Bras made of dead hedgehog skins, human hair, old telephones and a typewriter are just some of the kooky creations compiled in a new book.

In the mid-1990s, a string of publishers turned down a manuscript by an author called Joanne Rowling about a boy wizard.

A fiery episode in our recent history is plumbed for drama, writes Rebecca Barry Hill.

An author of a popular Maori children's book series cannot enter a national library award because she is Pakeha.

When did the amusement park coming-of-age story become a thing? Did I miss the memo?

This well-told story won the American National Book Award last year.

Ray Richards was a modest man who made a significant impact on New Zealand publishing.

Linda Herrick talks to an Australian who has made French food his passion.

Carl Hiaasen needn’t look far for a story on which to base a novel. It’s all right outside his door in Miami, he tells Stephen Jewell.

Rudy’s 43rd year is not a good one. He’s on bad terms with his wife and daughters; his parents (living or dead); his assertive younger fellow-architects. He’s falling off the booze wagon and he’s just fallen off his Vespa.

Having never before met a polluter of the moral innocence of youth, I have no idea whether the author Ted Dawe is an unusually engaging example of one.

Detailed descriptions of sex acts, coarse language and scenes of drug-taking are at the heart of why a novel was voted the best children's book of the year.

A novel voted this week as the best children's book of the year is laced with detailed descriptions of sex acts, coarse language and drug-taking.

Julie Thomas was forced to spend the first four years of her life in bed — any physical exertion, even crying, threatened her life. Books were her saviour.

The New Zealand commander of the "Battle of Baghak", in which two Kiwi soldiers were killed, has been allowed to interview witnesses for a book he is writing.

Good, well-written stories that go to the heart of a reader and touch the truth of any human experience, including sex, can help a young mind rise above smut.

Filmed 30 years ago, out-of-print for quarter of a century, The Odd Angry Shot is a savage and mordantly funny novel that follows a group of Aussie SAS troopers in South Vietnam during the ugly, unjustified war of the 1960s.

Paula Deen's merchandise and media empire is fast unravelling as fallout builds from revelations that she used racial slurs in the past.

Margaret Mahy has been posthumously awarded a prize at the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards.

A violin's journey invokes smiles and tears, writes Nicky Pellegrino.

British writer Neil Gaiman’s new fantasy, rooted in the darkest corners of reality, is no kids’ tale, writes Stephen Jewell.

Long-time Hollywood director Chris Columbus wants his latest success story to stay on the page — for now, anyway, writes Stephen Jewell.

Inequality means watching people close to you.

New Zealand has become a richer country in the past 30 years.

Katie Price has revealed she is planning to release her fifth autobiography later this year - at the age of just 35.