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THE TURNBULL: A LIBRARY AND ITS WORLD
by Rachel Barrowman
(AUP, pb $39.95)
Reviewed by Gavin McLean
OPEN almost any New Zealand history or literary biography and the chances are that you will see photos from the Alexander Turnbull Library or read fulsome praise for its staff and resources. All roads, it seems, lead to the Turnbull.
Rachel Barrowman does not put it in so many words, but the Turnbull is a magnificent monument to young Alexander's incompetence. In three decades this cultured drug addict neglected one of the colony's premier mercantile businesses in order to pursue his "fascinating folly", book...