<![CDATA[Flaxroots Productions

<![CDATA[Flaxroots Productions - FlaxFlower]]>Sat, 04 Jul 2026 16:32:00 +1200Weebly<![CDATA[Striking images in poetry collection]]>Sat, 04 Jul 2026 01:21:08 GMThttps://www.flaxroots.com/flaxflower/striking-images-in-poetry-collection

Portrait,
by Jackson McCarthy

This is an interesting first poetry collection by a young Kiwi of Lebanese, Māori and Pākehā descent.
Interesting because it took me repeated readings of many poems as to glean their genesis and grasp the guts of what the poet is ‘saying’. It is as if – in several examples – there is a thin, semi-opaque veneer covering them and I had to wipe clear the veil of what he nominates as ‘My elliptical conversation’ (The Truth). For example, the prose poem titled The Window, while replete with striking imagery – a feature throughout this book, which I will return to – reads like a hallucinogenic hangover. It is as if McCarthy mounts a persona throughout, whereby he seems to be shielding and yet seeking his essential self, something he alludes to in Uniform, as here –
      ‘Behind us, watching, was Jackson McCarthy, noted homosexual. Eater of olives.
      Writer of poetry.’
  These toikupu stir me to select several features.
  There is a continuous stress on ‘me/my’ and ‘you/your’ in these pieces, and indeed the poet writes, ‘I made pacts with myself, my best subject’ in the first of the four poems titled Santa Monica. Which leads to my first pātai, why are there four distinct poems with the same title? Then again, why not, eh?
  The tenuousness of relationships, the poet’s seeming insecurity about the multifarious ‘you’ in these poems, is a repetitive strain, and several such culminate with lines such as, ‘you lean in to kiss me for the last time’ (Louis, August), and, ‘as you move to leave’ (Three Mysteries 2). Meanwhile, ‘lost’ and ‘loss’ reverberate amongst this at times found verse, as exemplified in the Notes.
  Which leads back to a point referenced previously, namely that the poet is striving to firm himself, here via these relationships, as for example, ‘Who was I before I met you’ (Night train). After all, the overall collection is titled Portrait.
  Relatedly, there is a yearning here, ‘I want so much to be consumed by something’ (Moonlight spell).
  Death and its son death, pervade these pages too. The very first line in the very first poem is, ‘Funerals happen’ (Prelude). McCarthy and his sometimes seeming surrogate, pen, ‘not a day passes, not an hour or even a minute I don’t think about dying’, in the poem ironically titled Happiness.
  Then there are the word echoes, whereby certain kupu recur, as indeed do some word pictures. Such as, dream/dreams; blond/blonde; swans in the back of his truck/fifty white swans asleep in the back [of] his country truck; ass/ass; naked/naked; hair/hair; yellow/yellow, and copious other mirrors. Such replication establishes a thread of connectivity between poems, between the stages and stratifications of the young poet’s life up until present day events and affairs.
  Returning to the striking images mentioned earlier, here are just some examples of this poet’s somewhat Personist lyrical predilection –
      ‘sleep’s black wealth’ (Mahuika as a boy)
      ‘where cars sleep heavy like bullets’ (Portrait)
      ‘cutting the dusk in skinny jeans’ (Halloween)
      ‘smalling me with distance’ (Arthur)
      ‘my mind an antonym for my body’ (Archery)
      ‘I was licking the moon like a streetlamp’ (Song)
These what I term ‘interlinked McCarthys’ can certainly craft fine verse.
  Interestingly again, in a couple of poems, namely The Lake and Song, the poet snaps the thin ice covering most of his other poems and writes about more manifest events, suicide in the former, the constant bombardment of Lebanon in the latter. It will be stimulating to see if his future mahi grounds itself further, as will his possibly employing some reo Māori – e pīrangi ana ahau ki te kite i tēnei.
  Now, I could and certainly will, write more about this collection. Suffice to say that I look forward to the follow-up, and to muse that McCarthy reminds me of Genet, a toned-down Sam Te Kani, and Burroughs all stewed together into a sapid repast replete with urban spices and nocturnal salts.
  I like McCarthy’s pensive mien, his is a divergent voice, and my tastebuds await the next course. I hope that its results are unike how he describes Maya’s gazpacho which, ‘turned out gray’ (in the poem Moon). Given Jackson McCarthy’s rather classical autodidact styling, I am sure they will not!

