Books & Authors

It reads like a western and it's based on the Maungatapu Murders of 1866, when the notorious Burgess Gang killed five men in a crime that shocked the young colony. In his novel The Physician's Gun… Audio, Gallery

Ruth Bayley is a history graduate who's woven what she's read in second world war soldiers' diaries and telegrams into her first novel, Barefoot. It's set between Wellington and the battlefields of… Audio

In a remarkable literary feat Catherine Chidgey's seventh novel The Axeman's Carnival is told entirely from the perspective of a magpie on a high country farm. T Audio

In the age of shrinking attention spans, one Palmerston North teenager has just opened a second-hand bookstore. After months of preparation, 15-year-old Pari Rao opened Olive Books in time for the… Audio

Ralph McAllister reviews Undoctored by Adam Kay, published by Hachette. Audio

In 1966 Robert 'Skip' Gardner hopped the Tasman and brought a small group of grifters with him to run a company that was looking distributors to sell its cosmetics through dairies and milk-bars. The… Audio

Sonja de Friez reviews The Crown in Vogue by Robin Muir and Josephine Ross, published by Hachette Audio

He's been the face of, and driving force behind, kids' television in New Zealand for decades. But Jason Gunn is turning over a new leaf - literally - with the release of a book he's co-written with… Audio

Stella Chrysostomou of Volume Books in Nelson reviews Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie, published by Penguin Random House. Audio

Journalist-turned-author Jane Harper's first novel The Dry was published in 2016 and quickly snapped up and turned into a movie starring Eric Bana. Her second novel Force of Nature, a sequel to The… Audio

Poet Nick Ascroft considers one of his claims to fame to be "nearly winning the Kathleen Grattan Prize four times, the most anyone has nearly won it". Which might partly explain why his fifth… Audio

Tilly Lloyd from Unity Books Wellington reviews The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes, published by Bloomsbury. Audio

Gina Rogers reviews Do Let's Have Another Drink: The Singular Wit and Double Measures of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother by Gareth Russell, published by Harper Collins. Audio

Francoise Malby-Anthony has spent the last 35 years in South Africa - 25 of them running an elephant reserve called Thula Thula. Francoise's first book was called An Elephant in My Kitchen -- that… Audio, Gallery

Martin Fisher reviews The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi by Ned Fletcher, published by BWB. Audio

Since the death of Apple's controversial co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011, the tech company's massive success has been due to internal collaboration as much as innovation, says New York Times tech… Audio

Sally Wenley reviews Fairy Tale by Stephen King, published by Hachette. Audio

What will the world look like in 2050? What will be our biggest challenges and the major issues shaping our world? And what countries will have the biggest economies? Hamish McRae is one of Europe's… Audio