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

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

Fatally interesting: Dr Masson
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 facts about PD James
10 things about P.D. James, British crime writer who died on Thursday, aged 94.

Remembering crime writer P.D. James
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.

The Clash: Splitting books for movies: Good or god-awful?
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?

Book extract: Feels like home
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 spice girls
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.

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

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

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

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

Books: Punk rides again
Comic book artist Ant Sang talks to David Larsen about his ‘transformational journey’

Sarah Vine: 'Being a potty-mouthed show-off doesn't make you a feminist heroine'
The problem with this kind of popularity, though, is that it is based on an ever-decreasing cycle of attention-seeking, writes Sarah Vine.

2014's best bad sex scenes
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.

David Hill: Book reviews a transfusion for life-blood of printed word
I've had an email from Ian Braddon-Parsons, disapproving of my November 1 Herald book review of Alexander McCall Smith's Emma.