Stag Spooner - Wild Man from the Bush (Craig Potton Press) $49.99

An illustrated diary kept by a deer hunter during 1939 and 1940 lies at the heart of an exciting new biography published later this month by Craig Potton Publishing .  Neville ‘Stag’ Spooner grew up in the Wairarapa during the Great Depression. His father was an enthusiastic carver, musician and hunter who taught his whole family to shoot and also encouraged their artistic abilities.

Stag started keeping records of his daily life as a child and continued the practice during his military service in World War II, until his early death in Fiordland aged just 28. It was the illustrated diary that he kept while working as a deer culler for the Department of Internal Affairs, first in the Tararuas and then on the West Coast of the South Island, that is being reproduced for the first time as part of this new book.

 

Neville 'Stag" Spooner



“It’s the kind of exciting discovery of a Kiwi classic that everyone dreams about,” says Wellington based biographer Chris Maclean. “When I was first shown a copy of the original diary I was fascinated, it seemed a really significant find to me. I started out writing an explanatory essay to accompany the publication of the diary. But as I spoke with more of the family, my understanding of Stag’s creative output increased and so did the scope of the project.”



Stag Spooner: Wild man from the bush – The story of a New Zealand hunter – artist by Chris Maclean will be launched in Masterton on Saturday 28 August.

An exhibition based on Stag’s life and artworks was shown at Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History during August and September - http://www.aratoi.org.nz/exhibition/2012/07/stag-spooner-those-wild-men-bush

About the author

Chris Maclean is a Wellington historian, writer, photographer and publisher, with a keen interest in the outdoors. He has written a number of acclaimed and award-winning books, including Tararua , Waikanae, Kapiti, Wellington – Telling Tales, and a biography of John Pascoe. Chris is the great-grandson of George Whitcombe, founder of Whitcombe & Tombs.

'Stag' Spooner's diary a blend of art and history

From Wairapapa News 25/07/2012
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/wairarapa-news/entertainment/7343002/Stag-Spooners-diary-a-blend-of-art-and-history

With his shaggy dark hair and beard, and a discernible twinkle in his eye, there is something very contemporary- looking about the young man in the photo.

You could easily picture him strolling along Cuba St with all the other quirky 'Generation Y-ers'. But this photo was taken in 1939 and it shows Neville 'Stag' Spooner: passionate hunter, government deer culler, artist and diarist who grew up in Carterton, and later served in North Africa in World War II.

His remarkable story is told in a book, Stag Spooner: Wild Man from the Bush, and an accompanying exhibition being launched at Aratoi this weekend.

Neville (who earned his nickname of 'Stag' by his prowess for hunting) wrote that he was 'an artist by 7' and was well in the habit of recording his adventures by the time he was a teenager. For the Spooner family (five boys and one girl), these adventures typically involved hunting or fishing. Stag shot his first Tararua deer in 1935, aged 18, and by 1937 he had become a highly proficient hunter.

So the job of deer culler must have been a logical and attractive option, and this is the period in his life that he records in his 80-page visual diary (dated 1939-40), which he titled Those Wild Men from the Bush.

The diary shows the daily tasks involved in the life of a culler, employed to stem the decimating effects of a wildly proliferating deer population in the hinterlands. This was certainly a busy season, seeing Stag top the Westland cullers' tally, killing 525 deer in six months, including 41 in a day. He shows the various tasks involved, from hacking through the bush to make trails, tracking and shooting deer, skinning them and cutting off the tails to take back as proof. He also shows camp life at the end of a hard day, trips into town to see sweethearts, and the haircuts to make this 'Wild Man of the Bush' halfway presentable.

Aratoi director Marcus Boroughs describes the diary, passed down through the Spooner family since Stag's untimely death, as having a local focus but a national significance. 'It's like a real life Boys Own Annual . . . a fabulous blending of art and history. For a young man of that era to be out in the Tararuas not only hunting and shooting but also recording his experiences in artwork is really extraordinary.'

Ironically, the renowned sharp shooter served in a non- combat role in a Field Ambulance Unit for the duration of the war. Here, he continued writing and drawing but this time mainly in the form of decorated envelopes sent home to his family. These show his developing confidence and skill as an artist, often blending military scenes with Tararua hunting imagery, and also his keen sense of humour. They caught the attention of his colleagues and led to a side business selling selected envelopes.

Stag, along with his brothers Tory and Bryan, survived the war but he died tragically on a solo hunting expedition near Lake Te Anau, aged 28. The exhibition, which also includes a large range of trophy deer heads, carvings by Stag and other objects, begs the question as to what this talented young man would have accomplished.

