Bryan James

There are more than 80 references to Margaret Pope in Michael Bassett's monumental (and self-serving) account of the fourth Labour government (Working With David, Hodder Moa, 2008). In excess of 30 refer to what Bassett describes as her "influence" on the then prime minister, David Lange.

New Zealand has had little to do with Henry Kissinger, nor he with us.

There's been quite a fuss during Pamela Stephenson-Connolly's visit here to promote her latest book, Sex Life (Vermilion), and I expect by now at least some readers will have waded their way through its 472 pages of cradle-to the-(almost) grave narrative.

Yvonne Rust (1922-2002) holds a position in New Zealand fine arts matched by few other teachers. She was a potter of considerable ability, but cannot be listed in the first rank; she was also a painter of originality, but made no claims to a place in the pantheon.

Judy Golding daughter of the Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding, quotes the proverb "The children of lovers are orphans" at the beginning of her memoir, and it certainly becomes apparent as one reads of the catharsis that prompted it.

Michael King's books enjoy a rare status among our writers. He managed to become both a reputable historian and the author of popular histories and biographies. His relatively early death, along with that of his wife, in a car accident in 2004, deprived us of a major literary figure.

Does anyone read H.G. Wells these days? I have my doubts, yet a century ago he was Britain's and probably the world's best-selling novelist.

Subtitled "The boy who went to war", Wolfram provides a perspective on World War 2 sufficiently rare to be exceptional.

There are doubts even today about which Leningrad Dimitri Shostakovich had in mind when he wrote his seventh symphony, the so-called "Leningrad" symphony.

If I have counted correctly there are 108 photographs of David (Ward) Hartnell in the 192 pages of Memoirs of a Gossip Columnist