Martina Cole’s crime novels explore the extremes of relationship dysfunction. She talks to Stephen Jewell about her fascination with the darker, and tougher, side of human nature.

Viva's Zoe Walker explores how characters described in fiction have influenced her through the years.

The blurb on the back of Breton Dukes’ debut short-story collection, Bird North And Other Stories, adds him to an esteemed line of New Zealand exponents of the genre: Frank Sargeson, Maurice Duggan and Owen Marshall.

Reading this very long book is deep immersion in the horrors of the Holocaust, and after a prolonged session readers may have to lift themselves from a state of depression about the human condition.

The Sense of an Ending is the kind of novel you might need to ponder for a few days before coming to any conclusions.

Ex-pat Geoffrey Wilson’s ironic imaginings are fuelled by his youth in South Africa and New Zealand, writes Stephen Jewell.

Michael Ondaatje talks about how he wrote The Cat's Table, where he gets his characters from and re-reading his favourite books.

When Patrick McGuinness’s debut novel The Last Hundred Days was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in July it had sold 64 copies. By September it was nudging 4000 sales.

Dan Cleary is one clever guy - actor, writer, producer and someone who doesn't mind poking the borax.

To state the bleeding obvious, we can be a nation of blunt-ended rugby fanatics. As 1987 All Blacks captain David Kirk quips in his foreword of Ian Grant's book Having A Ball, "it's part of the rhythm of life, and long may it remain so".

When the sumptuous Great Gardens of Italy series recently screened here, you couldn't help but notice quite a few shots of its host, British garden guru Monty Don, staring pensively out at the scenery, chiselled chin on hand.

The tale of a nun's betrayal proves shocking - and thought-provoking, writes Nicky Pellegrino.

Some evenings when I pick up my October feature read, The Cat's Table, I feel like a spectator at a variety show.

Viva photographer Babiche Martens shares her journey to create a cookbook with leading chef Michael Van de Elzen.