gem

28/12/2018

Guardians of Aotearoa: Protecting New Zealand’s Legacies
Johanna Knox & Jess Charlton

This book is a real gem. Johanna Knox interviews a range of New Zealanders and weaves their own narrative into a compelling story over a few pages; Jess Charlton has provided photographs of the subjects in their own environments or homes.
There are young and old, recent immigrants and tangata whenua, men and women. Some are already well known, but all are essentially community activists, local guardians. They reflect different communities in a geographical sense or are preserving traditions.
Of the preservationists, I was particularly interested in the story of Graham O’Keefe, who runs the ‘print shop’ at MOTAT in Auckland. This involves preserving the older forms of producing print before computers, especially the Heidelberg machines that he was an expert in and uses to teach new enthusiasts. Lloyd and Joan Whittaker have a large collection in their museum of musical instruments on Waiheke Island.
Many of the subjects are environmental activists and a lot appear to live in the Wellington region, as do Knox and Charlton. But there is also Ann Graeme who runs the Kiwi Conservation Club, and appears on the title page with her donkey. Of the younger participants, Bryce McQuillan and Angela Simpson are ecologists who have published photos of invertebrates and a specific guide to New Zealand spiders; and Helene Vivienne Fletcher who writes a blog about autoimmune disease. There is a whole group of Young Birders New Zealand based in the South Island. And an older couple, living in Golden Bay, are actively searching for the South Island Kokako.
In this sort of book there will always be particular favourites. I was particularly interested in Helen Dew from Carterton, which is the home of a ‘green dollar’ scheme, and a perhaps unlikely bastion of alternative currency concepts. But I was particularly captivated by the story of the ‘bat lady’, Catriona Gower. She has emigrated from England in search of bat species, and finds herself forming a new bat group in the Catlins, while keeping in touch with a favourite (Rose) by Skype.
The photography by Jess Charlton complements these stories wonderfully, especially in the chapter on Debbie Stewart, who has a falcon landing on her shoulder. Charlton has also mastered the creative use of lens flare, as seen on the front cover image, and in some of the portraits within the book, where she uses it as a kind of halo effect.
The book has a nicely sympathetic design for the images and a very considered layout of the text. It features progressive and well qualified subjects, but who are community based and active in their very specific fields, without wanting to seek the limelight.

Review by SA Boyce

Title: Guardians of Aotearoa: Protecting New Zealand's Legacies
Author: Johanna Knox; photography: Jess Charlton
Publisher: Bateman
ISBN: 978 -1-86953-902-3
RRP: $59.99
Available: bookshops

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