Florence and her younger brother Giles live in a largely abandoned homestead in 1891 New England.

There's something buttoned up and restrained about Charlotte Grimshaw's writing, something as middle class as the characters whose stories she tells and, I imagine, as the people who tend to read them.

Marmon was one of many Europeans who jumped ship to live with Maori in the early days of contact.

Angels and the supernatural aside, Singh's books are each a unique emotional journey.

Expat chef Robert Oliver is on a mission to promote real Pacific food, writes Peter Calder.

Dalrymple, a towering figure who spoke with the brio of a great orator, used imagery of paintings and photos to reinforce his compelling tale of the last Mughal.

The complicated and sensitive world of artists is explored in Sarah Thornton's new book. She talks to Stephen Jewell.

Charlotte Grimshaw's fourth novel The Night Book is set among Auckland's wealthy political elite and tells of women with more money than dress sense, decked out in "yards of ruffle and flounce and skirt and boot".

A near-full house of fans greeted Australian writer Thomas Keneally when he walked on stage at the ASB Centre yesterday morning for an hour of soul-baring revelations and a great deal of humour.

Lionel Shriver and Charlie Higson tackle the sensitive topic of death in very different ways.

When Keith Richards announced he was going to write his autobiography, most people didn't believe the Rolling Stones guitarist could remember enough to justify the $5m fee.

Author Angela Lassig fills a much-needed gap by publishing a book on 25 New Zealand fashion designers.

Music month continues to take over drinking holes and town halls all the way from Ponsonby to Pukekohe this week.

Elizabeth Smither is a prolific and award-winning writer with 17 volumes of poetry, six novels and a number of short story collections published.

Charlotte Grimshaw once described her last novel, Foreign City, as a kind of "layer cake" of fiction, reality and fictionalised reality.

Australian author Tom Keneally talks to Graham Reid about how criminals and the rich were thrown together when the country was founded.

A new book shines the spotlight behind the scenes of some of London's style gurus, focusing on their interior design at home.

Kiwi star Anna Paquin is being immortalised in a comic book - but some are questioning her cartoon likeness to the real thing.

Charlotte Grimshaw's new novel stars a National Party leader tipped to be the next Prime Minister. Does this man resemble anyone we know? Linda Herrick reports

What do Maori haka, Fijian firewalking and yoga have in common? According to a book by Canadian writer Andrew Potter they are all part of an authenticity hoax.

Pared prose brings mystic peace.