Stag Spooner - Those Wild Men from the Bush, July 27 to September 30; Face Value - Portraits from the Collection, until November 4; Stephen Duncan, until July 28; Foyer Exhibits - Selected works from The Rutherford Collection & Kajsa Bckstrm.

- Wairarapa News 25/07/2012

Information is beautiful - New Edition - by David McCandeless (Harper Collins, $44.99)

"Lies, lies and damn statistics".  Indeed.  Take a pause.  This book offers up both a learning tool and a cerebal pair of spectacles in which to re-visualise data.  In our lives we are bombarded by facts, fgures and data that means nothing and everything to us.  But of course, no matter what that data is, it's acuracy or its origin that data tells a story.  So if a picture tells a story of over a 1000 words in a simple line or with a splash of coulor then imagine that a whole data set could produce!  And for any one that believes that data is all boring - also, think again.   McCandless' book (originally published a few years ago and updated for the internet age) presents data in very simple ways.  In a sense the images he uses to present the data tell the story.  They are so well done that the invitation to interpret is very narrow but the equal invite to discuss is very large.  Take, for example the statistics about refugees and imigrants.  the format appears too simple - like something used for a magazine such as Time.  But the data shows the integrity and invites deeper analysis.  There are many examples in here, which McCandless doesn't actually create himself, but instead may compile, reproduce or reimage.  I'd love to know what tools he uses.

Also have a flip through the Amazon preview: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0007294662/thegooddrugsg-21

McCandless also has a website, as they all do to support and celebrate the good use and presentation of quality data - see http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

And on the site you can find a number of upcoming projects such as
The LOTR Project by Emil Johanssen. Statistics on the population of Middle Earth. Number of women. Average life span. Age distribution. Population demographics. Sooth! I thought was geeky…


    Data can be fun  

  Also he has TED talks, worth checking out -



Mad on Radium: New Zealand in the Atomic Age - by Rebecca Priestley AUP $44.95

Rebecca Priestley has a history of science PhD from Canterbury University and this book is based on her thesis. Priestley is one of New Zealand’s most significant science writers. She is the co-author of Atoms, Dinosaurs and DNA with Veronika Meduna, which won the 2009 LIANZA Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction; editor of The Awa Book of New Zealand Science, which won the 2009 Royal Society Science Book of the Year prize; and science columnist for the New Zealand Listener. Rebecca Priestley is a History Research Trust awardee.

Mad on Radium: New Zealand in the Atomic Age

Mad on Radium:
New Zealand in the Atomic Age

‘New Zealand is known around the world for our nuclear-free stance – banning US ship visits, prohibiting uranium mining, selling ourselves to the world on our clean, green, nuclear-free image. But have we always been nuclear sceptics?’


In this engaging and accessible history, prize-winning author Rebecca Priestley reveals the alternative history of ‘nuclear New Zealand’ – a country where there was much enthusiasm for nuclear science and technology, from the first users of x-rays and radium in medicine; the young New Zealand physicists seconded to work on the Manhattan Project; support for the British bomb tests in the Pacific; plans for a heavy water plant at Wairakei; prospecting for uranium on the West Coast of the South Island; plans for a nuclear power station on the Kaipara Harbour; and thousands of scientists and medical professionals working with nuclear technology. 
Priestley then considers the transition to ‘nuclear-free New Zealand’ policy in the 1980s. The change was dramatic: in the late 1970s, less than a decade before becoming so proudly nuclear-free, New Zealand was considering nuclear power to meet growing electricity demand in the North Island and the government was supporting a uranium prospecting programme on the West Coast of the South Island. But following the nuclear-free policy, anything with nuclear associations came under suspicion: taxi drivers referred to a science institute using a particle accelerator as ‘the bomb factory’ and Jools Topp of the Topp Twins refused radiation therapy for cancer, telling the doctors ‘I’m a lifelong member of Greenpeace, why would I let you irradiate me?’
By uncovering the long and rich history of New Zealanders’ engagement with the nuclear world and the roots of our nuclear-free identity, by leading us into popular culture, politics, medicine and science, Priestley reveals much about our culture’s evolving attitudes to science and technology and the world beyond New Zealand’s shores.   Check out a couple of 'Nuclear' movies from the 1950's"    

This week on the Adventures of the Coffee Bar Kid - "Selling the Dream; The Art of Early New Zealand Tourism" by Peter Alsop, Gary Stewart and Dave Bamford. $79.95

