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.

New Zealand Listener

Time for a change

He can fix it

WINNING CAPTION

Quips & Quotes

10 Quick Questions

Funny You Should Ask • The QI elves are a team of writers and comedians who find the answers to impossible questions, doing the research for the long-running QI TV series, podcasts and the spin-off books. For the next few months we’ll be running some of their finest findings: the weird, wonderful, witty and wise, from their latest book, Funny You Should Ask.

That takes the biscuit

China syndrome

TOIL & TROUBLE • Our unsustainable work habits need to change, says UK anthropologist James Suzman in his new book, Work.

WHAT A YEAR IT’S BEEN • In a year when thrillseeking was confined to our own backyard, no one could have predicted what a wild and wacky ride it would be.

The new daze of Christmas • The traditional countdown carol is getting a much-needed rewrite.

MYTHS & LEGENDS • There were surprises aplenty in the 2020 election, even if there was a certain inevitability about the result.

2020 Striking images of a tumultuous and tragic year.

THE STRESS OF SURVIVAL • Many people overcome life-threatening cancers only to face an unexpected battle afterwards. But help is at hand.

SURVIVOR’S CHECKLIST

PRINCE of PANTO • New Zealand’s most successful playwright was tempted to write about the extraordinary events of 2020, but instead he is focused on a second volume of memoirs.

Eye of the beholder • Beauty pageants have long been an anachronism, yet as they become more inclusive, it seems they are finding a new audience.

PEAK PRACTICE • Cafe owner and mother of three FRAN MAZZA knows all about making an impact with her recipes.

From the island • On Auckland’s Waiheke Island, a seaside winery has a lot to offer.

Thanks, 2020 • Your chances of a cardiac event are higher after Christmas, but the festive “jollies” can have a positive effect.

Games people play • Almost anything goes in the modern sporting arena, including being a trivia ace.

K’noath • What makes words offensive? Traditionally, it’s religion, sex and bodily functions, but the idea of obscenity has changed over time, writes historian and lexicographer Amanda Laugesen.

Cuss and tell

PAGE TURNERS • What’s new in books in 2021.

Keeping the peace • Garry Disher continues to raise the bar for outback noir.

DIVERSIONS

Wordsworth • Readers were asked to provide a bogus but amusing explanation for how a metaphor or common phrase originated.

SMALL TOWN, BIG SECRETS • The Dry, a mystery based on Jane Harper’s bestselling novel and set in Australia’s parched backblocks, brings actor Eric Bana back to the big screen as a detective with a past he wants to keep buried.

Doubty ghost • An energetic remake of a comedy classic fails to convince.

Portrait of a con • Documentary magic unreels as artist and art thief meet.

Best movies • Listener film reviewers Sarah Watt and Russell Baillie pick their 15 favourites of 2020.

On the road • One of the year’s great films is anchored by its itinerant lead.

Force of habit • Already a classic film, Black Narcissus’ story of unnerved nuns in the Himalayas becomes a star-studded mini-series.

TELEVISION • The Best of the Week

TV Films • The big movies on TV this week

TV programmes & Radio programmes

Bach to the future • ELIZABETH KERR’S 2020 faves go from baroque to modern.

‘I’m just going...