Polkinghorne – Inside the Trial of the Century, Steve Braunias, Allen and Unwin, 2025
This book is a real page turner. Despite the saturation coverage of the trial in 2024, I found this book an absolute “page turner”. Unlike my normal reading pace I read the 269 pages inside two rainy days and nights. Braunias is an extraordinary writer. His powers of observation from the mundane to the complex is marvellous. He obviously has an incredible knack of making conversations and getting interview agreements from key participants on both sides of a trial. He is perhaps best known for his humour and this comes through strongly throughout the book. If ever there was a case that met the description of “stranger than fiction” it was the case of the Crown v Polkinghorne. Braunias describes Philip Polkinghorne early on as a “Malignant Sex Dwarf”. Nevertheless, he explores the complexity of Polkinghorne and his marriage with Pauline Hanna in all its facets and unlike NZ Police he engineers an opportunity to quiz sexworker Madison Ashton on many previously unanswered questions.
The Life of Dai. Dai Henwood with Jacquie Brown, Harper Collins 2024
Dai Henwood is one of New Zealand’s beloved stand up comedians. Cut from the cloth of the Wellington stage royalty pair of Ray and Carolyn Henwood, Dai’s life memoir is an easy to read retelling of a rare talent – someone who has made a living primarily out of being a comedian in New Zealand. The fact that Dai has been living with stage 4 bowel cancer for nearly five years makes his story particularly remarkable. His philosophy for dealing with cancer is very much on the lines of living with rather than dying from cancer. He puts it well when he says we are all dying. Some of us will live long and others not so long; what is important is to ensure we live life to the full every day we have. Dai holds nothing back on the details of such a journey. It brought back to me aspects of my own far less serious brush with the Big C. This book is a must read, particularly for males who may put off seeking treatment for persistent signs and symptons that their bodies are not quite operating as they should. But beyond that it is a celebration of joy and the love of family and friends.
Caledonian Road, Andrew O’Hagan, McClelland & Stewart, 2025
This is a substantial novel which supposedly draws on a Charles Dickens type of approach. There are many, many characters. Debbie printed me off the list so that I could refer to it until well into the book when I became familiar with them. It tells the story of pre-Covid and post-Brexit Britain when the Russian oligarchs were at the peak of their power in terms of investment and illegal activities. The mix of rather naive upper class Englishmen and Russians barging their way in to society makes for a fascinating yarn. The main character, his family and friends centres on a man called Campbell Flynn who is an art historian. His reliance on his wife’s family wealth and lack of confidence in his ability to earn big money while craving adulation and seeking recognition fuels this story. Old fashioned type criminal thuggery and young people seeking to be disrupters of the old order add to the mix of this intriguing story.
A Different Kind of Power, Jacinda Adern, Penguin Books, 2025
Jacinda Adern’s long awaited memoir dropped in mid-2025. Dedicated “To the criers, worriers and huggers”, it very much reflected what all New Zealanders know of Jacinda. There wasn’t a lot new in terms of the political side of the equation but more depth in terms of her early life and family life. Unlike some, she wasn’t ambitious and didn’t have a career plan in politics. Her point of difference was empathy and this, of course, was best on view when she dealt with crises. Yet following the birth of her IVF child, Neve, Jacinda’s priorities started to shift. Someone who liked to give her all to the important things in life, she felt she wasn’t being the mother she wanted to be. This and a ramping up of division and vitriol against politicians but her in particular, prompted her to pull the plug. The book was very well curated. Jacinda is a natural communicator and story teller but it is clear that the publication went through many hands prior to publishing. It’s cover design and flawless rendition bears testimony to Jacinda’s ability to harness support from teams of all types and all layers of society.
July 2025. Sea Change, Jenny Pattrick, Bateman, 2025
This was an enthralling novel on a topical subject of a tsunami hitting the Kapiti coast. It tells of the impact on the residents as the mythical village, closely resembling Paekakariki, becomes subject to a declaration of immediate “managed retreat”. Pattrick creates a number of strong and interesting characters who become the remainers. Additional intrigue is created by the machiavellian approach of a developer with a dream of creating an exclusive resort. The book is a real page turner right up until the last few chapters. It tails off with a weak ending I felt.
The Road Chose Me Volume 1, Dan Grec, Amazon California.
This is a true story of an epic drive of 40,000 miles by the author from the tip of Alaska to the bottom of Argentina in South America. It took him two years. In that time he passes through 17 countries and relates in great detail – too much in my view – of the hassles of getting through border control and customs for importation of the jeep. The South American bureaucracy and corruption would drive most people mad. Grec uses a combination of endless long discussions with officials and/or pretending he doesn’t understand what they are asking, in order to wear them down and get through the borders.
Grec operates on the smell of an oily rag. Late in the piece it is explained to him that South Americans work to live rather than live to work like North Americans. This explains to him why they are relatively poor in material terms but spend so much time at the beach playing the guitar and hanging out with friends. At the end of it all Dan does return to Canada to take up a mundane office job with the view to saving up for the next adventure – presumably Volume 2. Written from the heart, Volume is an ok read but would have benefitted from a professional edit, I feel.
Delirious, by Damien Wilkins, Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2024
Wilkins is one of New Zealand’s greatest contemporary writers. This book is set on the Kapiti Coast where a retired Policewoman and her husband, now clear of caring for parents, decide to move into a retirement village. Early on they meet up with her former Police boss. Mary and her husband have never got over the death of their son at a school camp many years before. Theyn were never happy with the investigation of his death. Then they have an approach via the Police from the man who was driving the vehicle at the time, who wanted to meet them. The story of the unfinished business and there new life in the retirement village rolls out from there. If you are a detailed person, like I am, you’ll appreciate Wilkins tight focus on such matters. That coupled with his beautiful phraseology and familiar settings makes this book a really good read. The judges at the recent book awards thought so too – as Delirious won NZ book of the year.