This week we review: "Selling the Dream; The Art of Early New Zealand Tourism" by Peter Alsop, Gary Stewart and Dave Bamford. $79.95 Not only is this a visually stunning book, but the accompanying essays also provide great value. Senior executive, Peter Alsop is a keen collector of New Zealand art and tourism publicity - especially, hand-coloured photography and mid-century New Zealand landscape paintings. His commitment to this is very evident here in a collection that would have to be the most comprehensive in print to date, I suspect. I was not aware of the Government's early commitment to getting overseas punters into New Zealand, and behind the scenes there was a huge mechanism for doing this. Art studios and entire specialist departments produced campaigns for getting locals and foreigners out of the house and into cars, planes and automobiles. In fact, in 1901 the first government tourist office in the world institution The Department of Tourist and Health Resorts was established. So we were the first to give women the vote, first to freeze and sell our wares overseas and the first to tell every one how great it is here. Yet some how the tyranny of distance still thwarted us. Thank goodness, lest we be overrun and over populated. Interestingly, Kiwis' come of age overseas wanderlust may not just be the pull of the apron strings from the mother country but also the push from our own big brother. If Kiwis were attracting people from far away to come here then we were also firing our own desire to go there, too. Resplendent are the beautiful images, many far too good for a measly poster. Throughout the book has a number of essays. Margaret McClure talks about the establishment of tourism here from Rotorua to state ownership of assets and publicity. She's a public historian well known for The Wonder Country, a definitive history of New Zealand tourism, so she knows her stuff. . "Shaping New Zealand’s Identity: The Role of Tourism Publicity" is by Richard Wolfe, who writes on New Zealand’s social history, including most recently In the Post, a history of New Zealand stamps. His latter work is, in a way, quite similar to his topics. Stamps were mini posters, also conveying images and dreams just like the larger counterparts. The essay "Against the Odds: Attracting Visitors in the Golden Age of Travel Posters" by David Pollack touches on that tyranny of distance subject again, and looks more closely at the psychology behind the images. David is a highly regarded vintage poster dealer in the United States (www.dpvintageposters.com) and past President of the International Vintage Poster Dealers Association. The essay "Happy Marriage: Aligning Tourism and Publicity", also by Wolfe, looks at the national strategies and how they followed national trends and the identity of the Kiwi, as we evolved. Interestingly none of our posters ever consider particular races (outside Maori) the images don’t specifically feature white people or black. Because of the stylised imagery the viewer can visualize themselves at the intended scene no matter their own race or upbringing. Radical for a time when, at home, as in many countries were we still quite xenophobic, especially to Chinese, Japanese and Germans. It isn't mentioned here perhaps because of the time range but common in the 1970's at least was the observation that those were the very people we fought a war to keep out and here they were coming in armed with cameras and travellers cheques. . "Selling Maoriland: Māori at the Centre of Tourism Publicity", by Mark Derby, who works at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and has a deep knowledge of Māori history brings in some of our earliest attempts to establish identity and a point of difference. Maori in Rororua, especially were early pioneers of tourism, sharing their thermal wonderland with visitors for a few pennies. Early poets like Thomas Bracken, who wrote our National Anthem, coined the phrase Maoriland to establish a handle on the fledgling nation. They wanted a label to hang their hat on, stand apart from the European roots and grow separately. Maori culture was unique and exotic, but in the hands of a state run publicity machine doomed to become kitsch and cheap. The plastic tiki syndrome was establish early by the assumptions and blundering of ignorant and indignant officials, who had little time for digging and delving into the images they exploited. The dusky Maori maiden was a common theme, as it had been for early artists on the Heemskerk, the Zeehan and the Endeavour. It would take years for Maori to unshackle the stereo types and take ownership of their culture and once again re-brand it as their own. . Lee Davidson in "Publicizing Peaks: Early Promotion of Mountain Tourism". looks at another aspect, one were are still proud of: adventure tourism. As a Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington with a specialist focus on tourism, leisure and cultural heritage, and the significance of mountains in particular, Davidson likes to focus on how our fauna and flora was sold - the unique approach of distinguishing Mitre peak from Westminster Abbey or Big Ben. Although I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the drivers behind why the people of the mountains wanted to visit the cities of Europe while the people of ancient crumbling cities need to be in the clean open air of our bush and mountains. . if you were wondering about the men, and they were mostly men, who produced all this great imagery then the chapter "Apprentice Dream Makers: Teenage Commercial Artists" by Gail Ross, who's also an art historian , is the best place to look. It was fascinating to look into the well planned lives of young New Zealanders who were changed into art colleges as young as 12, destined to be the commercial artists of tomorrow. If only our schools were like that now! The remaining chapters lt these posters in the context of high art, as lasting images, the roll and connection of stamps and the roll of our tourism posters in the Naturalist movement and early conservation. Behind the scenes on that one is the respect and connectivity between the Department of Conservation and the opportunities for trade and cultural value add that became greatly recognized as a viable tourism opportunity. All in all, this book is not only fascinating but enlightening. At school, my daughter is studying the art of persuasion in advertising and creating of tribes and cultural thinking portrayed through those images. Young Kiwis are fascinated by what makes them Kiwis. There is no doubt that New Zealand's own understanding of itself came from the promotion of itself, and that is self evident in the artefacts in this book.

