The end of the year has brought a flood of rock biographies. Russell Baillie thumbs through a small pile of them.

INTERACTIVE: Our annual guide to the best books to give and receive this Christmas. Guess which ones made the list.

One of the great characters in modern literature could be found in actual life at his amazing house in Auckland's Karaka Bay on Wednesday morning.

10 things about P.D. James, British crime writer who died on Thursday, aged 94.

Stephen Jewell had the pleasure of speaking to author P.D James. The crime queen died today, aged 94. Here's the story he wrote after their chat.

I loved The Hunger Games books, but that doesn't mean I want to see two hours of Katniss whining, writes Rachel Bache. Can we not just cut out the pages that you likely skipped anyway and make a movie that is more than just okay?

In an extract from a new book of photographs by Andris Apse, which pays tribute to the South Island, former All Black captain Anton Oliver tells how the Central Otago landscape reduced him to tears.

New Zealand’s own spice girls of cuisine tell Greg Dixon about eating their way around india, visa hassles and sharing bunks in a train.

Coming out, being rich, feeling broody, getting drunk, dating when you’re famous and why a dog is better than a boyfriend.

Each year American novelist Richard Ford heads to Ireland to shoot woodcock. Robert McCrum joins him on the Irish coast.

Winnie the Pooh has been banned from a Polish playground because of his "dubious sexuality" and "inappropriate" dress.

A New Zealand scriptwriter has told of an epic 10-year struggle to get a movie based on the life of Stephen Hawking made.

Comic book artist Ant Sang talks to David Larsen about his ‘transformational journey’

The problem with this kind of popularity, though, is that it is based on an ever-decreasing cycle of attention-seeking, writes Sarah Vine.

The Bad Sex in Literature Award draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction and to discourage them.

I've had an email from Ian Braddon-Parsons, disapproving of my November 1 Herald book review of Alexander McCall Smith's Emma.