Older readers will recall that in the 1980s he started up the New Zealand Party, which played a key role in the 1984 election. Age has not slowed down this man who since June 2012 has been writing columns which are featured in this paper and The New Zealand Herald. This book is a collection of the best of these recent articles. Take note that these are the original, unedited columns.
Sir Bob weighs in on modern society and the great issues of the day, including sections on money, politics and manners. He's got no time for fools, windbags or those too sensitive for their own good.
So a word of advice to anyone who doesn't like his style of writing: stay well away from this book. He's in full flight here, not in the mood to take prisoners. Not that he ever has. Jones writes from the gut with jovial cynicism about local councils, art fraud, race relations, fashion trends and dozens more topics.
In his writing, he often shows true admiration for those people who are honest about themselves. At one point, he meets up for drinks with Pete Bethune, the anti-whaling activist who was imprisoned by the Japanese, and confesses he likes Pete because ''First, he's never grown up and lives a schoolboy's romantic life of adventure. Second, he's strictly honest.''
Lastly, the book includes a bonus collection of emails from Bob to one Jason McHerron, concerning what appears to be a plague of chain-smoking mice in the office building where they work. I'll leave it to the reader to discover more.
Doug Anderson is a former public service worker recently returned to Dunedin.
