Tall tales told in (graphic) novel form

Dunedin's Tunnel Beach was described in Erik Olssen's A History of Otago as ''that extraordinary cameo, sculpted by the wild Pacific out of sandstone, accessible only through a narrow tunnel, cut from the rock to provide John Cargill's daughters with a private bathing place, where two of them are said to have drowned''.

If readers go to ''The Legend of Tunnel Beach'' in The Heading Dog Who Split in Half, the author and illustrator have delivered up 22 large pages of sketch and imaginative description about that episode of local folklore.

This is an unusual volume, which relaxes the constraints of generally accepted historic facts, and provides fare to get one's grey matter whirring.

The author (or caption-writer in comic-book style) Dr Michael Brown has an interest in New Zealand's vernacular music and folklore.

The illustrations, striking black-and-white material, are the work of Mat Tait, a South Island-based comic artist and writer.

The blurb is accurate.

The book ''uncovers a New Zealand not found in the history books, but which exists as a country of the imagination, half-familiar, half-dream''.

Apart from ''The Legend of Tunnel Beach'', chapters comprise ''The Heading Dog Who Split in Half'', ''The Princess and the Come-Ashore Whaler'', ''Ranzo, Boys, Ranzo!'', ''A Tale of Old Waihi'', ''The Phantom Canoe'', and ''The Day the Pub Burned Down''.

To encourage the reader to ''further explore the world of New Zealand folktales, folklore and vernacular culture'', a bibliography is provided.

Referring to Tunnel Beach, the book maintains: ''There is a mystery here. For no record can be traced - strange to say - that any of the Cargill daughters drowned at Tunnel Beach! It seems that, with the passing of time, gaps in historical knowledge have left space for the imagination to flourish.''

• Clarke Isaacs is a former ODT chief of staff.