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Poetry collection effective and fun

21/6/2026

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

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Old murder case re-examined in biography

12/6/2026

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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

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Excellent insight into northern history

3/6/2026

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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

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Poetry collection effective and fun

Old murder case re-examined in biography

Excellent insight into northern history

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