A superficial moan about the state of New Zealand post ...
598450
A superficial moan about the state of New Zealand post Roger Douglas. I agree with all of his conclusions but there was no meaningful analysis.
1060674
Just what I wanted... Let my frustration out on paper!!
4582991
G'day. Ross Hamilton here, the author. And I just wanted to say that there will not be any bogus, pretend reviews written by me about this. I shall leave that garbage to the likes of Mr Ellory and his mates.

By the way, the website insisted I leave a rating so I just went for the middle-of-the-road three star one.
2181807
This otherwise intelligent writer combines some less trumpeted aspects of New Zealand'sa early history, a bit of Maori culture and sociology, and a dull, very pedestrian narrative of her uninteresting academic life flitting about btw. NZ, OZ, and the USA in a very unneeded and soporific narrative.
Yeah, she married a Maori... and we're supposed to find this noteworthy? I found it utterly boring, disappointing and a waste of time. Unbearably self-indulgent, it earns 2 stars for the modest history and sociology content.
160337
Part of me wants very badly to cry "FALSE ADVERTISING!!!" When I learned that Cadbury was messing around with the recipe of these and halting the import of the good milk chocolate from England to the US, I raced to Amazon to stock up before the iron curtain came down on my favorite Easter-time treats. It was such a relief to find this listing with the good old "Made in England" stamp right there on the image. I clutched my pearls, caught my breath, and ordered myself a stockpile to get me through the hard transition to my new unfortunate circumstance.

Imagine my fury when the box arrived on my doorstep containing a case of eggs manufactured in CANADA! I was so mad I could have spit, but I needed my saliva in order to lube up the less milk chocolatey non-milk chocolate that I was trying to avoid in the first place. There they were, 40 evil Canadian rabbit eggs staring up at me blankly as if to say, "What's the long face aboot? We're here in time for Easter, eh?" I actually picked one out of the box and threw it against the wall crying, "NOT IN MY HOUSE, ROB FORD! NOT TODAY!"

After I checked and recheck the label on my order against the cruel trick of fate before me, I decided to give those crack eggs a taste so that I could write Amazon a very harshly worded letter about how awful they were, and how dishonest it was that they advertised them as legitimate English chocolate. Sure, both countries share the same queen, but. . .but. . .whatever.

I ate one of the blasted things, and my ire instantly fell away and was replaced by the sound of a thousand sexy Mounties singing an angelic chorus in only their hats and jackets - Balls-oot Mountie angels, I tell you! - singing to me while that egg-shaped piece of chocolate heaven melted into a gooey mess as my tongue darted in, out, and all around its creme filled insides, getting every. last. drop!

God save the queen, these eggs still taste great. I couldn't tell a difference. (But I'm still giving only 3 stars for frightening me!)
4109605
After reading The Instance of the Fingerpost, pretty close to being a masterpiece, I was disappointed with the mystery series. He gets a little better as he progresses but, generally speaking, they're pretty boring except for the art details and the Roman way of life.  However if he's as inaccurate about Rome as he is about America, I might have to revise that opinion.

My real reason for writing this is to vent about English writers who feature Americans in their novels. Deliver me. Can't someone tell them or their publishers that they need an American advisor to keep them from looking like complete dolts?? This applies to every single English novel I have ever read, featuring Americans, and, believe me, I have read tons of them. Someone please tell them that people in all walks of life, in America, do not say, "I reckon" on a regular basis. To a man (or woman) they always make American characters talk like they just stepped out of Hopalong Cassidy movies from the '50's.  And to top it off, they do it very smugly as if they really have it down.  If only there was someone I could complain to. Or to whom I could complain, as the case may be.

Meanwhile, the books are readable, if there's nothing better or you happen to be in the mood. But "Fingerpost" is far, far superior to the mysteries.
908297
The author asks a question that it is illegal to answer in Australia.
She claims to be an Aboriginal, and uses that claim to get government money, while real Aboriginals in the outback suffer.

She is a race baiter of the Al Sharpton camp.

