Our reviews of the latest books from home and abroad.
One such is The Wolf by Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen (Heinemann, $42.99, pbk) - the product of years of devotion and research. It is about a German raider that sailed from Germany, around Australia and New Zealand, and then back to Germany without ever being caught.
It stopped and pirated unescorted merchant vessels, and its treatment of its unlucky captives reflected great credit on its officers and crew. The book contains good maps and documents, with some astounding photographs.
- Oliver Riddell
Within its pages, the dastardly deeds of 50 notorious New Zealanders - swindlers, tricksters and charlatans; murderers and villains; crooked politicians and dangerous dreamers; delinquents and renegades - are expertly summarised by an author or, more accurately, compiler, with a shrewd eye on the readership market.
It's not the first time this type of factual criminal literature has been put together in this country, and doubtless it will not be the last. A number of apposite photographs complement this somewhat addictive literary gruel.
- Clarke Isaacs
In No Job Too Big, (Steele Roberts, $44.99, hbk) one of the company's top executives, Jack Smith, describes in great detail the early years of Fletcher Construction, from 1909 to 1940, in what it seems will be followed by a second volume to bring the story up to date.
It is an excellent, well-illustrated account from the "inside", especially interesting for its telling of the way Fletcher got his real start in Auckland after his Dunedin experiences, and for the story of the relationship between Fletchers and the leaders of the first Labour and later war-time government.
For a broader but less-detailed story of the company, try Fletchers, A Centennial History of Fletcher Building, by Paul Goldsmith, (David Ling, $49.99, pbk) which for my money is most interesting in its depiction of the more recent turmoils of the company, when the growth compulsion when coupled with the gambling instincts of its chief managers came close to nearly destroying it.
Both books also make fascinating reading for their descriptions of how, in such a small country, big industry is invariably intertwined with politics and political ambition.
- Bryan James
