Barbara Brookes (editor): At home in New Zealand: history, houses, people

Bridget Williams Books $49.95

Review: Gilbert Wong

The home steps away from the pages of the decor magazines and under the microscope of academia in this collection of essays that examine how the idea of home has changed in concept and execution in line with social change.

Charlotte McDonald's article on the decline of the servant class seems particularly apt with a new service class rising today to take over household chores and management. McDonald sees the decline of servant girls, peaking in 1936 at 29,262, as embodying the rise of what became an "intensely domestic and highly utilitarian," New Zealand femininity.

But surely the decline of wool and craft shops and the need for magazines to run pieces on how to carve a chicken would imply those self-sufficient values are well on the ebb.