'Tis the season for hearty comfort food and wines to match. If you’re looking for cuddly, well-made and red wines that are a bit off beat … you’ve come to the right place.

Out in the suburbs it is difficult to suppress a yawn when it is announced a new Indian restaurant is to open.

Step aside, Suzi Quattro. The jumpsuit gets a classy makeover.

The menu was a cool, hand-drawn selection of breakfast options with a Southeast Asian flair.

This is a very strange book. It's about Neil Gaiman, so it can probably afford to be.

Gerard Woodward’s family gave him plenty of material to write about, but it took years to work out how, he tells Linda Herrick.

Sebastian Barry’s latest novel is a narrative of disintegration and self-destruction, written in the most lyrical of language.

Graphic images show the extremes of life worldwide. Paul Lewis reviews the World Press Photo exhibition.

It’s a pity there are so few American wines available here as many of them are drop-dead gorgeous. True, many are extraordinarily expensive but those that find their way here are usually of astonishing quality and value for money.

The council's new cobblestones will look cool when they're finished, but at the moment O'Connell St is a bit of a mess.

Cliff Curtis’ turn as a bipolar chess champ may be his greatest role yet. He talks to Russell Baillie about piling on weight, confronting his past, and being a family man.

Cliff Curtis has been on our screens for more than 20 years, ranging from pivotal roles in New Zealand films like Once Were Warriors and Whale Rider to becoming a chameleonic character actor in Hollywood. Here's a visual look back at his career so far.

New season, new colours. Take a foolhardy approach to this season’s bright fun things.

We’d peered behind the papered-up windows, anxiously wondering what the new owners were changing on this popular corner spot, so the first chance we could we were queuing at the door.

The many facets of England meet in the pages of Graham Swift’s new book, writes Stephen Jewell.

An online game that began in a New Lynn bedroom now has fans around the world. Alan Perrott meets the gamers who used their mouse — and won.

No need for opening acts with rock stars like these.

The Botanist does more than brunch, or even lunch or dinner.

In his New book, The Kitchen Magpie, James Steen presents a veritable host of household hints. Here are some of our favourite.

Martine Bailey puts a dark twist on food in her ‘culinary gothic’ novel that features real, historic family recipes, writes Stephen Jewell.

Reconsidering moments that changed everything is an old chestnut in fiction, but Linda Grant manages it with verve in this excellent novel.

Fred Robbins is an enigma, even to the person closest to him in the world, his sister Ava.

It was reported recently that North Korea, the gift that keeps on giving, had declared war on Seth Rogen and James Franco.

Elle Macpherson says she was an ‘insecure dork’ at the height of her model stardom. Now, at 50, she reckons she looks better than ever — but don’t ask her about skinny models, writes Matthew Stadlen.