Brimming from the excitement of the royal nuptials, a story about a self-exiled princess proves timely for writer Monica Ali.

Popular historian Niall Ferguson tells Stephen Jewell how television democratises knowledge and why colonialism wasn't all bad.

Emma Neale is a poet, novelist, teacher and anthologist living in Dunedin. Her latest novel, Fosterling, is the sort of book that can only come from multiple roles and experiences.

Breakfast in bed is all very well, but how about making mum something cool, sweet and quirky for Mother's Day instead - or as well?

Family treasures helped create a stunning, unique cookbook with nostalgic appeal.

Personal time is too precious to waste on rotten reads. That's why our new book club, Fiction Addiction, will only be road-testing the most promising new novels.

There are memoirs that are about a personal life lived, and then there are memoirs about a specific subject on which an author wishes to ruminate at length. Annie Proulx's non-fiction Bird Cloud very much falls into the latter.

Don't mention the Cup - or more accurately the fact we haven't won the World Cup since 1987.

It is a tale of two cities and two sisters. Atka and Hana were parted as girls in war-torn Sarajevo but then reunited as young women.

If you've been put off making a curry because it seems too involved, veteran cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey proves that it needn't be the case.

Amy Chua is unashamedly a 'Tiger Mother'. Her daughters were never allowed to go to sleepovers, have playmates, be in a school play, watch television or play computer games.

A British actress' first novel reveals her comedic talent.

Elizabeth Smither is an acclaimed New Plymouth-based poet, novelist and short story writer. She has recently released The Commonplace Book (AUP, $34.99), a collection of thoughts about writing and the writer's life.

On May 27, 1942, two Czech parachutists ambushed and wounded SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich near Prague. Heydrich was not seriously wounded but a ricochet bullet had carried cloth, wire and wool into the wound.

Not a picture book, not a graphic novel, not anything easily pigeon-holed, Chris Slane and Matt Elliott's study-cum-evocation of life in World War I is a great resource and a great read.

Anyone looking at New Zealand's military participation in the 20th century would see us as a bellicose little nation. For decades, we eagerly went where Britain (and later the US) went.

The history of New Zealand at war is largely one of ordinary people called upon in extraordinary times - men and women who left their day jobs when their country called them. In Kiwi Battlefields, Ron Palenski tells how one such man

The recent flurry of gosh-how-shocking stories about female consumption of pornography is emblematic.

Madhur Jaffrey's latest cookbook simplifies Indian cooking while staying true to the spirit of her homeland.

David Larsen talks to Australian writer Margo Lanagan about Twitter and fantasy novels.

The small, superb story has become a talisman in the author's Italy. Since its publication there 15 years ago, it's won plaudits and prizes and been made into a Mastroianni film.