Latest from Arts & Literature

Liz Caughey's favourite things
Liz Caughey has curated an affordable exhibition to raise money for her Braveheart Youth Trust.

<i>Review:</i> The Wallfisch Band at the Auckland Town Hall
There was a spirit of an end-of-semester concert permeating the town hall during the Wallfisch Band's Venetian Carnival.

Review: <i>Pear Shaped</i> at The Pumphouse Theatre
This debut work by local drama teacher Andy Saker shows an easy familiarity with the North Shore's casual backyard culture.

<i>Review:</i> Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's <i>Discover New Zealand Music</i>
There was a buzz and a bustle in the Town Hall foyer as punters collected tickets for Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Happy Hour concert.

Book review: <i>The Night Book</i>, by Charlotte Grimshaw
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.

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

<i>Review:</i> William Dalrymple at the Writers & Readers Festival
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.

<i>Review:</i> Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at Auckland Town Hall
Poets of their Age presented three first-generation Romantic composers coming to terms with the expressive potential of the symphony orchestra.

Review: <i>Avenue Q</i> at The Civic
Opening with the eternal question - 'what do you do with a BA in English?' - Avenue Q dispenses a bright and breezy antidote to the pressures of life in the big city.

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

Soul-baring revelations with a smattering of humour
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.

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

A return to the joy of dance

<i>Comedy Fest Review:</i> Jarred Fell, Pani & Pani
Fell, a 2010 Billy T. Award Nominee, is rude, suggestive and sex-crazed, asking the many audience members he uses during the show about their sex lives.

<i>Comedy Fest Review:</i> Tarun Mohanbhai, The Comediettes
There are fewer Indian jokes this year, even though they are clearly what the audience is after - the thick accents Mohanbhai did pull out had the room roaring.

Art of glass
Four glass artists tell us why they chose the medium and what inspires their unique creations.

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