From Dolly Parton's smelly cabbage soup to Liz Taylor's stinky dip, behind most stars is a mad, fad diet. Writer Rebecca Harrington tried them all.

Jodi Picoult has written 23 novels, eight of them No 1 bestsellers. Just don’t call her work ‘women’s fiction’, says Bryony Gordon.

When a computer virus hacks into the Australian prison system in 2010, it also infects the American corporations that licensed the software.

The quintessential guide book for the scene of New Zealand's most significant war effort covers everything you need to know about the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Word-lovers are being encouraged to ditch new coinages for long-lost words that may have fallen out of favour.

New images of Hagrid, Hermione, Ron and Draco Malfoy have been released ahead of October's release of the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone illustrated edition.

Down a driveway in a modest house in Hamilton's university suburb is where the magic happens.

Absorbing stories are an ideal way to unwind over summer.

Lena Dunham found it "very, very painful" to be criticised for revealing she was date-raped.

Facebook's boss is the latest to hail an ancient pleasure, but he may have missed the point, writes James Walton.

"The Oprah Effect" could turn minor works into million-sellers. Mr Zuckerberg may just do the same.

It's so popular it has been named No1 on the missing book list for Auckland's 55 libraries.

Parents are being urged to encourage their children to read over the summer in light of research showing kids who forgo books while on holiday lose reading ability at alarming rates.

The Inspector Morse stories taught me that men are intelligent and sensitive and don't just want to hump everything that breathes.

Celebrity memoirs are no longer popular as the genre has already 'peaked', according to one of Britain's leading publishers.

My childhood was happy, although not always easy. My parents separated when I was 2 and my mum's parents played a huge role in my upbringing.

Like other students at Koru School in Mangere, Tyler Adams has his own burgeoning library at home.

With so many gadgets and gizmos available these days, seeing a child getting excited over a book can be pretty extraordinary.

Autobiographies and beautiful coffee-table tomes make great stocking fillers.

If you write a sex scene, no one believes it’s fiction, writes Jon Stock.

Sarah Ell investigates the renaissance of Auckland's libraries and their transformation into community centres for the digital age.

"Short stories don't sell," is the current mantra of publishers everywhere, as a way of refusing to look at proffered manuscripts in case they love them and are sorely tempted.

With a new novel out, and a potential film finally on the horizon, Patricia Cornwell tells Judith Woods how Dr Kay Scarpetta was held hostage by Hollywood.

Neil Gaiman’s latest fantasy is an attempt to restore to fairy tales some of the danger the Grimm brothers removed. Gaby Wood reports.

Some Luck is the first volume of Pulitzer Prize-winner Jane Smiley’s trilogy set in the Iowa badlands. Boyd Tonkin reports.