Review by Vaughan Rapatahana
(Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Te Whiti)

Title: Portrait
Author: Jackson McCarthy
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 9781776712304
RRP: $24.99
Available: bookshops

]]><![CDATA[Poetry collection effective and fun]]>Sat, 20 Jun 2026 22:00:00 GMThttps://www.flaxroots.com/flaxflower/poetry-collection-effective-and-fun

Perverse Verse
by Michael Gould

It’s a small book, 76 text pages, and you could read it through in a sitting. Do that to start with, if you wish, to get an idea of the collection as a whole. But then, take your time to go back through and appreciate each of the ‘verses’ individually. You’ll want to, perhaps more than once, and your time will be rewarded.
All of the poems are short – they’re pithy, meaningful, effective. The Author himself puts it as “humorous (often black) yet reflective”, of “appeal to baby boomers the hip general and literate reader and lovers of wordplay”. Sounds quite like me.
So, bearing in mind the opening verse addressed to “My Executioner” –

Please give me a moment to relax
before you aim the blade of your axe
at the back of my head and render me dead
and allow me to take a bow
for a life lived well in the here and now.
– here are my thoughts.
Together, the poems suggest a personal summing-up of the Author’s life, his accrued insights and wisdom, leading to growing acceptance of the eventual inescapable end that comes to us all.
They are tellingly arranged into three sections –
1:  Sometimes you feel serene / as if in a pleasant dream / other times you may feel chaotic / we call that being neurotic.
What is madness
but sadness turned inside out
and life, hell
what’s that all about?
2:  Everything I’ve done / was done in the past; today / I’m doing nothing.
I’m a yesterday man
who dwells in the past
and I’ve come to the conclusion
only nostalgia lasts.
3:  What a life I’ve led / though most of it in his head / they’ll say once I’m dead.
In this third part, the focus becomes less personal and more world-centred with environmentally-conscious reflections on the present state of the planet –
We’ll end up tourists in space
witnessing the extinction
of the human race.
A small collection but, along with moments of fun, it packs a punch with many lines inviting and inspiring reflection. It is well presented – the quality paper, clear print of a good font and size (unlike many poetry books) makes reading easy for baby boomers!
Michael Gould’s verses, perverse or otherwise, have appeared in numerous publications.

Review by Bronwyn Elsmore

Title: Perverse Verse
Author: Michael Gould
Publisher: Umbrella Books
ISBN: 978-0-473-75572-0
RRP: $30
Available: Unity Books, Scorpio Books and other quality bookstores

]]><![CDATA[Old murder case re-examined in biography]]>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 03:51:15 GMThttps://www.flaxroots.com/flaxflower/old-murder-case-re-examined-in-biography

Outcast: The Extraordinary Life and Death of Etienne Jean Brocher
by Brian Stoddart