And here is a question:  Why buy a book whose title question is not ony illegal to answer in the country of origin, but whose author went to court to prevent anyone from answering?

I hope the publishing company loses it shirt on this moral cretin.
2920490
Read the blog instead. As incoherent as a five year old after a box of fruit roll ups.

Points for occasionally saying something in a unique fashion. Deductions for endless platitudes from stuffy old folk sipping sweat tea on a summer porch.
2433961
It seems at this point that all the previous reviews sum it up, no comments needed...but since I am so unsatisfied I will go ahead and vent. I ordered my dvd on Sep. 15th and it was not post marked till Oct. 1st(shocker).I FINALLY received my movie today. By looking at the movie it is obviously a copy, guess that's why there was a "delay" in shipping. You need to Stop blaming media mail for everything, your customer service royally sucks!!!Thank you for my refund Amazon:)
1055778
It saddens me that I have to write this negative review, but hopefully, the publisher will notice that enough people are upset about the state of this (formerly wonderful) magazine, and do something about it!
I live in an urban area, and for years, this magazine gave me a steady dose of tranquility. I used it to daydream about the day I can escape this concrete jungle. The layout was great, it was printed on quality paper, there was more exceptional content than ads, the photographs were beautiful, and high-quality. Every issue transported me to beautiful, simpler places. WHAT HAPPENED??!! Now, it's filled with ads aimed at the geriatric set (I am in my 30s, so not quite ready for them), the photos are few and far between, and mostly smaller photos, not the whole page wonders that used to be featured, and the paper is thin and smells like the cheap paper they use to print the weekly Parade magazine included in your Sunday paper. Was all of the original staff fired? Did they bring in some big city, hot shot editor to 'modernize' and streamline the magazine? Is all of the staff made up of disaffected twentysomethings who think simplicity and beauty are outdated and boring? I don't know. What I do know is that I will be personally writing the editor, getting a refund, and buying up old issues I find on ebay. What a shame!
1528728
The writer clearly is trying to write a polemic.  He does make some interesting points but only for those people who have never visited Japan.  BTW, Japan, like California, indeed has concreted over practically every river.  Perhaps for good reason (flood control)--the Koreans have done the same thing for the Han river.

The book largely focuses on lack of asthetics amongst Japanese architects, which actually is a good point made for any culture (tackiness is universal), especially parts of suburban American.

Now hear this:  Japan, because of industrialization is ugly.  Here is a quote, guess what year it was written:

"Yokohama [Tokyo] was also a disappointment. I knew that port from the old photographs brought home by my father in the eighties, and was prepared for a pageant of Japanese life as I remembered it from those pictures.  Here was neither fish, fowl, nor good red herring; the city was neither European, American, nor yet entirely Japanese, but a conglomeration of all.  ... Yokohama looked to me like Oriental bric-a-brac in a Victorian drawing room."  -  from the book "Survival: through War and Revolution in Russia" by D. Fedotoff White, Univ. of PA press (1939), describing his trip through Japan in 1919.

That's right--1919--over 85 years ago.

BTW, White's book is spectacular--I picked it up in a old used bookstore.
3384913
I received a gift subscription to this magazine through a subscription box and was eager to read as I had not subscribed to a magazine like this in a while. Unfortunately, this magazine is riddled with political bias that does not even encourage a middle ground. It doesn't even try. I was so turned off by some of the articles I asked the box to stop sending me this magazine. It's a shame that some of the content (which can be decent, like travel information, grooming, etc) is overshadowed by material that is severely biased. Look no further than the editor's letter in the beginning of the mag to get the point.
2651081
Reading a lot of, "wah, wah, wahhhhhhh" over piddly s***. Stop one star whining lol. Your expectations are way too high.
2935348
Cheryl Thompson <[e-mail address removed]> wrote: You're out of your mind dude...You're just the type of person who doesn't own up to something I guess... I have about 1 person a year... out of TENS OF THOUSANDS of shipments blame the case... It's pretty sad you blame our case for your clumsiness. I have made copies of everything email this company has sent to me. Calling a customer "DUDE",not professional.
4508765
I have to agree with the reader from Christchurch.  At first I found it interesting and hoped to gain greater perspective of immigrants during that era--as my own ancestors migrated to Dunedin from Scotland around that time.  But I, too, found inconsistencies in some of the terminology--cookies instead of biscuits and cents instead of pence.  I had to quit reading when I was over 60 % through because of the horrendous immorality and darkness occurring in the lives of all the main characters.  Surely some of the immigrants faced tremendous difficulties; but I doubt that all their lives were a wreck!  As I learned that the author is of German descent, I realized that perhaps she did not have a personal connection which I had hoped she would have.
1261134
I am posting this for the book's publisher:

