Fleur Sullivan is a South Island legend, the culinary maven responsible for not one but two iconic local restaurants - Olivers in Clyde and the eponymous Fleurs Place in Moeraki. Now, at the age of 72, she's running a third, The Loan and Merc in her home town of Oamaru. Her eventful career has spanned more than 40 years, during which time she's transformed two sleepy towns into international destinations. Fleur is brimming with great stories, anecdotes, reminiscences, the conversations had round her table and friendships formed in ... read more

Agatha Christie's life and career told through the decades, from the never-before-published original ending to her first book to the unused ideas for her last, complete with two unpublished Agatha Christie stories - including a lost Miss Marple. In this follow-up volume to the acclaimed Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks, Christie archivist and expert John Curran leads the reader through the six decades of Agatha Christie's writing career, unearthing some remarkable clues to her success and a number of never-before-published excer... read more

As seen on ABC TV's Australian Story Sally Nielsen is a wedding planner, whose own wedding plans were turned upside down when her fiance suffered a catastrophic stroke, leaving him completely dependent on her and his family for all his needs. When others said she should put him in a home and get on with her life, Sally refused. Sam was the love of her life and she was going to stand by him regardless.
As Sally fought to bring back the man who was her world, she wrote in a series of diaries about her hopes, her anger and her ... read more

Bear Grylls is a man who has always sought the ultimate in adventure. Growing up on the Isle of Wight, he was taught by his father to sail and climb at an early age. Inevitably, it wasn't long before Bear was leading out-of-bounds night-climbing missions at school. As a teenager, he found identity and purpose through both mountaineering and martial arts, which led the young adventurer to the foothills of the mighty Himalaya and a grandmaster's karate training camp in Japan. On returning home, he embarked upon the notoriously gruell... read more

In 1985 Jeanette Winterson's first novel, "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit", was published. It tells the story of a young girl adopted by Pentecostal parents. The girl is supposed to grow up and be a missionary. Instead she falls in love with a woman. Disaster. Written when Jeanette was only twenty-five, her novel went on to win the Whitbread First Novel award, become an international bestseller and inspire an award-winning BBC television adaptation. "Oranges" was semi-autobiographical. Mrs Winterson, a thwarted giantess, loomed ove... read more

'You're Joseph Heller's daughter? How terrific'! But was there a catch? Like his most famous work, Joseph Heller was a study in contradictions: eccentric, brilliant and voracious, but also mercurial, competitive, and stubborn, with a love of mischief that sometimes cut too close to the bone. "Yossarian Slept Here" is a daughter's darkly funny, poignant memoir about growing up a Heller - from her colourful family members and her parents' tumultuous marriage, to her father's celebrity friends and the family's eccentric neighbours. Th... read more

Georgette Heyer remains an enduring international bestseller, read and loved by four generations of readers and extolled by today's bestselling authors. Despite her enormous popularity she never gave an interview or appeared in public. Georgette Heyer wrote her first novel, "The Black Moth", when she was seventeen in order to amuse her convalescent brother. It was published in 1921 to instant success and ninety years later it has never been out of print. A phenomenon even in her own lifetime, to this day she is the undisputed queen... read more

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is the most powerful media organisation in the world. Murdoch's commercial success is obvious, but less well understood is his successful pursuit of political goals, using News Corp as his vehicle. David McKnight uncovers Murdoch's crusade for his unique brand of conservatism over three decades. Drawing on extensive original research, McKnight tracks NewsCorp's pursuit of conservative ideas, from Reagan and Thatcher to the Tea Party and its war on Barack Obama. He shows how Murdoch's political conn... read more

Gives an account of the author's battle with depression, and how baking has helped her. With chapters on cupcakes, cheesecakes, meringues and macaroons, chocolate cakes, fruit cakes and favourite classics, this title presents recipes for beginner bakers, offering hints and tips to help along the way.

