Helen Clark: Inside Stories.

• Author: Bartlett, Dan
• Position: Book review

HELEN CLARK: Inside Stories

Compilors: Claudia Pond Eyley and Dan Salmon

Published by: Auckland University Press, Auckland, 2015, 328pp, $39.99.

Helen Clark: Inside Stories started life as the 2013 Media Works documentary, Helen, made by documentarians Claudia Pond Eyley and Dan Salmon. The book is a compilation of the transcripts of interviews conducted with politicians, family members, political commentators and Helen Clark herself. These are arranged (mostly) chronologically, and with each chapter covering a certain period in time, event or theme.

The transcriptions are presented wholly without political comment or historical analysis, aside from a small introduction at the beginning of each chapter. For the reader, this structure and style lends itself to dropping in and out of the book as the strictures of life permit, or to making a beeline for a chapter that is of particular interest before lights-out in the evening. For the time-poor per-user, this may make for the ideal non-fiction read; for the reader with a desire to really sink their teeth into a political biography or historical account, it might leave them slightly unsatisfied.

The book is full-to-overflowing with the revealing reflections of key players in some of the biggest upheavals in our modern political history. Indeed, one of the most fascinating sections--for this reader, at least--is the chapter that focuses on the Labour government of 1987 to 1990. The observations of various insiders present during the breakdown of the social contract are both revealing and informative. Economic regulations had been removed, New Zealanders were making money out of money and it seemed as if the sun would never set on the boom. But set it did --predictably, and in spectacular fashion. Former Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton recalls the 'huge inflationary spike ... when people committed suicide on their farms in huge numbers ... there was a cost all right, but it wasn't to the people who were making the money. Very much to Clark's credit, as minister of housing she protected the country's state housing stock from the machinations of Finance Minister Roger Douglas, because 'affordable...