Looking for summer bubbles, a lovely uncomplicated white that goes with anything or something tiny, transportable and functional? Here they are…

The Sky Tower’s revolving restaurant Orbit will elevate your special occasion.

Nigella Lawson on childhood, family and why she’s the queen of onion soup.

Keep things light and fresh with a dash of elegant turn-of-the-century nostalgia.

Veganism is now a global obsession with some heavyweight backers. Carroll Du Chateau looks at how a diet free of cheese, meat, fish and eggs went from hippie to hip.

The menu is a short, sweet list of just three “morning glories” — bacon and egg doonas, toasted muesli and fresh, warm beignets. Plus the perfectly brewed Havana Coffee Co beans.

Mussolini hated pasta and Hitler, famously a vegetarian, liked to eat baby pigeons. A new book tells us what tyrants liked for tea. John Walsh reports.

Linda Herrick delves into four new cookbooks that transport the palate around the globe.

One white, one red and one in-between wine from three producers who have managed to capture the flavours of summer perfectly.

Euro has gone healthy and it’s better than ever.

Naomi Campbell is as well known for her fiery temper as she is for her supermodel status. But Jo Piazza meets an older, wiser — and calmer — Campbell, who these days is focused on fighting Ebola rather than throwing phones at her assistants.

His child’s first day of school hit Alan Perrott harder than he expected. Here, he reflects on the joy — and pain — of watching his sons grow, and letting go (just a little bit).

What’s not to love about summer? But the sunny season can be so much more than an endless round of beaches and barbecues. Here are 25 ideas for making this one truly memorable.

Cool kids take casual dressing to the next level.

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

From crack addiction to blockbusters, Tom Hardy’s path to stardom has been an unconventional one. He still thrives on dysfunction, he tells Matt Mueller.

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.

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

"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.

On the day after the birth of his son who wasn't really his son, Joseph the carpenter watched the sun come up over the little town of Bethlehem.

More than 125 gifts for him and for her, for girls, boys and difficult teens, for foodies and home-improvers, and for those who are hard to buy for.

Looking for celebratory sparkling wine for Christmas? John Hawkesby recommends six of the best mid-range Kiwi offerings.

Cool kids know what’s up for summer.