PAPERBACKS

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33093, 7 December 1972, Page 12

PAPERBACKS

Paperbacks have always been the poor relation of the publishing and bookselling trades, but they are, like television, the popular educators, the real mass entertainment of our time.

They are portable and cheap; you can press them on your friends and not hold a life-long grudge when they are not returned. Paperback publishing came of age when Penguin, one of the first paperback houses and, in the Commonwealth at least, one of the most successful and respected, started publishing hardbacks under the imprint of Allen Lane the Penguin Press. One of the most interesting developments in paperback publishing recently has been the boxed set of related works. The boxes

More non-fiction Mona Anderson’s tales of high country life have proved very popular. In “A Letter from James” (A. H. and A. W. Reed, $4.50) she tells the story of her grandmother who, with her husband and children, left Wales in 1879 to live in colonial Canterbury. “A companion guide to the South Island of New Zealand,” by Errol Brathwaite (Collins, $6.60) completes this exhaustive and invaluable guide for tourists or travellers. The volume on the North Island was published two years ago and costs $5.50. Sixteen full-colour plates and 60 black and white drawings are included in “Kakahi: New Zealand,” Peter Mclntyre’s evocative treatment of a small backcountry town. It is published by A. H. and A. W. Reed at $12.90 and has been selected as the New Zealand Christmas book of 1972. ‘Tishes of the New Zealand Region,” by Wade Doak (Hodder and Stoughton, $12.00) includes over 120 full-colour photographs of fish in their natural environment. A full and authoritative text complements this most attractive book. Dr Terry Barrow’s “Art and Life in Polynesia” (A. H. and A. W. Reed, $12.50) illustrates and discusses Polynesian artefacts against their historical and cultural background.

provide the equivalent of hard-cover protection for the books, and the sets are attractive gifts. Pan, Fontana, Penguin and others are providing boxed sets. A few examples of those available from Penguin: Laurie Lee: “Cider with Rosie,” “As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning,” "A Rose for Winter " — $2.95. The Penguin Box of Quotations: Dictionary of Quotations and Dictionary of Modem Quotations. — $3.75. Elizabeth David: Five cookery books. — $5.50. Satre: Roads to Freedom (“The Age of Reason,” “Iron in the Soul,” “The Reprieve.”) — $3.20.