Julia Donaldson’s most famous book, The Gruffalo, has won the hearts of children around the world. During a fleeting visit to Auckland and Wellington, Britain’s best-selling author talks to David Larsen.

To begin a novel with a character who is dead from the very first page is a risk.

Roddy Doyle’s new novel, aimed at people with poor literacy, is inspired by a death in his own family, the Booker winner tells Arifa Akbar.

Thirty years after he fell in love with Japan, author Edmund de Waal returns to take his family on an intense tour of its urban and rural charms.

Guess you've heard the bad news by now that our friends holding the reins of power (yeah, right) won't be forking out over the table with the actual cash payout they reckoned they'd stump up with when we took them out for drinkies before the election.

New Zealand pinot noir continues to collect rave reviews from every corner. Many of the star performers come from Central Otago.

Marooned and without a captain, the evening is rescued by perfectly cooked grilled turbot and delectable buttery sauced flounder.

Fashion designer Denise L’Estrange-Corbet and her daughter Pebbles answer your agonising questions.

Award-winning Auckland playwright Elisabeth Easther was once an erotic fiction writer. As Fifty Shades of Grey hits our screens, she reveals the highs and lows of her short-lived career in smut.

Debut novel combines writer’s love of music with her love of words, writes Rebecca Barry Hill.

I would rather read Kelly Link than breathe. Writing about her is another thing again. I do not know why her new book is called Get In Trouble.

New Zealand-born Peter Walker has been living in Britain for nearly 30 years now. He's made a considerable reputation as an author there, under as many as six nom-de-plumes, writing well over 100 books.

As a bloke can I just say that this weekend is simply quite wonderful in that not one but two mighty sporting events are upon us, simultaneously.

He’s the most-capped in All Black history but you won’t hear Tony Woodcock shout about it. He prefers his hard work on the field to tell the story.

Left things too late? here are some fashionable last-minute Valentine's Day gift ideas.

Hawkes Bay, blessed with the kind of undulating landscape and climate that grapes love, is responsible for a fine array of whites and reds. Here are three:

What would you do — or not do — for a bet? Alan Perrott talked to three people who prove how serious it can be when you’re issued a dare.

Chef Gordon Ramsay has been hit with a multimillion-dollar bill in the latest round of his family feud, but he’s still very much in the game, finds Julia Llewellyn Smith.

There’s nothing sexier this season than 50 shades of beige.

Heading out for brunch? Check out the latest review in Canvas magazine for inspiration.

What makes Grumpy Cat so special? Nothing, writes Greg Dixon. His cat is far cuter.

Back in the familiar rural midwest of her previous novels, Moo, Horse Heaven and A Thousand Acres, Pulitzer prize-winner Jane Smiley presents us with the first volume of a projected trilogy.

To modern eyes, the little wagon in a Berlin museum looks like a model of an old horse-drawn cart. Solidly made, about as big as a baby's cot, it is in fact a handcart, to be pulled by people, not animals.

A novel is a place where past and present versions of one person can co-exist, and in his fifth novel Andrew O'Hagan movingly explores the way the "flotsam" of a life can rise to the surface as old age and memory go about their strange and poignant work.

Plaudits to the publisher for their tactile, trim presentation of this small-is-beautiful novella. And to the Australian author herself for a rewarding — and riddling — little read.

Now that the dust has settled, it is possibly a good time for me to step back and think about all the things I learnt from the Eleanor Catton interlude.

Colourful, cheap and cheerful, chinoiserie ticks the boxes.