Marion McLeod

Marion McLeod lives in Wellington and says she "does the occasional bit of writing or editing as a change from knitting". She worked as a journalist at the Listener, and as an editor of short story anthologies. Marion was born in Dunedin in 1948.

Books
May 6, 2019

Review: The Library Book is a thrilling tale of fire, loss and renewal

As Wellington and Waikanae face a winter without two beloved libraries, Marion McLeod reviews The Library Book, a hymn to a library that burned. 

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Books
Apr 29, 2019

One man's death, and what came after

Marion McLeod reviews Late in the Day, a "smooth and sinuous and subtle" new novel by Tessa Hadley

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Books
May 10, 2018

Book of the Week: Why doesn't Mother love me?

Marion McLeod reviews the new memoir by English novelist Rose Tremain, who summons up memories of a girls' boarding school smelling of "unwashed armpits, dirty hair and menstrual blood.”

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Books
Nov 16, 2017

Book of the Week: The life of Claire Tomalin, toast of London literati

Marion McLeod reviews a memoir by author Claire Tomalin, who is candid about her affair with Martin Amis but maintains a classic English reserve.

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Books
Jul 12, 2017

Arundhati Roy and the misery of that difficult second novel

Marion McLeod is baffled and somewhat bored to sobs by the eagerly awaited second novel by Indian superstar novelist Arundhati Roy.

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Books
Jun 22, 2017

Book of the Week: Marion McLeod reviews a thriller about a Glasgow serial killer

Marion McLeod reviews an 'icy-cold' account of a Scottish serial killer by the brilliant Denise Mina.

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Books
Dec 1, 2016

Book of the Week: Marion McLeod on the amazing Angela Carter

Marion McLeod reviews the first full biography of English writer Angela Carter, whose eventful life included working on a screenplay of the Parker-Hulme murder in Christchurch.

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Books
Nov 3, 2016

Book of the Week: the strange life (sodden, ‘so many men!’, the Parker-Hulme murder) of Beryl Bainbridge

Marion McLeod reviews a new biography of the great novelist Beryl Bainbridge - which reveals she wrote an unpublished manuscript based on the Parker-Hulme murder in Christchurch.

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Books
Jun 9, 2016

Book of the Week: Marion McLeod on Jenny Diski

It's raced up the bestseller charts at Unity Books in Wellington: Marion McLeod reviews Jenny Diski's In Gratitude, not just "another fucking cancer diary".

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Books
Apr 7, 2016

Book of the Week: Marion McLeod reviews ex-feminist icon turned Anglican fogey Fay Weldon

Fay Weldon! God almighty, is she still publishing? Yes, as well as believing in an almighty God, or however the Anglicans describe their deity. Marion McLeod warily approaches the latest Weldon novel - and declares herself kind of smitten.

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