Hobby books, from cricket to cookery

Press, 9 December 1976, Page 11

Hobby books, from cricket to cookery

Sports books are always popular at Christmas in this sports-mad country, and there are some good new ones, particularly on cricket, rugby and mountaineering.

The most striking of these books is probably Chris Bonington’s “Everest: the Hard Way,” an account of the first successful ascent of the South West Face in 1975, with 130 colour pictures, It is a beautifully presented $16.40. Graeme Dingle tells of his attempt on the difficult north face of Mount Jannu in Eastern Nepal in “Wall of Shadows.” This book has 24 pages of colour photos and costs $9.95. Also for mountaineering fans, Edmund Hillary’s “Nothing Venture, Nothing Win” is out in paperback now, at $4.15. Fast bowler Fred Trues man tells of his successes and failures in international cricket in “Ball of Fire” ($10.40), his autobiography, and there is .more for cricket fans in “Complete Cricket Coaching” by Frank Tyson ($8.95). This is a comprehensive illustrated manual covering all the skills and laws of the game. Over 200 photos plus diagrams of technique, fitness and tactics are included.

For rugby fans, Willie

John tells his story of 14 years of international play in “Willie John” ($8.95), and Jim Wallace provides a manual of all the skills and strategies of the game in “The Rugby Game,” which costs $6.95, or $8.95 cased. There are also new books on snooker, sailing, fishing, golf, hunting and athletics and an exhaustive collection of facts and figures on 90 sports in “DB Sporting Records of New Zealand” ($9.95) with 135 photos. Other hobbies like cooking, pottery and art are the subjects of some very attractive books this year. One of the most lavish of the cookery books is the “Australian and New Zealand Complete Book of Cookery” ($12.95). Hamlyn’s “Fondue Cookbook” a guide to all the things you can do with fondues, from meat, cheese and fish to unusual desserts, and Alison Holst gives a complete guide to cooking with lamb in “Lamb for all Seasons.” Best value for money probably comes with, the “All-Colour Cookbook,” beautifully illustrated at. $5.95, and a cheap book that is still selling well is Nina and Jim Munro’s “I Care Cookbook,” ($4.50) which takes you back to basics and emphasises foods from the home garden.

If it .is art books you want “The Children of Rangi and Papa”, by Pauline Kahurangi Yearbury, is beautiful and has won much praise. In this she matches poems with 15 paintings to dramatise the Maori creation myths. In another splendid book of New Zealand art Rei Hamon presents a second volume of “Artist of the New Zealand Bush,” 19 drawings with life-size details.

Elsewhere, there is “The Lost World of the Impress sionists,” with text, photos and colour reproductions of many of the masterpieces; “Japanese Prints,” which presents 200 years of work in black “and white and colour; and the first book in the Reed’s New Zealand Art Series, “Van der Velden” by T. L. Rodney Wilson.

There are some magnificent books for pottery fans, best of all “New Zealand Potters: Their Work and Words. ($15.95). In this book by Doreen Blumhardt and Brian Blake, 12 leading New Zealand potters present some startlingly good work and talk about their craft.

Other pottery books include the very expensive “Hamada, Potter” at $52.10, “Imaginative Pottery” by David Harvey and “The Potter’s Dictio-

nary of Materials and Techniques.”

Two attractive books for camera buffs are “The Book of Photography,” an instructive book for becoming a better photographer, and “Praktica International Photography,” a collection of work' by leading men. A good number of books about New Zealand are on the shelves, ranging from “Wellington: City Alive” ($14.95), which claims to show the real Wellington in prose and photos, to “Ten Modem New Zealand Story Writers,” an anthology of 16 recent stories by names like Maurice Duggan, Fiona Kidman and C. K. Stead at $4.95 paperback or $6.95 cased.

“New Zealand and its People” by Errol Braithwaite combines text and illustration for a profile of New Zealanders at work and play; “The Scots of New Zealand” by G. L. Pearce tells about the influence the Scots have had on this country; and

"Wake up to New Zealand” by Colin Simpson is a personal travel story of encounters and experiences throughout the country.

For history-lovers the “History l of the 20th Century” is an authoritative survey with 750 colour illustrations and “The Hutchinson History of the World” starts from the pre-human creatures of millions of years ago and works through to the space age. “Destination America” (you may have seen the television series) is the story of the greatest mass migration in history, and “The Atlas of Early Man” is an irresistibly presented reference work with charts, maps and diagrams. Animal lovers may find the “Encyclopaedia of the Animal Kingdom” ($11.95) interesting, as it traces the progression of animals through evolution, with lavish illustrations.

“Thinking Dolphins, Talking Whales” describes

the theories of authority Frank Robson on non-ver-bal communication between man and dolphin and research into whale strandings.

Two for horse-lovers are “Horses and their World,” which pays tribute to them from . prehistoric times to the present, and the economically priced "The Wonderful World of Horses” ($6.95) with 125 colour photos and a very readable text by Angela Sayers.

The “Australian and New Zealand Complete Gardening Book” ($16.95) heads the list of books for gardening enthusiasts. It is a splendid 560-page volume edited by Stirling Macoboy which will be useful to both dedicated and week-end gardeners.

“A Guide for New Zealanders to Basic Gardening,” “Rikka — the Soul of Japanese Flower Arrangmeent,” and the “Mother Earth Manual of Organic Gardening” are other attractive books for gardeners.