They were the wholesome educational aids which taught generations of children the basics of everything from cake decorating to nuclear power.

The internet is braced for meltdown as the first official drawing of the world's most unlikely sex symbol is unveiled.

Friends teased her as a child, but Hamilton 22-year-old Yvette Willemse is now a proper author with a four-book contract with an American publisher.

This is a cross-over novel of "stories within stories within stories". We're told at the start it's written by a supine, seriously-injured survivor of some major disaster.

From East Berlin to war-torn Africa, Frederick Forsyth's Bond-like past shows what made him a natural fit for MI6.

This is Hastings' first sortie into the secret world as he puts the codebreakers' achievements in context by measuring them against competing sources of secret intelligence.

Bestselling novelist Jojo Moyes on how her childhood shapes her popular novels.

A new TV series based on beloved detective books Nancy Drew is getting the Grey's Anatomy treatment.

Harry Potter first fully illustrated version of the books is released worldwide today.

Think you like soft drinks all on your own? That desire is the product of decades worth of focused efforts on behalf of industry.

Children's author William Taylor has died. He wrote books including Possum Perkins and Agnes the Sheep.

Margaret Atwood takes a playful look at human failings.

George R. R. Martin has urged fans not to believe everything they read after he was reported to have confirmed plans for a movie spin-off to the cult TV series.

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.

Salman Rushdie has written his funniest novel in years - but beneath the jokes lies an uncomfortable truth, discovers Gaby Wood.

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.

A sexually explicit book for teenagers has been picked up by an American publisher - thanks to being banned in New Zealand.

The library downloads colouring sheets from the many sources on the internet and provides mugs of pencils, but it is clear that there are some addicts

Drawing superheroes such as Superman or Spider-Man for DC and Marvel, is a dream come true for the Australian Nicola Scott.

The lobby group that sparked a firestorm over the banning of Ted Dawes' book Into the River says it will apply to have an R14 rating slapped on the novel.

Tim Winton's new 'meandering memoir' tells how a nature-obsessed kid grew up to become a fierce environmental activist. The famed Australian author talks to Linda Herrick.

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.

32-year-old Auckland doctor Jared Noel had terminal cancer and had just one wish before he died - to meet his first child, his to-be-born daughter.

A doctor with terminal cancer who revealed that his dying wish was to meet his unborn daughter has published a book posthumously about his journey.

An album remembering the 1935 All Blacks team which toured Britain and Ireland is going under the hammer.

Morrissey's debut novel has been slated as an "unpolished turd of a book".

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