11. The Memory Code, Lynne Kelly (2016)
This is an exploration of the oral traditions and monuments of a number of ancient cultures, uncovering the ways ancient societies used stone circles and monuments, songlines and natural phenomena as repositories of memories and of vast amounts of knowledge.
12. The Blaze of Obscurity, Clive James (2009)
He's still alive, Clive James, and he's written a number of books since this one, despite being quite ill since 2010. When he was on television he seemed like a bit of a buffoon. His writing, however, is sublime at times and, more often, laugh out loud funny. This is the fifth in an autobiographical series that includes Falling towards England, Unreliable Memoirs, May Week Was in June and North Face of Soho. Born in Australia, James has spent most of his working life in England. He remembers the Second World War, the Wehrmacht and the evils of the Nazi regime, and of Stalinism. While he lampoons many facets of modern life, Clive James is deeply aware of the value of freedom from tyranny. He has a brave self-deprecating humour. I like to have a book of his near me when I'm marking students' essays. His prose is an antidote to the tangled writing I often mark, a relief.
13. The Missionary Position, Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, Christopher Hitchens (1995)
This book changed my view of Mother Teresa. Undoubtedly dedicated to the poor of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), Mother Teresa is shown to be anything but unworldly in this book by Christopher Hitchens. There are things about the late Christopher Hitchens I don't particularly like: he could be bombastic, but as a writer and public speaker of English - tremendous. He articulated his insights very clearly in politics and on matters of religion. In this book he shows that Mother Teresa courted some shady characters, pleaded poverty at all times, and ran a clinic that was strong on compassion but weak on clean needles.
14. Absolutely Foxed, Graeme Fowler (2016)
Fowler played cricket for Lancashire and Durham, and for England in 21 tests and 26ODIs. This book is biographical, with plenty of funny stories about cricket and cricketers on and off the field, many of them including his good friend and supporter, Sir Ian Botham. Fowler is one of a number of cricketers who has spoken and written about their experience of clinical depression. He writes well, or at least he and John Woodhouse do. To appreciate Fowler fully, listen to him speak, on a YouTube clip, with his distinctive Lancashire accent.
15. The Spartans, Paul Cartledge (2013)
I've twice listened to Paul Cartledge on 'In our Time' podcasts with Melvin Bragg - that's when I first heard his name and heard him speak. He was A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge (2008-2014), where he had previously held a chair in Greek history. Amongst everything else, he knows a lot about the hemerodromos - the position of the daylong runner in the Greek military. Incidentally, the US ultramarathon runner of Greek ancestry, Dean Karnazes colloborated with Paul Cartledge to write The Road to Sparta, with a retelling of the story of Pheidippides, the historical figure behind the marathon. Paul Cartledge is easy to listen to and is equally interesting to read about all things related to ancient Greece (which really didn't exist as a single entity - but as an association of cities) - politics, festivals, sports, military training, hunting and everyday life - a preeminent scholar who brings ancient Greek to life in his books and television series.
16. Hitler's Warrior - The Life and Wars of SS Colonel Jochen Peiper, Danny. S. Parker (2014)
This is an account of the life of Jochen Peiper, a German who joined the Hitler Youth on his 18th birthday. There's not much to admire in him: he was brave but brutal. He led the 1st SS Panzer Division, spearheading the Ardennes Offensive, the Battle of the Bulge. It is what happens after the war that is more interesting. Tried and convicted at the Malmedy war crimes trial, he was later released. After working for Porsche and Volkswagon, he eventually made his home in Trave, in Eastern France, where from he translated books into German under the name, 'Rainer Buschmann'. It seems that former members of the French Resistance learned of the former SS colonel living quietly in France. In 1976 he died from burns when his house was fire-bombed and shots were fired on his property. It is still not known exactly who the intruders were.
17. Portholes on the past, Lloyd Geering, 2016
This is marvellous book; marvellous in what Lloyd Geering remembers and recounts across many years - from growing up in the South Island to memories of the depression years, the Napier earthquake, training at the Theological Hall at Knox College in Dunedin, parish ministry in Kurow, the second world war, up to the present day. Neither sentimental nor cooly detached, Lloyd Geering writes with warmth and grace, and with telling observations about the state of religion and of society in New Zealand in the 21st century. 136pp. A very satisfying weekend read.
18. Being Pakeha Now, Michael King, 1985
More than anyone else, Michael King wrote about being Pakeha in a way that was well-informed by knowledge of Maori. His death in a car accident in 2004 deprived New Zealand of an eminent historian and biographer. Though he often refers to his Irish ancestry, he belonged to New Zealand as a Pakeha and wrote for other Pakeha about the distinctiveness of being people of Aotearoa New Zealand. This book contains references to many other prominent writers who King knew, e.g. Denis Glover, Frank Sargeson, James K. Baxter, Marilyn Duckworth and Sam Hunt, not in a name-dropping way but just because King was gregarious and supportive of others. He was especially well-connected with prominent Maori people throughout New Zealand, winning the confidence of many as the researcher and writer of such books as Te Puea: a biography (1977) and Wrestling with the Angel: A Life of Janet Frame (2000). There were many other books. As I read Being Pakeha Now, as well as appreciating the depths of his reflections and the fluency of his writing, I realized I had met a number of people he mentions: James K. Baxter in the cafeteria at the University of Canterbury; Chris Cole-Catley, when we were living in Picton; Sam Hunt, a visitor to Picton around 1982; historian Jeanine Graham, a friend of ours in Hamilton. Despite its having been published more than 30 years ago, no book I know of better addresses the joys, questions and issues associated with being Pakeha today. He had some scrapes and challenges as a Pakeha writing about Maori but never seemed to lose his warm humanity.
19. Rooms of One's Own - 50 Places that Made Literary History, Adrian Mourby, 2017
This is a study of the rooms, homes, cafes (Sartre and de Beauvoir) and hotels (Oscar Wilde) in which 50 authors worked. The writes include Charlotte Bronte at the parsonage at Haworth in Yorkshire, Dylan Thomas in the Hotel Chelsea in New York, and Marcel Proust in the Boulevard Haussmann. Some of these places are now tourist destinations for literary pilgramages; others are scarcely known. The book is very readable. 255pp.
20. The Rise and Fall of Emil Zatopek, Richard Askworth, 2016
This is an excellent biography of the legendary Czech runner, describing not only his running feats but the political environment in which he lived and often struggled. A committed socialist, Zatopek was fearless in denouncing the Warsaw Pact Invasion that crushed the Prague Spring in August, 1968. Author Richard Askworth, himself a runner, describes the running triumphs movingly, especially the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, where Zatopek won three gold medals - in the 5000m, 10000m, and the marathon. He also tells of Zatopek's decline and subsequent gracious acknowledgment of friend and running rival, Frenchman Alain Mimoun, winner of the Olympic Games marathon in 1956, when Zatopek came 6th. "He could have just been a runner who won races. Instead, he was a runner who loved life." (p.377)