Hundreds have a saying

Press, 29 July 1989, Page 22

Hundreds have a saying

The Book of Friends. Compiled and Edited by John Dunmore. The Heritage Press, 1989. 92pp. $l5 (paperback). (Reviewed by Margaret Quigley) This book, which can best be described as a formalised autograph book for New Zealanders, has been collected and published by John Dunmore in aid of the Child Cancer Foundation. To it, hundreds of famous (or reasonably well-known, or at least not anonymous) New Zealanders have contributed their favourite quotation, or proverb or motto. It is an attractively produced little book; a shiny paperback featuring the Pink Panther, the Child Cancer Foundation’s symbol, on the cover and beginning with best wishes from the Dog (and Murray _Ball). There is a certain interest in finding which maxims some personalities regard as important in their lives, and it could well prove an interesting after-dinner game to try to match the sayings to the famous. Some of them

seem to epitomise the • person concerned, as for example Hadlee’s choice of “A quitter never wins and a winner never quits,” or John Marshall’s “Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood.” Occasionally, among the predictable, a lovely originality shines out as in Dennis McEldowney’s quotation from Ursula Bethell, but a great many verge on the tedious and there is unnecessary repetition of such pieces as the Desiderata. Surely too, either lan Cross, the contributor, or John Dunmore, the editor, should have checked the correct form of the lines quoted from Denis Glover. However such quibbles should not dissuade people from sending off for this book, which will make an ideal gift for those difficult-to-buy-for friends and which will also help support child cancer victims and their families. (Available from: The Heritage Press, 35 Oriwa Street, Waikanae.)