A full chronological record of the poems of Robin Hyde, a New Zealand journalist, novelist, dramatist, and poet active in the 1930s, is presented in this book. The 300 poems chosen show Hyde's growth as a poet and her response to the painful events of her personal life and to the political and social world around her. The poems are remarkable both for their acute observation of the physical and emotional world and for their powerful prophetic and visionary elements.
Passport to Hell is the story of James Douglas Stark—"Starkie"—and his war. Journalist and novelist Robin Hyde came across Starkie while reporting in Mt Eden Gaol in the 1930s and immediately knew she had to write his "queer true terrible story." Born in Southland and finding himself in early trouble with the law, the young Starkie tricked his way into a draft in 1914 by means of a subterfuge involving whisky and tea. He had a subsequent checkered career in Egypt, Gallipoli, Armentières, the Somme, and Ypres. Hyde portrays a man carousing in the brothels of Cairo and the estaminets of Flanders; looting a dead man's money-belt and filching beer from the Tommies; attempting to shoot a sergeant through a lavatory door in a haze of absinthe, yet carrying his wounded captain back across No Man's Land; a man recommended for the V.C. and honored for his bravery—but also subject to nine court martials. It is a portrait of a singular individual who has also been described as the quintessential New Zealand soldier.
An entirely new edition of Robin Hyde's wistful and engaging classic novel, first published in 1938 and in print ever since. The Godwits Fly vividly conveys the intensely felt worlds of the adolescent—love, poetry and England—and the enthralling but sometimes painful experience of growing up female.
... This book brings together for the first time the best of Hyde's journalism. Alongside extracts from the now out of print Journalese (1934) are previously uncollected articles and reviews from newspapers and magazines, ranging in subject matter from the Treaty of Waitangi to the Spanish Civil War, from China in the thirties to the Queen Street Riots. These detailed and vivid accounts of aspects of New Zealand society and the international situation have an urgency with makes them relevant to us all.The biographical introduction offers a fuller picture than we have had of this remarkable writer, drawing on interviews, letters and the work itself." -- Back cover.
This man is the biggest, laziest, rottenest, most troublesome— And in the trenches he’s one of the best soldiers I ever had.’ Passport to Hell is the story of James Douglas Stark—Starkie—and his war. Journalist and novelist Robin Hyde came across Starkie while reporting in Mt Eden Gaol in the 1930s and immediately knew she had to write his ‘queer true terrible story’. The result was greeted by John A. Lee, war veteran, author and politician, as ‘the most important New Zealand war book yet published’. Born in Southland and finding himself in early trouble with the law, the young Starkie tricked his way into a draft in 1914 by means of a subterfuge involving whisky and tea. In his subsequent chequered career in Egypt, Gallipoli, Armentières, the Somme, Ypres, he showed himself ‘a soldier and not a soldier’, with a ‘contempt of danger and discipline alike’. Hyde took the raw horrors, respites and reversals of Starkie’s experiences and composed a work of literature much greater than a mere documentary of war. She portrays a man carousing in the brothels of Cairo and the estaminets of Flanders; looting a dead man’s money-belt and filching beer from the Tommies; attempting to shoot a sergeant through a lavatory door in a haze of absinthe, yet carrying his wounded captain back across No Man’s Land; a man recommended for the V.C. and honoured for his bravery – but also subject to nine court martials. It is a portrait of a singular individual – ‘something of a visionary’, in Hyde’s words – who has also been described as the quintessential New Zealand soldier. And against the contradictory elements of Starkie’s character, Hyde shows a war machine that preaches ‘Thalt shall do no murder’ one moment and sends men over the top the following day to kill. Robin Hyde was one of New Zealand’s true literary trailblazers, and in this book she redefined the parameters of novel and memoir. In its psychological acuity and emotional depth, Passport to Hell is one of the finest
Coronation Day, 1902. Charles and Kate Sheridan are pleased to be at the crowning of their king. But when an anarchist accidentally blows himself up with a bomb meant for their monarch, Charles and Kate turn up a number of intriguing--and disturbing--questions. For example, what is mysterious, beautiful Charlotte Conway--editor of the anarchist newspaper where the dead man was employed--doing in the arms of expatriate author Jack London?
Follow this distinguished author down the rabbit hole as she discovers the barbaric realities of the Japanese occupation of China in the late 1930s. A war that would eventually merge with World War Two is painted with the lyrical prose that only Robin Hyde could deliver. Hyde is a lone female journalist desperately evading the Japanese censors to send her accounts to Woman To-Day. She was the very first female journalist to visit these parts of China during this time. She encounters death, poverty, sickness and brutality as well as pockets of kindness on her journey. Experience this once in a lifetime adventure with Robin Hyde as your guide into the unknown and exotic. A treasure to read.
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