New Zealand Listener – August 24, 2019

AUGUST 24 2019 LISTENER

by CHRISTOPHER MOORE

G

reville Texidor’s tempestuous

life is something of which good

biographies are made – and

Margot Schwass’ ALL

THE JUICY PASTURES: Greville

Texidor and New Zealand

(Victoria University Press, $40)

serves up a biographical

feast. Texidor’s stay in New

Zealand was comparatively

brief but lasted long enough

to give small indications

of an extraordinarily gifted

post-war writer who drew on

a bewilderingly chaotic life as

chorus girl, political activist,

militia woman, heroin addict

and daughter of the British

gentry. In 1948, she left for

Australia where, emotionally

scarred and self-damaged, she

committed suicide in 1964.

There are moments when you

sense that Schwass is almost

overwhelmed not only by

the sheer volume of events

and personalities but by the

central character’s profoundly

complex personality. But she

never relinquishes a terrier-

like grip on the essential

Texidor. The result is one

of the best biographies in a long time

• strongly told, insightful and unencum-
  bered by sentiment.

A

collective portrait of Victorian New

Zealand emerges with startling vivid-

ness in HIDDEN LIGHT: Early Canterbury

and West Coast photography (Christchurch

Art Gallery, $49.99.) The book – and an

accompanying exhibition at the gallery –

presents a cast of pioneer photographers

as they strode through an isolated but

undismayed colonial world. The faces

and places these professional and amateur

pioneers trapped through the lens of

cumbersome and, to our eyes, primitive

cameras range from politely decorous,

somewhat rigid studio portraits to alert

images of mining towns and remote

farms hacked from the bush. As historical

records, these fragile images are irreplace-

able, but their creators also bequeathed

sensitive, occasionally haunting pictures

of an evolving society. Curator Ken Hall

and photographer Haruhiko Sameshima’s

accompanying text reveals the extent

to which Canterbury enthusiastically

embraced the new art with a skill that still

surprises and delights the 21st-century

eye.

I

’ll resist any temptation

to view Sir Bob Harvey’s

new book as some neatly

packaged literary metaphor

for Auckland (big, glossy and

somewhat smug). SEA EDGE:

Where the Waitematā Meets

Auckland (Oratia Books, $75)

might present succulent prey

for anyone south of that curi-

ous geographical construct

called the Bombay Hills. But a

critic must always be non-

partisan. The 200 fulsome

pages give us Auckland’s

past, present and future as an

entertainingly written and

handsomely presented book.

As an unabashed Aucklander,

Harvey is an enthusias-

tic guide for an excursion

through the sprawling human

and geographic history of the

city and its harbour. His narra-

tive swings between anecdote,

local history and observations

on the city’s place in the

evolution of a Pacific nation’s

commercial and political evolution.

Although it could never be described as

profoundly cerebral, Sea Edge remains an

enjoyable – and judging by the corporate

names on the final page, well-supported

• exploration, or, as the publisher prefers
  to describe it, “a de luxe hardback”. How
  very Auckland. l

Rough

diamond in

a wilderness

How a post-war

literary figure left

her mark on New

Zealand.

NZ NONFICTION

SHIFTING

POINTS OF VIEW

Featuring:

WORDCHRISTCHURCH.CO.NZ

18 AUG – 14 SEP 2019

MARILYN WARING:

THE POLITICAL YEARS

Saturday 31 August, 3:00pm

VINCENT O’MALLEY:

THE NEW ZEALAND WARS

Saturday 31 August, 5:00pm

AN EVENING WITH

SIMON WINCHESTER

Saturday 31 August, 6:30pm