Linda Burgess

Contributing writer

Linda Burgess lives in Wellington. She has written novels, short stories, a travel memoir, film scripts, and a book about historic houses. She also translates French children's books. Linda was born in Pahiatua in 1948.

Television
Mar 8, 2021

Review: Six Angry Women doesn't tell you what to think – it demands that you think

A new documentary on TVNZ1 following the Mervyn Thompson Affair takes on the thorny incident with wise ambivalence.

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Society
Feb 27, 2021
dog with money

The price of love

Collars, leads, crates, a cleverly designed bottle to drink out of, things that squeak, things that are chewable, gnawable, toys that extend him intellectually. Treats to reward him for not being a little prat.

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Society
Jan 16, 2021
family photo unsmiling

Joylessness to the world 

You can’t fabricate joy, it’s in your DNA – or not.

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Music
Nov 29, 2020

When did songs stop having lyrics I knew by heart?

Was it music’s fault, when words suddenly seemed to be less important than instruments? Or was it just life taking over?

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Television
Nov 16, 2020

All Creatures Great and Small will make you nostalgic for uncomplicated nostalgia

The original series about a Yorkshire vet was a late-70s television phenomenon. Could the rebooted version scratch a similar itch for recovering Anglophile Linda Burgess?

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Books
Nov 1, 2020

Now it is boring

Having started the pandemic storyline, God, or perhaps the scriptwriters working on the world’s stories, have lost the plot.

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Food
Sep 20, 2020

On cooking shows and cursing

Over the last few months, Linda Burgess has cheered herself up by watching cooking programmes. And saying fuck.

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Society
Aug 26, 2020

Taking one for the team (of five million)

Linda Burgess puts on her mask, goes to the mall, and finds herself slipping into a dystopian level two nightmare...

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Books
Aug 11, 2020

The novel that asks: what if Hillary hadn’t married Bill?

Last time Curtis Sittenfeld fictionalised a first lady she absolutely nailed it, writes Linda Burgess. This time something's ... off.

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Politics
Jul 21, 2020

What about me?! Seeking the middle children in New Zealand politics

Judith is the youngest of six. Gerry is the oldest of five. Jacinda and Grant? Youngest of two and three, respectively. But where are the misunderstood middle children in our parliament?

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Television
May 17, 2020

Review: TV adaptation of The Luminaries has both the glitter and the gold

The Man Booker prize-winning novel arrives on our screens, but does it make it the transition unscathed?

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Books
Mar 8, 2020

Little things lost

A new essay by Linda Burgess.

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Media
Feb 19, 2020

Review: High in the gods for David Suchet – Poirot and More

At the interval, Linda Burgess's legs are aching. But in the second half, magic happens.

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Society
Dec 27, 2019

We’re all going on a summer holiday: life as a teenage New Zealander in the 1960s

Summer journeys: In the first of a special summer travel series, Linda Burgess looks back on the not-so-glamorous New Zealand holidays of her youth.

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Books
Jan 10, 2019

Book of the Week: Linda Burgess reviews Becoming by Michelle Obama

Linda Burgess on the biggest-selling, most-loved book of summer: Becoming, the memoir by Michelle Obama.

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Books
Dec 28, 2018

Summer reissue: The first WAGs – A 1970s All Black wife on rugby and women’s lib

We asked former All Black great Bob Burgess to review a new book on his team-mate Keith Murdoch. But then we changed our mind, and asked his wife Linda Burgess to write whatever she wanted about rugby.

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Books
Dec 18, 2018

The fourth best book of 2018: Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi

All week this week we count down the five best books of 2018. Number four: Linda Burgess reviews the Ottolenghi cookbook Simple.

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Books
Sep 26, 2018

Toby: an essay by Linda Burgess

"Toby is not quite 11 weeks old."

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Books
Aug 8, 2018

The first WAGs: A 1970s All Black wife on rugby and women’s lib

We asked former All Black great Bob Burgess to write about a new book on his team-mate Keith Murdoch. But then we changed our mind, and asked his wife Linda Burgess.

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Books
May 31, 2018

Book of the Week: Lorrie Moore, in all likelihood the best TV reviewer in the world

Linda Burgess celebrates a collection of reviews and essays by the great New Yorker writer Lorrie Moore.

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Books
Mar 15, 2018

Book of the Week: The cookbook everyone is falling in love with

Linda Burgess reviews the biggest-selling book at the New Zealand Festival in Wellington in the weekend - Salt Fat Acid Heat, a cookbook like no other.

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Books
Oct 11, 2017

The Man Booker Prize shortlist, reviewed: ‘History of Wolves’ and ‘Elmet’

The year's biggest literary prize, the Man Booker award, is announced on Wednesday morning, October 18 (NZ time). All week this week we review the six shortlisted titles. Today: Linda Burgess reviews Fiona Mozley's Elmet, and History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund.

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Books
May 4, 2017

Book of the Week: Damien Wilkins writes like a girl

Linda Burgess reviews the latest novel by the prolific Damien Wilkins. Note: the headline was her idea.

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Books
Dec 12, 2016

The Spinoff Review of Books best book of 2016: Les Parisiennes, by Anne Sebba

All week this week the Spinoff presents its best books of 2016. Today: Linda Burgess reviews our selection as the very best book of the year, Anne Sebba's extraordinary portrait of women in occupied France, Les Parisiennes.

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Books
Aug 23, 2016

Why Cathleen Schine is the best literary novelist you’ve never heard of

Linda Burgess examines the case of American novelist Cathleen Schine, who seems more famous for leaving New Yorker critic David Denby for another woman than she does as a writer who is adored by Meg Worlitzer and Alison Lurie.

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Books
Mar 18, 2016

Book of the Week: Linda Burgess reviews the new novel by Elizabeth Strout

Yes, it's the return of Book of the Week! We really ought to keep this as a regular fixture and not just occasionally get around to it. So here is Linda Burgess on a fantastic new novel by Elizabeth Strout.

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