At a few minutes after 8am on Wednesday 21 April 1897, in a small courtyard inside Wellington’s Terrace Gaol, a hooded Frenchman ended a murmured prayer with, “Mon Jesu, Miserere”. Whereupon the hangman flanking him pulled a lever and precipitated Etienne Brocher into both eternity and judicial controversy.
     If ever there was a story of a square peg in a round hole, Brian Stoddart’s tale of Etienne Brocher / Stephen Bosher is it. But while that expression usually carries an implication of censure for the lack of malleability shown by the ‘square peg’; a lack indeed amply demonstrated by Bosher throughout his life, Stoddart’s examination of the ‘round hole’ that was Victorian New Zealand pulls no punches in its examination of its flaws, foibles and mores. So it is pertinent—at some risk of over-simplification—to look at the society delineated by those flaws, foibles and mores.
     The principles guiding British settlement of these shores of ‘Little Britain’ were largely designed to create planned communities that replicated existing British society, rather than any form of theoretical socialist utopia. This included the social inequality of ‘Home’ as part of the right and proper nature of things, together with those social structures that not only made it right and proper, but included pathways to improvement dependent upon aspiration bolstered and monitored by an efficient police force and legal system. Put simply and briefly, New Zealanders of the 19th century were interested in improving their status in life by working hard, obeying the Queen’s laws , honouring God and amassing the blessings of life.
     Etienne Brocher was an affront to all these notions. In a xenophobic age when ‘Rule Britannia’ was top of the pops and ‘Wogs began at Calais’ he was French, for a start. But that was the only thing he couldn’t help, and the author does a magnificent job of tracing the trail of larceny, false pretences, bigamy and imprisonment for which ‘poor education and behavioural development had completed his preparation for an erratic life’.
     In and around his odyssey of offences and hand-to-mouth existence in New Zealand eyes, Bosher also managed to offend the conscription laws of his homeland to the tune of no longer being welcome on or in French territory either.
     In August 1896, two Petone storekeepers, Mr and Mrs Joseph Jones, were found murdered in their premises, apparently in the course of a robbery. The first suspect was a local celebrity as a rugby player and sportsman who had a problem with alcohol, but the police case against him was exceedingly thin and, as enquiries continued, became even thinner because of the outpourings of sympathy in his favour. Stoddart makes the point that public confidence in the Petone police at that time was uniformly low, and wasn’t helped by their inability to pursue the case. In a word, they needed a win.
     At that point, police interest switched to Bosher, who had volunteered evidence against the first accused, Shore, and they carried out a series of interviews that became ever more pointed as time went on until they felt confident enough to charge him with the murders, even upon the flimsiest of evidence, although  it is notable that they kept Shore in remand as a ‘backup’.
     In the chapter entitled ‘Vortex’, Stoddart outlines a ‘perfect storm’ of legal anomalies and conflicts of interest that would have the Crown case instantly thrown out of a modern court. He sums up brilliantly in the words: “So Stephen Bosher was on trial for his life before a judge who was hearing his first murder case; the prosecutor, on poor terms with that judge, came from the social elite’ the defence counsel was distracted [He was concurrently pursuing election to a seat in Parliament: MJB] and the populace wanted revenge”. He goes on to note the social gulf between Bosher and the jury that makes nonsense of the requirement of ‘a jury of his peers’.
     The development of the trial and the evidence presented is meticulously examined by Stoddart, and the reader’s mounting sense of horror is equalled only by the amount of evidence either suppressed, not presented or not followed up. Yes, Bosher was a thoroughly unwholesome fellow. Yes, he’d done some pretty nasty things to others. But the age didn’t recognise the handicap of a poor start in anyone’s life. Nor did it offer him credit, in its assessment, for abstaining from alcohol nor for his membership of a religious organisation owning the highest of principles, nor for the fact that, when all was said and done, the catalogue of Bosher’s offences involved property rather than people, and certainly nothing remotely like murder.
     And, topping the list of things Victorian New Zealand didn’t offer him, was anything like a fair trial.
     The summation on the back cover—“this stunning biography makes a vital contribution to our understanding of how colonial New Zealand shaped its ideal society and what could happen when ‘outsiders’ didn’t fit the mould.”—says it all.

