The secret to putting together a really satisfying literary journal is to make sure you have an editor with catholic tastes at the helm.

My fairly positive "experience" with this book was abruptly, even rudely, spoiled by the very last item, a contribution by John Key, former merchant banker and Prime Minister of this country.

London-based American writer Patrick Ness tells David Larsen how a childhood accident inspired his new novel.

Jamie Oliver's next project is a book and TV show later this year, designed to make meals which cost less and waste little.

Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook has been slammed by critics who have branded the actress out of touch with her pricey recipes.

New Zealand's man drought may be a sore point for Kiwi women, but it was the perfect drawcard for a Californian girl trying to escape her dubious love life in Los Angeles.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's complex other half remains a mystery, writes Nicky Pellegrino.

The book I love most is... Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Piggy. Ralph. Mayhem.

Aspiring, novelists, poets and playwrights were paid to write by the Sargeson Fellowship, a scheme now at risk, writes Graeme Lay.

William Palmer’s novels have always tried to superimpose great truths on relatively small-scale canvases.

A new novel imagines the shimmering yet ill-fated life of Zelda Fitzgerald, writes Rebecca Barry Hill.

Scottish writer Iain Banks said Wednesday he has been diagnosed with late-stage gall bladder cancer and has just months to live.

A fantasy love story set in the islands and being described as the Twilight series of the Pacific is getting young Pacific people excited about reading.

Despite moments of beauty, no one escapes the horror in Nadeem Aslam’s fourth novel.

It can be a struggle to find a book that's truly uplifting.

Famines, disasters, turmoil and poverty have driven millions of Chinese people from their homes to foreign lands for centuries. Now the grand-daughters and grandsons of the original “sons of the yellow emperor” are returning home; history has turned full

In the shadowed and sepulchral Florence of the 1690s, with the Medici dynasty in steep decline and the city cowed by the puritanical regime of Cosimo III, a sculptor in wax receives a commission from the Grand Duke himself.

When I first heard that Barbara Anderson had died I toured our bookshelves looking for the book that had me fall in love with her.

Renowned for his curving furniture and elegant lighting, lead designer David Trubridge's new book So Far explores his fascinating life and approach to design. Here he shares his approach to the creative process.

Veteran rocker Eric Clapton had to rewrite his tell-all memoirs after realising he had wrongly blamed friends for his descent into drink and drugs hell.

The premise of Richard C. Morais' Buddhaland Brooklyn is that an apparent fish-out-of-water can eventually find, and adjust to, its new pond. Morais takes rather a long time to get there, but he makes it.

Nicky Pellegrino finds the tale of a diary washed ashore intriguing and compelling.

C.K. Stead’s remarkable new collection of poems, The Yellow Buoy: Poems 2007-2012, was completed in his 80th year.

The book I love most is ...

Stephenie Meyer was a Mormon housewife when her novel about vampires spawned a billion-dollar industry. But fame scares her, she tells Chris Ayres

Crime writer Harlan Coben still enjoys confusing his readers, writes Stephen Jewell

The thing I love most about Maggie O’Farrell’s writing is the way she colours in her characters.