CAT AMONGST THE PIGEONS
Cath Tizard
Random, $39.99, pbk
That great grump of travel writing, Paul Theroux, caused mild apoplexy in this country when, in his The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific, published in 1992, he described a dinner with Dame Cath Tizard in notably unflattering terms.
Dame Cath, he said, used her thumb to edge food on to her fork, licked her thumb and picked her teeth while speaking to other guests - hardly good manners for a country's leading citizen.
It's taken a few years for Dame Cath to deliver a return of service, and you will have to read Cat Amongst The Pigeons to find out whether it is a lob or an ace.
Dame Cath was our first woman Governor-General, and also one without a spouse, having shed the philandering Bob Tizard - a former Labour cabinet minister - somewhat earlier.
By then, however, she had carved out a career in public service and had no need of a vice-regal consort.
She was and remains one of that remarkable cohort of women who came, for the first time in New Zealand, into real power in the 1980s and 1990s.
Cat Amongst The Pigeons is no tell-all autobiography, and realistically for a person of her status it could not be.
It is frank in places, especially about Dame Cath's earlier, not quite so public life, frequently amusing and full of the lighter type of anecdote, but once the years as G-G are over, her memoir becomes very much less interesting.
Still, we haven't, so far as I know, had many dyed-in-the-wool Labour Party supporters nominally running the show on behalf of the distant monarch, and I for one found Dame Cath's disclosures about the friendships and politicking quite absorbing.
Her achievement in becoming the first woman mayor of our largest city gave her an insight, and experience of, politics at its pettiest - her brief account of the Aotea Centre's completion and opening puts Dunedin's covered stadium saga well into the shade.
Most people, I expect, will find her insider's portrayal of life as G-G the more interesting part of the book, and there surely has been no account as matter-of-fact as this.
The parties! The dressing up! The junkets! The disturbing vision of Dame Cath in her night wear, torch in hand, looking for a suspected burglar in Government House remains on my mind.
On the whole, I think Dame Cath deserves praise for her book.
It's not too serious and is lots of fun to read; the description "lightweight" would be a tad too harsh.
She appears to be a no-nonsense, earthy and clever woman who writes very much as I suspect she is - without airs, with self-effacing dignity when required and without dishonouring the high offices she filled.
The memoir will probably disappoint the scandal seekers, and the regrettable lack of an index may cause anguish among the name droppers.
The illustrations are, alas, of very average quality.
Bryan James is the books editor.
