Elizabeth Smither is an acclaimed New Plymouth-based poet, novelist and short story writer. She has recently released The Commonplace Book (AUP, $34.99), a collection of thoughts about writing and the writer's life.

On May 27, 1942, two Czech parachutists ambushed and wounded SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich near Prague. Heydrich was not seriously wounded but a ricochet bullet had carried cloth, wire and wool into the wound.

Not a picture book, not a graphic novel, not anything easily pigeon-holed, Chris Slane and Matt Elliott's study-cum-evocation of life in World War I is a great resource and a great read.

Anyone looking at New Zealand's military participation in the 20th century would see us as a bellicose little nation. For decades, we eagerly went where Britain (and later the US) went.

The history of New Zealand at war is largely one of ordinary people called upon in extraordinary times - men and women who left their day jobs when their country called them. In Kiwi Battlefields, Ron Palenski tells how one such man

The recent flurry of gosh-how-shocking stories about female consumption of pornography is emblematic.

The small, superb story has become a talisman in the author's Italy. Since its publication there 15 years ago, it's won plaudits and prizes and been made into a Mastroianni film.

Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Hours, was in debt to both life and literature. His new novel, By Nightfall, also displays a strong allegiance to both.

It would be very easy in these economically grim times to write novels casting bankers in the harshest of lights - simple moustache-twisting pantomime villains.

Mixing reality and fantasy with little help given to the reader makes an odd book - but it's no lemon.

Charlotte Randall is a Christchurch-based author whose latest novel, Hokitika Town (Penguin, $30), is on the best-seller list.

The best baking recipes by Maud Basham - aka Aunt Daisy- have been collated in a new cookbook.

David Mitchell, whose latest novel features a Dutch clerk from old Zeeland, is looking forward to coming to New Zealand.

This year's comic book superhero assault on the big screen starts with Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh who brings some brains to the brute brawn of the mighty Norse god. Desmond Sampson reports.

Copenhagen in the early 1990s. Bernardo Greene is a patient at a Clinic for Torture Victims. In his native Chile, he'd been tortured for two years by the Pinochet regime.

James Fergusson tells David Larsen that he is less a risk taker than someone who follows stories where they lead.

Julie Orringer’s first book, a stunning short-story collection entitled How To Breathe Underwater, was a New York Times notable book.

It's not always easy to travel with children (or grandchildren) because their needs and interests are rather different.

Harlan Coben is a United States author of best-selling thrillers whose latest, Live Wire, ($39.99 RRP, Orion) was released last month.

When a serious academic turns her hand to fiction, the result is magic.

Last year's MasterChef winner Brett McGregor's cookbook takes your tastebuds on a culinary journey.

Back in the 1970s Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City columns captured the off-beat spirit of San Francisco. One of Maupin's leading characters was Mary Ann Singleton, a TV presenter.

American writer Patrick Rothfuss tells David Larsen why he avoids clichés in both life and literature.

This issue of the British literary journal is dedicated to Pakistan.