The tone of Salman Rushdie's latest novel is like a chocolate with a nut centre, beguilingly sweet on the outside but with a hard core.

The typically demotic title introduces three world-soiled siblings, children of a dangerously attractive and totally untrustworthy refugee from Nazism who's credited with making New Zealand aware of real coffee and really modern buildings.

Canvas editor Michele Crawshaw shares highlights from tomorrow's Canvas magazine.

A writer and sometime stand-up comedian, Verity writes on life, love and a bit of everything.

Spanish hams hang from hooks to add to the authentic feel of this central Auckland restaurant.

Syrah might be very sexy, but it is high maintenance. There are few places where this rising star will reach its full potential - but the North Island's east coast is definitely one of them...

Director Geoff Murphy talks to Greg Dixon about fighting bureaucrats, making a film industry, the madness of Hollywood and why he doesn't rate Peter Jackson.

Fort St is Auckland's latest food hotspot and Lucky Buddha is leading the charge.

Vintage florals and day dresses evoke genteel spring days sipping iced tea on the terrace. Cin cin!

It's the divorce strategy that launched a thousand headlines, and plenty of scorn besides. But is the woman behind the concept - famously adopted by Gwyneth Paltrow - proof that it can work asks Anna Maxted.

The creator of popular detective series Prime Suspect has created the back story of tough investigator Jane Tennison, writes Stephen Jewell.

Un-cool mums know there are more important things in life than their own egos, writes Verity Johnson.

Got a hard to please overseas visitor coming? Take them to Ostro for a fine dining night out.

The menu is comprehensive, with breakfast available from 8am-3pm from the self-pronounced "purveyors of all things yummy".

Miami, America's subtropical paradise, is awash with surreal but intriguing contradictions - and is all the more enjoyable for it, says Gareth Wyn Davies.

Cate Blanchett, the new face of Armani, talks neurolinguistics, marital compatibility and clothes with Lisa Armstrong.

While other prejudices have been quashed, somehow it's still okay to mock gingers.