His own experience has taught him the importance of simply being available for his kids and willing to listen.

An exclusive extract from Stand by Me by Sir John Kirwan, his guide for helping parents and teens around mental health.

They came out of California, featured window seats and shingled tiles, were clad in weatherboard and Auckland has thousands of them.

Booker-prize-winning author admits she thought about killing the British PM when she found herself within shooting range of her in 1983.

Lena Dunham reinvented the oversharing style on her hit show, Girls. What will her first book do? Meghan Daum meets TV’s hottest property and talks psychotherapy, sisterhood and why she can’t keep a secret.

Man Booker prize-winner Eleanor Catton is made of the write stuff.

That tree Keith Richards fell out of and almost killed him when he was last down this way? It's not long for this world.

The author told her ex-fan to follow alleged homophobe Brian Souter instead.

Elegant writing takes us through the highs and lows of a woman’s life.

Sometimes it’s the only way to get in print, and sometimes it’s the best way to keep control of your work. James Russell charts the rise of self-publishing.

Ian McEwan’s new novel centres around a family court judge who gets too involved in one of her cases. She blows it, McEwan tells Linda Herrick.

Sarah Waters’ new novel explores what happens when an ‘unruly passion’ in the form of two lodgers enters a house. She talks to Linda Herrick.

There are two sides to the eReader debate - Shelley Bridgeman is pro paperbacks, while Joanna Hunkin has turned for the hi-tech device. Share your thoughts.

Roald Dahl was born in this month in 1916. As a tribute, here are 10 of my favourite quotes from his books.

An unseen chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory deemed too subversive for young British children has finally been released.

A bestselling author who sells books by the million, Jennifer Weiner is on an almighty mission to get ‘chick lit’ the serious attention she believes it is due.

When author Johnny Wray was a lad at school in the 1920s, his form master was most disparaging of his writing, describing it as: “Conglomerations of facts occasioned by heterogeneous concatenations of stupid irrelevancies.”

Nicky Hager, the investigative journalist, was in Auckland on Wednesday to give three talks and promote his latest book, Dirty Politics.

Children's classic removed from Australian supermarket chain after complaints it contained the word "slut".

A "stunning" biography of a Wellington art dealer has beaten Eleanor Catton's acclaimed novel The Luminaries to win the top New Zealand Post Book Award.

Women who read 'Fifty Shades of Grey' are more likely to have abusive partners and eating disorders, according to academics worried about the novel's impact.

In her beloved Little House series of books, Laura Ingalls Wilder painted a wholesome picture of prairie life in which the most scandalous event was rival Nellie Olsen pulling her pigtails.