For more information Check out : http://www.sellingthedream.co.nz/

And also Peter's own essay on Public Address: http://publicaddress.net/speaker/selling-the-dream-the-art-of-early-new-zealand/

Images provided in association with Selling the Dream: The Art of Early New Zealand Tourism

 

Nalini Singh’s darkly beautiful world of archangels and immortal power

Enter New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh’s darkly beautiful world of archangels and immortal power, as a pact is sealed between two souls bound by blood, stirred by desire, and driven by vengeance…
With wings of midnight and an affinity for shadows, Jason courts darkness. But now, with the Archangel Neha’s consort lying murdered in the jewel-studded palace that was his prison and her rage threatening cataclysmic devastation, Jason steps into the light, knowing he must unearth the murderer before it is too late.
Earning Neha’s trust comes at a price—Jason must tie himself to her bloodline through the Princess Mahiya, a woman with secrets so dangerous, she trusts no one. Least of all an enemy spymaster.
With only their relentless hunt for a violent, intelligent killer to unite them, Jason and Mahiya embark on a quest that leads to a centuries-old nightmare… and to the dark storm of an unexpected passion that threatens to drench them both in blood.

Published by Hachette NZ $24.99
Listen to the interview here.


Her Bio -
I've been writing as long as I can remember and all of my stories always held a thread of romance (even when I was writing about a prince who could shoot lasers out of his eyes). I love creating unique characters, love giving them happy endings and I even love the voices in my head. There's no other job I would rather be doing. In September 2002, when I got the call that Silhouette Desire wanted to buy my first book, Desert Warrior, it was a dream come true. I hope to continue living the dream until I keel over of old age on my keyboard.
I was born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand. I also spent three years living and working in Japan, during which time I took the chance to travel around Asia. I’m back in New Zealand now, but I’m always plotting new trips. If you’d like to see some of my travel snapshots, have a look at the Travel Diary page (updated frequently).
So far, I've worked as a lawyer, a librarian, a candy factory general hand, a bank temp and an English teacher and not necessarily in that order. Some might call that inconsistency but I call it grist for the writer's mill.
www.nalinisingh.com

Eowyn Ivey's 'The Snow Child'

Tonite from 7.30pm the Kid talks with Ivey on her amazing debut, and the interesting world of Alaska and books. 

In Eowyn Ivey's magical debut novel The Snow Child, a couple creates a child out of snow. When she appears on their doorstep as a little girl, wild and secretive, their lives are changed forever.

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for a couple who have never been able to conceive. Jack and Mabel are drifting apart—he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone, but they catch sight of an elusive, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and leaves blizzards in her wake. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who seems to have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in the Alaska wilderness, life and death are inextricable, and what they eventually learn about Faina changes their lives forever.
Eowyn was inspired to write the novel after she discovered the classic Russian fairy tale of the snow maiden. She was shelving books in the children's section of Fireside Books when she happened across a copy of Freya Littledale's retelling of the fairy tale with illustrations by Alaskan artist Barbara Lavallee. The story haunted Eowyn with its loneliness and magic in a landscape so similar to the one she grew up in. She spent the next few months researching the original tale, and depictions of it in Russian art work, before she began writing. The Snow Child has been described as a "remarkable achievement", "stunningly conceived" and "enchanting from beginning to end."

Published by Hachette New Zealand $27.99. Listen to the interview

Tonite (Thursday 4th) on the Adventures of the Coffeebar Kid

We're thrilled with tonite's guests Nalini Singh and Eowyn Ivey - both extraodinary authors and fantastic interviewees - check out the Adventures of the Coffee Bar Kid at 7.30 tonite. Thursdays only on Groove 107.7FM.


Eowyn Ivey

Nalini Singh

Click here for more information about the authors on our show - Eowyn \ Nalini