Award-winning Sunday Times columnist Danny Danziger made the inspired decision not to write a book about British soldiers, but to let the soldiers tell their own stories.

Sarajevo, in Bosnia, was the perfect city for a siege. Nestled in a valley surrounded by hills, the people below became easy targets.

Jeffery Deaver tells Stephen Jewell why the new Bond carries an iPhone.

Boston University journalism professor Mitchell Zuckoff was researching a story about World War II when he came across an article in the Chicago Tribune from June 1945. He was stunned.

Ashdown Forest is one of Britain's many literary haunts, writes Robert McCrum.

Not a travel book as such but just the sort of book I like taking with me when I'm travelling somewhere ... in this case to Greece.

Kiwi music sensation Ray Columbus recently released his autobiography, The Modfather: life and times of a rock 'n' roll pioneer (Penguin, $42).

Dame Fiona Kidman takes a literary trip through time, writes Nicky Pellegrino.

Though I'm reading non-fiction for this month's book club - and I read a novel based on a true story last month - I prefer pure fiction.

A Middle East-based journalist has penned a book advising travellers how to keep themselves safe in dangerous places.

Lowboy leads us on a dark yet wondrous journey into the strange subterranean world beneath the streets of New York City - and deep inside the chaos of his own unravelling mind.

This haunting, Booker-short-listed novel follows a young South African man identified only as Damon. Yes, just like the author.

The 22 Spanish writers in this entertaining collection were all born in or since 1975, the year General Francisco Franco died after 36 years of repressive rule in Spain.

Once again Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Geraldine Brooks takes a simple, barely known historical fact, fattens out and brings it to life so lyrically you feel transported back in time.

New Zealand writer Nalini Singh tells Stephen Jewell how she began writing as a teen and never looked back.

Jeffery Deaver's 007 is young and modern, writes Nicky Pellegrino.

Booker Prize winner Alan Hollinghurst is not noted for his prolific output, so a new novel is always a great event. And his latest could be his best yet.

A new book and exhibition by photographer Fiona Pardington examines the historic - and now derided - practice of taking casts of people's heads to study their brains. Some were her ancestors.

The historical novel is history-lite, the easiest of entrées into another time and place.

Do you tire of the people who always bang on about how much better the book was than the movie? Well, you can rest easy if this James Bond yarn is ever committed to screen.

James K. Baxter wrote once (I paraphrase from lapsed memory and lost book) that most authors like to picture their words being read by grave scholars in studies and beautiful graduates in tutorials.

There are two kinds of readers - those who peek at the last page and those who wouldn't dream of it.

Nick Duerden talks to writer David Whitehouse and his agent about the difficulties of getting a book published.

Secrets and tragedy make this novel hard to put down, says Nicky Pellegrino.

This is a fascinating eye-opener to the history of a country, which this book made me realise I knew very little about.

Owen Marshall is one of New Zealand's leading fiction writers. His latest novel is The Larnachs (Vintage, $39.99).