Parents are being urged to encourage their children to read over the summer in light of research showing kids who forgo books while on holiday lose reading ability at alarming rates.

The Inspector Morse stories taught me that men are intelligent and sensitive and don't just want to hump everything that breathes.

Celebrity memoirs are no longer popular as the genre has already 'peaked', according to one of Britain's leading publishers.

If you’re still wondering what to get the father-in-law for Christmas or intend reclining under a shady tree for the holidays, the Herald on Sunday looks at some of the best sports books on the shelves this year

With the national carrier entering its 75th year, here's a wee stocking-filler for the sky-gawping plane nerd in your life.

My childhood was happy, although not always easy. My parents separated when I was 2 and my mum's parents played a huge role in my upbringing.

Autobiographies and beautiful coffee-table tomes make great stocking fillers.

If you write a sex scene, no one believes it’s fiction, writes Jon Stock.

Sarah Ell investigates the renaissance of Auckland's libraries and their transformation into community centres for the digital age.

With a new novel out, and a potential film finally on the horizon, Patricia Cornwell tells Judith Woods how Dr Kay Scarpetta was held hostage by Hollywood.

Neil Gaiman’s latest fantasy is an attempt to restore to fairy tales some of the danger the Grimm brothers removed. Gaby Wood reports.

Some Luck is the first volume of Pulitzer Prize-winner Jane Smiley’s trilogy set in the Iowa badlands. Boyd Tonkin reports.

"Short stories don't sell," is the current mantra of publishers everywhere, as a way of refusing to look at proffered manuscripts in case they love them and are sorely tempted.

Kiwi comic creator Dylan Horrocks' love of the medium was beaten to a pulp by Batgirl, but was sparked back into life through a trip into his own imaginary landscape.

British author JK Rowling will publish new Harry Potter material every day from December 12 to 23 on her website Pottermore.com as a gift to fans.

The end of the year has brought a flood of rock biographies. Russell Baillie thumbs through a small pile of them.

Changing fortunes in Tudor times have ring of reality.

PD James, the acclaimed crime writer who died this week, aged 94, was planning one final detective novel.