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.

Whether you believe in Creation or evolution or intelligent design or not-so-intelligent design or whatever, the male scrotum surely has to be a mistake in all of them.

Colour blocking is trickling its way into spring/summer collections and, while winter focused on mixing block pastels and brilliant hues with subdued tones, now its about embracing brights with gusto. After all, who said minimalism was restricted to neutrals?

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.

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.

Red sails in the Auckland sunset are all very well, and I’ve enjoyed them as an eating backdrop many times, but for me seeing a working port in action beats yachts every time.

Alan Perrott talks to the men who keep guard at Auckland’s hottest nightclubs and bars and finds out it’s not just physical danger they have to contend with.

Pump up the volume with these clean-cut and relaxed separates.

Tina Shaw talks to Rebecca Barry Hill about her connection to provincial New Zealand and why she is drawn to dark crime.

A new report bragging about how cool and grown-up the ‘new’ Auckland is doesn’t even come close to imagining how great this city could be, writes Greg Dixon.

Where the hell did kale come from? Seriously, how did the cauliflower’s ugly cousin go from this thing no one outside a few food/health freaks had ever heard of to suddenly being the single most important vegetable none of us can possibly live without?

Pump up the volume with these clean-cut and relaxed separates.

In his second novel, Craig Sherborne presents a family of transients, “last of their kind”, who drift along, squatting in abandoned properties dotted across Victoria’s wheat belt.

Loop, with its white walls, tables and chairs plus a rather magnificent curved bar, is a refreshing change in Kingsland.

You’ve been warned. These highbrow prints have an artistic temperament.

Any old rented tux won’t do anymore. Guys do give a damn about what they get hitched in. A lot, says well-dressed husband Alan Perrott.

Breton Dukes has an interesting bio. He has shifted from north to south — from Whangarei to Dunedin.

Publishers are wary of short stories. They don’t sell as easily or pleasingly as novels.