Contents
Next Teller Please
Tells of the decline in use of passbooks in banking.
Something Of Dreams
A New Zealand TV show shoots a scene in the neighbourhood of Martin's friend from Thames South Primary.
Mono
Martin and his friend befriend a peer whose religion forbids board games, television and movies, who is rumoured to possess only one testicle.
Longnecks
14-year-old Martin discusses 18-year-old Donna, who he has a crush on, with her 29-year-old boyfriend, and later attempts to engage her in conversation.
The Secret Passage
Martin's experience with New Zealand amateur theatre.
A Made Bed in Hell
Martin moves into a rented room at the Yeoman household in Auckland.
No Tarzan, Mind
An account of Martin's time in the advertising industry, starting at the bottom rung, and learning kerning.
The Yeti
Martin's experience at an Auckland boarding house run by a Swiss-German husband and Samoan wife.
Breakfast in Dubbo
An account of a lengthy New South Wales Bus trip.
Unlucky 12a
Martin's time spent living in a flat in Melbourne.
Prang
The events following a minor collision with a drunk driver.
The Doctor is Out
Martin's experience of visiting various chiropractors to cure recurring back pain.
The Notary Public
Martin and his wife require legal forms to be signed by the "notary public".
In the Eye of the Lolly Scramble
Parental punishment in combined families, and Christmas cheer.
Janet Paterson Frame was a New Zealand author. She was internationally renowned for her work, which included novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, and an autobiography, and received numerous awards including being appointed to the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civil honour.
Maurice Gough Gee is a New Zealand novelist. He is one of New Zealand's most distinguished and prolific authors, having written over thirty novels for adults and children, and has won numerous awards, including multiple top prizes at the New Zealand Book Awards. His novel Plumb (1978) is considered one of the best novels ever written in New Zealand. In 1993, Andro Linklater, writing in British newspaper The Sunday Times, said that "Gee deserves to be regarded as one of the finest writers at work, not only in New Zealand ... but in the English speaking world".
James Keir Baxter was a New Zealand poet and playwright. He was also known as an activist for the preservation of Māori culture. He is one of New Zealand's most well-known and controversial literary figures. He was a prolific writer who produced numerous poems, plays and articles in his short life, and was regarded as the preeminent writer of his generation; he also suffered from alcoholism until the late 1950s, after which he converted to Catholicism, and established a controversial commune at Jerusalem, New Zealand in 1969. His wife, Jacquie Sturm, was a well-known writer in her own right.
Frank Sargeson was a New Zealand short story writer and novelist. Sargeson has been credited with introducing everyday New Zealand English to literature. He was the most important and influential New Zealand short-story writer in the 1930s and 1940s, publishing over forty short stories in this time, and his work continues to be recognised as a major influence on New Zealand literature.
Richard William Pearse was a New Zealand farmer and inventor who performed pioneering aviation experiments. Witnesses interviewed many years afterward claimed that Pearse flew and landed a powered heavier-than-air machine on 31 March 1903, nine months before the Wright brothers flew. Documentary evidence for these claims remains open to interpretation and dispute, and Pearse himself never made such claims. In a newspaper interview in 1909, he said he did not "attempt anything practical ... until 1904".
Barry Crump was a New Zealand author of semi-autobiographical comic novels based on his image as a rugged outdoors man. Taken together his novels have sold more than a million copies domestically, equating to one book sold for every five New Zealanders. Crump's 1986 work Wild Pork and Watercress was adapted into the 2016 Taika Waititi film Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
Hammer House of Horror is a British television series made in 1980. An anthology series created by Hammer Films in association with Cinema Arts International and ITC Entertainment, it consists of thirteen hour-long episodes, originally broadcast on ITV.
Lauris Dorothy Edmond was a New Zealand poet and writer.
Lolly Scramble may refer to:
Elsie Violet Locke was a New Zealand communist writer, historian, and leading activist in the feminism and peace movements. Probably best known for her children's literature, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature said that she "made a remarkable contribution to New Zealand society", for which the University of Canterbury awarded her an honorary D.Litt. in 1987. She was married to Jack Locke, a leading member of the Communist Party.
William Swainson became the second, and last, Attorney-General of the Crown colony of New Zealand and instrumental in setting up the legal system of New Zealand. He was the first Speaker of the New Zealand Legislative Council.
Once Were Warriors is a 1994 New Zealand drama film based on New Zealand author Alan Duff's bestselling 1990 first novel. The film tells the story of the Hekes, an urban Māori family, and their problems with poverty, alcoholism, and domestic violence, mostly brought on by the patriarch, Jake. The film was directed by Lee Tamahori, written by Riwia Brown and stars Rena Owen, Temuera Morrison and Cliff Curtis, became the highest-grossing film of all-time in New Zealand and has won numerous awards.
The Pasifika Festival is a Pacific Islands-themed festival held annually in Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand. Celebrated since 1993, it is the largest festival of its type in the world and attracts over 200,000 visitors every year.
A Nest of Occasionals , published in 2009, is collection of autobiographical essays by New Zealand-Australian comedian Tony Martin. It is a follow up to his first book Lolly Scramble
Charlotte Grimshaw is a New Zealand novelist, short-story writer, columnist and former lawyer. Since the publication of her debut novel Provocation (1999), she has received a number of significant literary awards including the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship in 2000 and the Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Award for short fiction in 2006. Her short-story collection Opportunity (2007) won the Montana Award for Fiction and the Montana Medal for Fiction or Poetry at the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. She has also won awards for her book reviews and column writing.
Sacha Hughes is the current New Zealand Fed Cup captain, appointed May 2019. She is a former professional New Zealand and Australian tennis player who competed as Sacha Jones. Her highest WTA singles ranking is 150, which she reached on 8 October 2012. Her highest ITF junior ranking is 11 in the world. She attained the No. 1 ranking in New Zealand in 2009 and competed in the ASB Classic, New Zealand's only WTA event, on seven occasions.
Matariki is a 2010 New Zealand drama film set in Otara, South Auckland. The film is told through five interweaving stories all set in the days leading to the rising of Matariki. The film incorporates a variety of languages including English, Māori, Tokelauan, Samoan, and Cantonese. It features an ensemble cast and is the feature debut for actors Susana Tang and Jason Wu. The film was funded by the New Zealand Film Commission.
Muriel Dorothy Butler was a New Zealand children's book author, bookseller, memoirist and reading advocate. She was a recipient of the Eleanor Farjeon Award.
Caroline Harriet Abraham was born in Wanlip near Leicester. She became a New Zealand artist who created a useful record of that country in the nineteenth century. She was the influential wife of a bishop and the mother of another. She put together a book, with others, supporting Māori rights.
David Mitchell was a New Zealand poet, teacher and cricketer. In the 1960s and 1970s he was a well-known performance poet in New Zealand, and in 1980 he founded the weekly event "Poetry Live" which continues to run in Auckland. His poetry collection Pipe Dreams in Ponsonby (1972) was popular and iconic, and his poems have been included in several New Zealand anthologies and journals. A collection of his poems titled Steal Away Boy: Selected Poems of David Mitchell was published in 2010, shortly before his death.
