Short takes: Non fiction

Reviewed by MARGIE THOMSON

Helen M. Hogan: Bravo, Neu Zeeland: Two Maori in Vienna 1859-1860

It's rare to have a story of Maori OE from the middle of the 19th century told in the subject's own words. In 1859, the Austrian ship Novara took on board two Tainui adventurers, Wiremu Toetoe and Hemara Te Rerehau Te Whanonga. The pair travelled back to Austria and lived there for nine months, having an extraordinary array of experiences, many of which Te Rerehau recorded in a diary. They attended a civic ceremony where they were virtually mobbed by a fascinated crowd of Austrians, who cried "Bravo, Neu Zeeland!" Te Rerehau wrote, " ... the Pakeha were just like a swarm of midges, there were so great a number of them." They visited zoos and saw lions and tigers, met royalty, and were frequently impressed by "the excellence of [the Austrians'] houses, their food and drink". They worked in Franz Joseph's imperial printery, and when they left Austria were presented with a printing press which they took back to New Zealand and used to print Kingite propaganda in the 1860s land wars. It's an interesting footnote to history, told in scholarly fashion by Hogan, who includes the Maori of Te Rerehau's original document, and her own English translation, as well as plenty of historical context.

(Clerestory Press, $30)

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Julia Blackburn: Old Man Goya

This is a lovely and unusual biography of the painter Francisco de Goya covering the period from 1792, when at the age of 47 he contracted a serious illness that left him deaf through the remaining 35 years of his life. Blackburn works hard to get inside the painter's head, bringing an extraordinary sensitivity to her task. She explains the world he lived in - the turmoil, war, violence and confusion, but also the joys in his personal life - and explains how he transformed all this into his paintings. It's sometimes vividly shocking, but always passionate and compelling.

(Vintage, $27.95)


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Iain McCalman: The seven ordeals of Count Cagliostro

Count Cagliostro's bizarre life proves the adage that truth can be stranger than fiction. He was, Simon Winchester is quoted on the cover as saying, "one of the great flim-flam men of history" and a great find for a biographer. Little known today, he was one of the most visible, influential and controversial men of the late 18th century - the inspiration for Mozart's The Magic Flute and Goethe's Faust, and a muse to William Blake. Born in poverty, he travelled widely and moved among the upper crust of Europe as a healer, mystic and all-round schemer, until it all ended at the hands of the Roman Inquisition.

(Flamingo, $34.99)

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Anja Klabunde: Magda Goebbels

This highly readable account of the life of the fashionable, unhappy wife of Hitler's propaganda minister attempts to unravel the psychological mysteries of how a woman who had a Jewish stepfather, and almost married an ardent Zionist, could ally herself to the dark heart of Hitler's regime. It also investigates how a devoted mother could have poisoned not only herself, but her six children as well - they were found by the Russians in Hitler's bunker in April 1945. All stories about the Nazis are about the nature of evil, and this is no exception, although the answers are only, as always, speculative - possibly mysterious, or possibly as simple as ambition and self-interest.

(TimeWarner, $29.95)

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Michael King: New Zealanders at War

A new edition of King's 1981 best-seller updates King's history to include new material on New Zealanders' participation in peacekeeping operations. It remains a sensitive exploration of our involvement in wars from pre-European times up to the present - one year in every three from 1840 to the end of the 20th century. It's respectful both of those who took part, and those who chose not to.

(Penguin, $39.95)