Review by MJ Burr

Title: Outcast: The Extraordinary Life and Death of Etienne Jean Brocher
Author: Brian Stoddart
Publisher: Quentin Wilson Publishing
ISBN: 9781991103833
RRP: $35.00
Available: bookshops

]]><![CDATA[Excellent insight into northern history]]>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 01:00:28 GMThttps://www.flaxroots.com/flaxflower/excellent-insight-into-northern-history

Rangatiratanga and Gentlemanship: A conversation in 1825
by Grant Hodgson

This book can be read within half a day and is part of a wider series entitled The Puckey/Davis Chronicles. Hodgson describes the writing as “an examination…a record of a conversation that illustrates the initial relationship between Māori and missionaries at Kerikeri in 1825”.
The importance of Hodgson’s work is that he is returning this intimate conversation into current public consciousness from material first published in Rev. John Noble Coleman’s A Memoir of the Rev Richard Davis, in 1865, and more recently by Cloher in Hongi Hika: Warrior Chief in 2003. This conversation starkly contrasts with the current repression of Te Ao Māori through government policies toward Māori agencies and removal of te Reo intiatives. Alongside present-day Ngāpuhi grievances being aired through the Waitangi Tribunal and fewer people identifying with a religious faith, this book invites a refreshing look at a meaningful relationship that was fostered between Māori and missionaries of the Bay of Islands in the midst of tribal, political and religious conflict.
Even with the shortness of the book, 104 pages, Hodgson has made some erudite comments regarding the nature of the interwoven relationships of the time, place and people. The conversation involved two of Hodgson’s ancestors, missionaries Davis and Puckey, as well as H. Williams, Kemp and Clarke. Puckey is conjectured to have translated the word “rangatiratanga” as “gentlemanship” in a quote from Hongi Hika – “the gentlemanship of the English is not altogther derived from their forefathers, but from their great learning” – hence the use of this term in the title of the book. With rangatiratanga still being debated today in its essence and outworking perhaps this sentiment of “great learning” is what Hodgson seeks to pass on through these publications as a guide for learning and even a critique on present day relational foibles.
This book serves as an excellent insight into the world of Māori, missionary and settler history of northern Aotearoa New Zealand in the 1820’s. Its concise nature is helpful, in its punchy and fact-driven content that draws on a wide range of verified sources. Recent research by Hodgson, alongside Māori, has uncovered, translated and documented previously library-bound material that greatly enriches this work. An argument could be proffered that a greater emphasis on Hongi Hika, given his well-recorded exploits and character, is at the expense of the other chiefs Rewa, Hihi, Ururoa, Te Nānā, Pakira and Titore. Nonetheless, this narrative shares an overall theme, and exemplar, of love-aroha as the foundation for these relationships amongst a setting and time of great cultural change related to modernity, muskets and immigration to these northern shores.

Review by Mark Redgrave

Title: Rangatiratanga and Gentlemanship: A conversation in 1825
Author: Grant Hodgson
Publisher: Gentlemanship Publications, in association with Writes Hill Press
ISBN: 9781991171061
RRP: $29.99
Available: bookshops, or publisher Gentlemanship.net

]]><![CDATA[Intriguing stories present food for thought]]>Wed, 27 May 2026 23:24:17 GMThttps://www.flaxroots.com/flaxflower/intriguing-stories-present-food-for-thought

Descendants,
by Lee Hana

Lee Hana’s Descendants is made up of fourteen separate short stories, each set in a different location, with different people and at different periods of time. The stories take the reader around the world and into the future.
The first of these stories involves large crowds coming together at a festival or Matsuri. The weather is extremely hot and something unusual is going on. Strange and dangerous things are happening. Eruptions release suffocating gas such as carbon dioxide.
The second story, Diamond Eye, takes us into the year 2528 where we visit a small Buddhist monastery in Mandalay. There is fear in the air, an acrid smell and noises during the night.
The story Chandelier takes us into outer space. Three men board a spacecraft for a two-year journey to investigate Titan and Hyperion, two of Saturn’s moons. Although the journey is considered a commercial success, it is far from satisfactory to the men on board.
Around the world and throughout the ages, temperatures are increasing and fresh water becomes extremely scarce. Yet, despite the terrible conditions, some normality still reigns. Stage shows, weddings and family reunions still take place. Each story involves new characters in different countries and new situations. There is a general theme of Earth becoming warmer and the way in which humans and some animals might learn to cope.
Descendants presents fourteen different and intriguing stories which should give the reader good food for thought.

