German author Johanna Adorjan tells Cathrin Schaer about researching her grandparents’ life and death.

The latest Lonely Planet guide to New Zealand came out the other day with the usual flutter of controversy over descriptions of the Bay of Islands as over-hyped, Hamilton as dull and Kiwis as eager-to-please.

Forget takeaways - now you can make your own authentic pizza with recipes from an Italian expert.

Bonobos. They share 98.7 per cent of our DNA. They're slimmer and lankier than chimpanzees. They can be taught to use sign language. They're vocal, sociable, and "extremely amorous". They even (ahem) use the missionary position.

In her latest novel, Fay Weldon has channelled her childhood experiences in New Zealand and some mischievous Maori ghosts. She spoke to Stephen Jewell.

Dirty But Clean is back with the third novel in what could be loosely termed his "Poor White Trash" trilogy. His first, the fresh and adventurous Vernon God Little, rocketed him to overnight fame and Booker Prize stardom.

Viva chats exclusively to Isabella Blow's former husband, Detmar, the author of a new book about the once-fabulous fashion icon.

Isabella Blow, the fashion stylist with a penchant for loony hats and a talent for discovering the Next Big Thing, died on May 7, 2007, at the age of 48, having drunk a quantity of the weedkiller Paraquat.

Paula Green tells Linda Herrick about a cancer diagnosis which led to a renaissance of writing.

Poetry usually arrives in the form of the traditional "slim volume" - elegant packages of 40-80 pages, like smoked salmon slices. By contrast, 99 Ways into New Zealand Poetry, all 624 pages of it, landed on my desk with a thump.

This book is the sort of journey it's great to read about from the comfort of your armchair.

Kelly Ana Morey cast her creative net wide for her new novel.

With both The Libertines and Dirty Pretty Things behind him, Carl Barat has taken the cathartic step of writing a book.

Golden romance true to history.

How chick-flick Eat, Pray, Love sold out to the forces of materialism. By Guy Adams.

Put on trial and found wanting.

Eighty years of the daring exploits of super heroes Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon will go under the hammer when an Auckland man's collection of thousands of comics is expected to attract world-wide attention.

She belies the conceit that readers only want primary characters who are likeable.