THE GROOVE BOOK REPORT

In the first major national history of Aotearoa New Zealand to be published for 20 years, Professor Michael Belgrave advances the notion that New Zealand's two peoples — tangata whenua and subsequent migrants — have together built an open, liberal society based on a series of social contracts. Frayed though they may sometimes be, these contracts have created a country that is distinct. This engaging new look at our history examines how. 'This history of Aotearoa New Zealand," writes historian Michael Belgrave, "is a response to crisis: the masscre of 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch on 15 March 2019 and the ongoing uncertainty which followed."   This was a reponse to a question and a statement doing the rounds on social media at the time: 'Who are we?' And 'This is not us!'   Unfortunately, if you look back at our history, at how we treated Maori, Chinese, Samoans, Tongans, and Moslems, our Colonial past, our racism, our bigotry, our 'whi...

Times garden journalist and writer Ann Treneman investigates the incredible world of plantlife from all angles in the incredible diverse amalgam of fun-facts, data points, literary quotes and  foliage foibles.  It's both a plant geek's bible and a novice's introductory gift book.  Beautiful illustrations with useful diagrams and explainations that help you learn almost by stealth as you dive in.   The first chapters look at the beauty of botany - why particular flowers or plants attract polinators - whether they are bees, insects, or even, in the case of grasses, the wind. It's a mix of science, botany and literature.  For instance the explanationof how inflorences work (i.e how flowers are arrangd on the floral axis of a plant.  Or which are the oldest flowers on the planet - the first flowering plants were Monsechia found in spain) and Archafrutus China) which were both aquatic.  Who knew? There's the 'doctrine of signatures', meaning that, at p...