Review by Ian Clarke

Title: Descendants
Author: Lee Hana
Publisher: Blank Flag
ISBN: 978-0-473-74063-4
RRP: $29.99
Available: selected bookshops, or from blank-flag.com

]]><![CDATA[Candid work by senior author]]>Mon, 18 May 2026 22:59:35 GMThttps://www.flaxroots.com/flaxflower/candid-work-by-senior-author

Te Kaikaukau/The Swimmer: I te Ao o te Reo
by Witi Ihimaera Smiler

Wow! This pukapuka is quite some dive! It is a whirly-gig plunge into all sorts of tangents, echoes, and non-lineal diversions, whereby a reader will be propelled through waves of emotion, adventure, candid self-reflection, political swirls, memoirs, whakapapa, as well as other swimmers who slither about and around our aquatic narrator, Witi Ihimaera Smiler. For example, a whole raft of fellow natators, and an erudite rōpū of instructors reverberate throughout these pages.
Ostensibly this is the recounting of Witi’s determined diversion into a full year immersion of  learning how to improve his spoken and – accordingly – his written reo Maōri at Te Wānanga Takiura i Tāmaki Makaurau, and all the strenuous strokes he had to make to pass the course, sometimes near-drowning in the process, but finally able to keep his head above the surface and ultimately to succeed in this mission.
Yet, Te Kaikaukau is so much more. Whirlpools of Witi’s upbringing and personal history wash over us – for example the rationale to name himself more fully, thus Ihimaera Smiler. Always, very candid, Witi does lunge into great details about his whānau, his partners, his health issues, his past, present, concomitant, and future literary endeavours. In this hurdy-gurdy panoply his hopes and dreams regarding Māori language revitalisation and the profound urgency for this; for rangatahi Māori to be at the fore of such a renaissance, are never far from the surface. In essence, however, this pukapuka is a search and solution for the protagonist to cement his identity once and for all. As he so poignantly points out,
‘Recognise the loss of language and culture through generations of colonisation. Confess that ever since you were born, you have been living your life, and writing it, in the wrong culture and the wrong language. Acknowledge, therefore, that while you have asserted you are a Māori writer, you have never been truly and sufficiently present in that culture, let alone the reo’. His is a brave existential submersion.
Contrastingly, his studies do follow a straight ahead chronological pace, albeit in the form of determinedly Māori time terms tied to the lunar calendar rather than reo Ingarihi  ‘months’ and ‘seasons’, and he depicts the fact that they become more and more onerous and that he has to speak Maōri for longer periods as to display his increasing prowess. Accordingly, the inclusion of longer te reo Maōri passages, and finally complete chapters, reveal themselves as this tide flows on. Inevitable, of course, because this nautical natural is swimming increasingly well, given a few sinkings, and therefore the accelerating incorporation of te reo Māori reflects deeply his progressive aquatic marathon.
I pointed out earlier that – despite the forward momentum of the studies – Te Kaikaukau is not a straight ahead anecdote, that it dips and dives all over the ocean that is the life of Witi Ihimaera Smiler. Which is exactly how it ‘should be’! For oratory in te ao Māori was and is, circumlocutory, digressive, reiterative, synchronizing past, present and future into a seamless and intertwined whole, and – in the same fashion – smoothly fusing the literal interplaying of man and ngā atua. The author achieves his goal of becoming infused with te reo Maōri as a living force. Te Kaikaukau – The Swimmer is an ouroboros, Witi Ihimaera Smiler becomes an amphibious aquanaut.
I will conclude with Witi’s own summation of his watery voyage –
‘The purpose of my going to Takiura was to learn how to write in te reo as well as to speak in it. I hope, very soon, to be able to do it...I will begin by telling a story for all our tamariki: Once upon a time...
Morimoria a tātou tamariki, ko rātou hoki te iwi o āpōpō.
Cherish the children of today, for they are the people of tomorrow.’
I iterate also that at the same time, Whiti becomes his essential completed self,
Tēnā koe mō tēnei taonga a Witi. He pono tēnei whakataukī – ‘Whakaotia te kete mātauranga’.
Morimoria a tātou tamariki, ko rātou hoki te iwi o āpōpō.

