Novels, for all their categorisation as fiction, must, to some extent, draw on the writer's own experiences. Or they must, at least

Sarah Broom, who has a PhD from Oxford, is the author of a book on contemporary British and Irish poets and has just released her

Textile designer Ingrid Anderson has come a long way from screen-printing her own teatowels to save money.

Mitch Albom has realised people are hungry for stories that touch them deeply.

Writer Peter Nowak starts his survey of technology by linking war, porn and fast food - the idea surfaced after he saw the lurid sex tape of Paris Hilton.

An autobiographical insight into musician Patti Smith's early life and years in New York

McEwan shows us all the fear and loathing of the modern world in a packet of crisps.

Artist Don Binney has been attracted to the Waitakere coast since childhood. He tells Alan Perrott how the diverse landscape can mean so much to so many

Booker Prize-winning novelist Ian McEwan tells Boyd Tonkin how a trip to the Arctic helped inspire his new satirical novel about science, scientists and climate change

Drawing on your own experiences for a novel can be a perilous affair, finds Nicky Pellegrino.

Author and columnist Nicky Pellegrino has gone public on how she was raped at knifepoint as a young woman - and her attacker was never found.

The revivification of the Auckland Town Hall organ has certainly captured the imagination of the city.

The NZ author's story Last Season's Man, beat more than 1150 entries from published authors around the world.

Portion sizes in depictions of the most famous meal in history - the Last Supper - have ballooned over the past millennium, a study shows.

Anita Shreve is fascinated with relationships. And this story, which explores a new marriage set against the backdrop of Africa, puts yet another relationship under the microscope.