I am this book's British publisher and Mr Simpson has made some very facile remarks. He evidently doesn't appreciate that Walendy spent several years in prison for his work, and what people like us have to go through to publish such a book. I got a five-year prison sentence for publishing a comic book which questions "Holocaust" claims (see www.heretical.com). In fact 'Forged War Crimes' was the first title the Heretical Press ever published, so important did I consider it to be.

A few copies have had a problem of pages sticking together. They were printed on gloss paper in Germany and I think it depends on how they are stored. Whoever supplied his copy obviously didn't check it  if there are stuck pages after storage you have to roll it. My own stock was impounded by British police who returned them after I was released from prison, over three years later.

Getting a book like this into a reader's hands is an arduous undertaking. Any title that challenges the dogma of German wickedness will be ignored by mainstream publishers, and you can reach your own conclusions why that is. I really get annoyed when Walendy and myself, struggling to overcome that blockade, and paying such high costs as to actually be imprisoned for it, have some New York Smart Alec pontificating about cosmetic details.

It is accepted that the book's central thesis is true, so Mr Simpson should ask himself why an astonishing book like this, which exposes many commonplace "photographs" as forgeries, has not received the production and promotion it deserves. These so-called photographs fill our libraries today.

Simon Sheppard
2639682
I recently became involved in the move to have the New Zealand Government recognise Nancy Wake's extraordinary actions and bravery during WWII - this is a long overdue recognition especially since Ms Wake was born in New Zealand and has never surrendered her New Zealand citizenship. What's more, is the unknown number of New Zealand air crew who she directly or indirectly saved by her actions on the O'Leary Line.

In a twist of irony, the New Zealand Parliament recently passed a law that allowed females to serve on the front lines and yet the current government has continuously refused to bestow even a modest degree of recognition on Ms Wake (arguably our greatest front-line female soldier!)

But all that aside, why only two stars for Mr Fitzsimons telling of Nancy's tale? Well as outlined above, Ms Wake is an extraordinary person, displaying amazing courage and devotion to her cause. Yet Fitzsimons dumbs this all down with his inability to actually convey this in his story-telling. The book is loaded with appalling clichs and overloaded with "Aussie" idioms that at points makes the text very hard to read.

Given some of the actions that Ms Wake had to perform (i.e. knifing a German guard) this should not be a tale for the faint-hearted, but Fitzsimons style makes for a light-hearted romp through the rural backblocks of France knocking a few of the nasty huns off for good measure. Without knowing her personally, perhaps Ms Wake does exude a irreverent, yet hard-ass personality, but any attempt by Fitzsimons to convey the seriousness of the situation falls completely flat.

A small, but extremely annoying aspect of this book is Fitzsimons insistence and repetition ad nauseum that all of the troops that Ms Wake's resistance fighters encountered were "elite". Whereas in fact, a quick check revels that until June - August 1944, the majority of German divisions in central France were "Sicherungs" or Security divisions: essentially B-grade divisions that in no way were capable of front-line service.

I guess ultimately a lot can be said for the natural strength of the story that I kept reading to the end hoping that Fitzsimons talents would eventually shine through...alas I remained disappointed until the very last page. I'm hoping that Nancy's own biography will give me a deeper understanding of this remarkable woman.

Nancy gets a double-thumbs up and five stars; but sadly Fitzsimons gets only two stars (mostly for trying, rather than anything else).