Review by Vaughan Rapatahana
(Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Te Whiti)

Title: Te Kaikaukau / The Swimmer: i te ao o te reo
Author: Witi Ihimaera Smiler
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 9781776712380
RRP: $45
Available: bookshops

]]><![CDATA[Cricket’s role in changing social system]]>Mon, 11 May 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://www.flaxroots.com/flaxflower/crickets-role-in-changing-social-system

Playing the Game: How Cricket Made Barbados
by Brian Stoddart

Thanks to the prompting of his father, the Author played cricket from a young age, including during his years at University of Canterbury where he studied history to doctorate level. It’s not surprising, then, that this book combines the two in a further study. After playing in Australia and India, he travelled to Barbados to research the history of the game there.
The early chapters deal with the social background of Barbadian society – French influence, British imperialism, African slavery. Cricket was brought to the Caribbean by the colonial expats who owned and ran sugar plantations – lucrative concerns till the end of slavery in 1834. The purpose was to “instil and reinforce in the population the idea of an English or imperial game played to the same social standards and behavioural norms wherever it might be found.” Half a century after the abolition of slavery, Barbadian society was still riven by discrimination based on colour, class and status. The book traces the role that cricket had in changing that system to one much more equal.
From early games played by workers, with grounds and equipment supplied by the plantation owners, cricket became a widespread sport, eventually a national obsession. Brian Stoddart attests – “When I arrived…the mania for cricket was unlike anything I had seen in New Zealand, Australia or England, and was matched only by the growing enthusiasm in India.”
The text makes frequent jumps, forwards and backwards in time, as the Author considers relevant themes, as well as the historical background to the (then) present.
I was impressed by the depth of research included in the book, but this can make difficult reading, as the proliferation of names and dates stops the book from flowing. However, with 320 pages of text, including photos, plus footnotes, index, and an extensive bibliography, it is a great source of information.
Among the details of early colonial settlers, specific cricket matches and players, he includes some great personal anecdotes, such as Australian reaction to ‘gentlemanly’ play, how to ease one’s way through immigration in the West Indies, and copious stories of different people and encounters, including being pointed out as “a white man playing in a black team”. Such stories are where I found the most interest.

Review by Harold Bernard

Title: Playing the Game: How Cricket Made Barbados
Author: Brian Stoddart
Publisher: Brickworks Media
ISBN: 978-0-6483938-6-3
RRP: $38.50
Available: Amazon

]]><![CDATA[Visually impressive book on past rock trio]]>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://www.flaxroots.com/flaxflower/visually-impressive-book-on-past-rock-trio

