New Zealand Listener

New Zealand Listener is the country’s most respected general interest magazine, bringing you a wide variety of news, stories, columns, reviews, plus TV listings, every week.

The kids deserve better • Most grandparents would do anything to protect their grandchildren, writes Anna Kenna, but how many will step up to demand a better world?

No excuse for bad language

“Quote Marks”

10 Quick Questions

Bright Lines

Something whiffy • In a nation once prized for its lack of corruption, parliamentarians are finding legislative remedies to please the corporate sector.

Relics of democracy

What the cat brought in

Gondolas everywhere

Safety, all the costs

Triggering

Both ends burning • Working parents are increasingly juggling childcare with caring for elderly relatives who are living longer in poorer health. And it’s women shouldering the burden.

Bacon, eggs & porkies • If imported animal products had to meet the same welfare standards as local farmers face, would we risk retaliation? The issue has sparked cries of “anti-farming” activists and seen one advocacy group barred from Fieldays.

POINTS OF CONTENTION • If NZ imposed higher animal welfare standards on imports, could other countries fire back?

Life sentence • When a boatie with a past docks at a small bay, the locals prove surprisingly standoffish.

A little bit famous • Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell on her night at the Oscars, writing in a Wendy house, and giving Paul Mescal Elizabethan hardware.

Days of plunder • An American lawyer describes his torrid time inside Russia’s crooked judicial system.

BESTSELLERS

All the time in the world • A thought-provoking novel set on a sentient, planet-like spacecraft as humanity roams the interstellar void.

Going places

Poetry • Plums in winter

Riding the wave • Ann Packer checks out the best new books for older children.

Casting off the past • A coming of age tale set among a family of storytellers in Italy unfolds into an alluring love story.

Wild at heart • A haunting story of children exploited by their mother for literary fame.

Untouchable girls, impossible songs • Don McGlashan, who produced the Topp Twins in the studio and wrestled with their songs on stage, pays tribute to the late Jools Topp, the one, he says, who did the musical heavy lifting in the duo.

Intervening in the world • A new video exhibition goes political, while sculptures get pranked: just some of the visual arts highlights around the motu.

Artful codger • Ian McKellen shines in a portrait of the artist as an old man.

A real banger • Smart comedy from the director of Once about a stolen song.

Gimme shelter • Kurt Vile goes home to escape America.

Reaching Fifa pitch • Everything you need to know about where to watch the football World Cup and follow the All Whites.

Extra time • If there’s not enough drama and comedy on the field, there are more World Cup-inspired shows on the sidelines.

SATURDAY JUNE 13

TV Films • The big movies on TV this week

Beethoven on speed • One of the world’s great violinists comes to New Zealand for one concert only.

A healthy measure • A one-size-fits-all bias in healthcare can worsen symptoms in patients who are overweight.

Health briefs

Hasta la pasta • Recipes from chefs of the Northern Pasta Company, which makes spelt varieties in the English countryside.

CHILLI, CRAB & CRÈME FRAÎCHE CASARECCE

Larose by another name ... • Waiheke’s Stonyridge maintains its reputation with top-shelf wines of all flavours.

Silent minds • Some people...