Sheryl McCorry's memoir Diamonds and Dust was a runaway bestseller in 2007. Now, in Stars over Shiralee, Sheryl brings her story up to date, picking up from the death of her husband Bob McCorry. Having moved from the Kimberley to a property called the Shiralee, Sheryl is rocked by the death of her ex-husband. While continuing to run the Shiralee, Sheryl at first leans on her parents and her children for comfort. But soon, she meets a new man - one who pursues her with ardour and is seemingly a wonderful match for her. Sheryl agrees... read more

Dickens' first novel, Pickwick Papers, written when he was only 24, was a publishing sensation. Then the serialized parts of The Old Curiosity Shop attracted sales of over 100,000 copies a week. Huge crowds gathered to glimpse him when he toured the USA. When he died there was public mourning, and his admirers felt they had lost a personal friend. Dickens created young characters who led exemplary lives in the face of suffering - Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield. His career serves as a model of the Victorian self-... read more

Shakespeare is the archetypal literary magus, wise and prolific, his imagined realm extending vastly to encompass history, love, emotions, all the vices and virtues, town life in pubs and courts, the countryside, sea voyages, battles, supernatural beings such as fairies and witches - and much else besides. The human heart was his workshop. Shakespeare's legacy represents more than the story of a life and its age: it has dominated artistic and cultural endeavour in every generation that has followed him. This book offers a dazzling ... read more

'Elite athletes aren't born. They're made.' - Michael Johnson
From a living icon of the Olympic Games - as both an athlete and now as a BBC broadcaster - Gold Rush is a compelling analysis of the fascinating combination of psychological and personal qualities, as well as internal and external factors, that go to create an Olympic champion. This exciting new book is based on Michael Johnson's own experiences as an iconic four-time Olympic champion, and on the knowledge he has gleaned as a top-class coach and motivational spea... read more

Autobiography of the world-famous, and much-loved, actress. Best known for her role as Annie Hall in Woody Allen's film of the same name, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress, Keaton has had a fascinating and highly successful career, with roles in 'The Godfather', 'Reds', 'Father of the Bride', 'Something's Gotta Give' and many more. Personally Keaton has had relationships with Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, and Al Pacino -- all of whom she remains in touch with today and who she will speak about in the book. Diane K... read more

Ayaan Hirsi Ali caused a worldwide sensation with her gutsy memoir Infidel. Now, in Nomad, she tells of coming to America to build a new life, an ocean away from the death threats made against her by European Islamists, the strife she witnessed and the inner conflict she suffered. It is the story of her physical and emotional journey to freedom - her transition from a tribal mindset that restricts women's every thought and action to life as a free and equal citizen in an open society. Through stories of the challenges she has faced... read more

Paul Kemp has moved from New York to the steamy heat of Puerto Rico to work at the Daily News. He starts hanging out at Al's Backyard, a local den selling booze and hamburgers to vagrant journalists who are mostly crazy drunks on the verge of quitting. Then he meets Yeamon, whose delectable girlfriend has Kemp stewing in his own lust. But the idle tension that builds up in places where men sweat twenty-four hours a day is reaching a violent breaking point.

Elizabeth II has lived through the Abdication, the Blitz and World War Two, the Cold War and the nuclear threat and the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Our world has changed more in her lifetime than in any of her predecessors': the Queen has remained a calm presence at the centre, earning the respect of monarchists and republicans. How has she done it?

A juvenile delinquent, a world class NCAA miler, a 1936 Olympian, a WWII bombardier: Louis Zamperini had a life fuller than most, until it changed in an instant. On May 27, 1943, his B-24 crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Louis and two other survivors found a raft amid the flaming wreckage and waited for rescue. Instead, they drifted 2000 miles for 47 days. Their only food: two shark livers and three raw albatross. Their only water: sporadic rainfall. On the 47th day, mere skeletons close to death, Zamperini and pilot Russell Philli... read more

During his long career, Kurt Vonnegut won international praise for his novels, plays and essays. In this new anthology of conversations with Vonnegut - which collects interviews from throughout his career - we learn much about what drove Vonnegut to write and how he viewed his work at the end. Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) was a grandmaster of contemporary American letters whose contribution to literature is immense. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American authors of the 20th century, with works including Slaughterhouse F... read more

Many straight men and gay men are best friends, but if the phenomenon is an urban commonplace it has never been treated before as the focus of a major novel. Jack Holmes is in love, but the man he loves never shares his bed. The other men Jack sleeps with never last long and he dallies with several women. He sees a shrink and practices extreme discretion about his gay adventures since the book begins in the 1960s, before gay liberation, and ends after the advent of AIDS in the 1980s. Jack's friend, Will Wright, comes from old stoc... read more