The Clean: in the dreamlife you need a rubber soul
by Richard Langston

The Clean are the seminal rock trio from the South Island, who are often credited as creating the ‘Dunedin Sound’ in the early 1980s. Richard Langston was, and is, a fan, a well-known journalist, and a published poet. But the book about The Clean is not a narrative with some photos and bits of rock memorabilia. Langston was asked to create this book by Sam Elworthy a long time ago, and he later saw it as his mission to collect the interviews and images that let the key participants tell the story. So what we read is what the players felt about the group in their own words along the way.
And what a visually impressive book it turned out to be: based on everybody keeping their own record of photos, posters, and ephemera, Langston has done a superb job as the editor, just adding some text for continuity in places. Certainly, there is immense creativity in the images made by the band members themselves, but with the help of friends and lovers, this is an absolute visual treat. With a lot of thought, the design and the use of colour in the layout make it a fascinating book to look at; and the inclusion of Craig McNab’s black and white photos of the group are also superb.
If it reads like the text of a radio documentary, with vivid pictures at each turn, there is also a very rock’n’roll story. The Clean were formed in Dunedin by the Kilgour brothers, Hamish and David, with initially Doug Hood on vocals in 1978; then a rhythm section of Pete Gutteridge (bass) and Lindsay Hooke (drums) was added in 1979, with Hamish doing the singing. The classic trio line-up was David Kilgour on guitar, Hamish Kilgour on the drums, and Robert Scott played the bass. Having played in Dunedin in 1979, in the wake of Chris Knox and The Enemy, they then began to branch out.
The Clean went to Christchurch in 1980, recorded a song called ‘Tally Ho’, made some videos with Chris Knox, and played in some pub gigs to a receptive crowd. Roger Shepherd was forming Flying Nun Records, and put the song out on an EP called Boodle Boodle Boodle, which then did really well in the New Zealand market. The Clean ventured up to Auckland to link up with other punk influenced groups, including The Screaming Mee Mees, and it was onwards and upwards from there. Their timing seems to have been perfect, given the new wave of bands and creativity in the early 1980s.
Rock groups formed by brothers have a certain trajectory, based on sibling dynamics. In this country we think of the Finn brothers from Te Awamutu, and their influential group Split Enz. But The Clean were very much a South Island band: having grown up in both Christchurch and Dunedin, the Kilgours also lived on a farm near Cheviot, which seems to have been their spiritual home. Their father was a war veteran who found civilian life difficult, before succumbing to a neurological condition, leaving their mother Helen with two talented teenagers. She played some piano and also encouraged them to draw, had her own idiosyncratic style, as well as having an intuitive touch.
Like the stories of most rock groups there are plenty of ups and downs, as well as tragedies. Former member Pete Gutteridge died in 2014, and more recently their friend Martin Phillipps of The Chills. The Clean toured, recorded, and broke up, re-formed and released their best work Unknown Country in 1996. Hamish was the more troubled, mercurial core of the band, restless and fascinated with living in New York, but ultimately unable to survive there. He returned to New Zealand, realising he had health problems, and was later found dead in Christchurch in 2022. David Kilgour, and his long-term partner, Genevieve McCoy, returned to live in Dunedin and he continues to release solo records; and Robert Scott makes music with other groups, including local legends The Bats.
For those of us who were too young to see The Clean in action, or were not into the ‘D.I.Y. attitude’ of the Dunedin Sound, the book recalls some inspired compositions and their creative aptitude.

Review by SA Boyce

Title: The Clean: in the dreamlife you need a rubber soul
Author: Richard Langston
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 9781776711567
RRP: $49.99
Available: bookshops

]]><![CDATA[A journey to inspire]]>Fri, 03 Apr 2026 04:19:44 GMThttps://www.flaxroots.com/flaxflower/a-journey-to-inspire

The Only Way is Up – on foot to rome
by Jennifer Andrewes

While reading this book, it’s almost certain you’ll consider doing something along the lines of what Jennifer Andrewes has done. Maybe not on the same route or roads – Te Araroa perhaps?
In a previous book, A Will and a Way – on foot across France, [See FlaxFlower review May 2025] Jennifer describes, day-to-day, her treks along two Camino trails in France and Spain. This time she sets out on a mind-daunting 99-day 2417 km journey, following the pilgrim path from Canterbury in England to Rome – a feat made all the more daunting as she has Parkinson’s.
   Her medical problem is not skirted in the book, though neither is it a major theme.  She refers to it as part of her reason – “Pilgrimage, like Parkinson’s, is lived through the body – through the fine mechanics of movement, rhythm, balance and breath. Where Parkinson’s interrupts motion, pilgrimage restores it.” [p.98] “Pilgrimage doesn’t cure Parkinson’s; it changes my relationships with it. Medicine treats symptoms, pilgrimage trains response. It keeps me flexible – mentally, physically, spiritually.”
   Jennifer’s is an individual response – though she is following a long-established pilgrim path, her journey is not undertaken for a religious reason.
   At times I wondered on the way through how she could walk when she mentions the frequent meal stops and the food consumed, but I suppose the countless baguettes, croissants, rolls, cheeses, eggs, tarts, pastas, pizzas and pastries, as well as coffee, beer, sodas and juice, from the boulangeries and cafes visited each day – and that’s just before dinner – provide what fuels the walk.
   More interesting are the comments on people met along the way – other walkers making their on-foot journeys for a variety of reasons at their own pace, as well as local hostel owners, pilgrim trail volunteers – almost invariably kind and generous. Glimpses of history come as the trail includes centuries-old churches and cathedrals, fields of war, castles, a route taken by Napoleon, Roman footpaths. “That sense of continuity always hits me; walking these roads you feel connected to countless footsteps that came before.” [p. 221]
   Many coloured photos of roads, paths, signs stopping places, are included –  not the often-repeated tourist spots and all meaningful to the author. A glossary would have been helpful.
Read this book to be inspired to leave your comfort zone and do something similar, or just to travel along vicariously – you’ll cheer Jennifer Andrewes along on every step of her 2417 kilometre walk.

Review by Meg M

Title: The Only Way is Up – on foot to rome
Author: Jennifer Andrewes
Publisher: Parallel Lives
ISBN: 9780473772871
RRP: $34.95
Available: bookshops

]]><![CDATA[Personal reflection on the God question]]>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 23:32:53 GMThttps://www.flaxroots.com/flaxflower/personal-reflection-on-the-god-question

The Calling - A year exploring what the secular world can learn from religion
by Niki Harré

This Book stems from an interest of a psychology professor to investigate what an increasingly secular New Zealand society might reclaim from religion for its benefit. By Niki’s own admission this book summarises her immersion experience in a “year as a priest without God”.
In an apparent paradox to the foundations of many religions, the spiritual significance of God being absent from Niki’s journey still allowed her profound insight into a life of meaning and purpose that manifested itself in a “Strange New Feeling of Happiness – SNFH”. Perhaps ironically Niki, as an academic focused on looking “at life”, finds a kinder, simpler, rhythm that helps her make sense of how to “be in life” by softening excesses of contemporary living.
Niki’s learning inner dialogue is generously and honestly shared as she chooses to pause regularly, to connect and give to others with a greater sense of appreciation and grace. At times her eccentric thoughts with multiple characters and events may seem excessive and overwhelming to the reader, however it captures the extensive, at times self-sabotaging, mental gymnastics that is commonplace in many of our own minds. Niki also models a warm generosity and benevolence towards herself that can be lacking in a fast-paced performance-orientated life.
With humour, humility and hospitality Niki embraces mystery and enchantment by immersing herself in western Christian and eastern religious practices whilst simultaneously crafting her own secular vows, services, ceremonies and personal conversations. Her passage through the year is highlighted by COVID lockdowns, mental, physical and academic conflict, which make for a fascinating invitation into how we might find unity and peace amongst the numerous opportunities to engage with a troubled world and its people.
Although this was largely a personal reflection, those who believe in God will find solace in Niki’s practices that give thoughts and action to their faith. Aligning with her premise “without God” believers may also feel a sense of sadness as the comfort of a loving God’s presence appears missing. Others unsure (or certain) of God’s absence will find guidance to process and enrich their inner worlds through Niki’s articulate, thoughtful musings and subsequent actions to free, calm and encourage herself.

Review by Aidan Harrison

Title: The Calling - A year exploring what the secular world can learn from religion
Author: Niki Harré
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 978 1 776711 918
RRP: $35
Available: bookshops

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