An Outram gardener is getting ready for the town's annual flower show. Gillian Vine reports.
For those of us who learned to knit because that was the only way to get a new jersey, the notion of craft knitting was long an alien one. Those who aspired to great things tackled complex Aran designs or Kaffe Fassett's Tumbling Blocks but these were to demonstrate one's skill rather than be produced as artworks.
The quality of long-running series tends to bob up and down and so it is with the detective tales by American novelists Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton.
Lilies are not difficult to grow from seed. Gillian Vine gives tips on creating your own hybrids.
Ben thinks his granny is utterly boring and who can wonder, as she has grey hair, false teeth and wears terrible clothes. What's more, she loves cabbage and poor Ben has to endure such horrible things as cabbage soup when he spends Friday nights there.
Dubbed "that woman" by the Queen Mother, Wallis Simpson is generally portrayed as the gold-digging harpy who forced King Edward VIII into abdication and exile, but That Woman, Anna Sebba's biography of the Duchess of Windsor, presents a somewhat different picture.
Two Irish gardens remind Gillian Vine of home.
Following in the footsteps of the first writer/editor of the Star Garden Book, Gillian Vine visits the English property where Harry Clarke trained.
Gillian Vine suggests Christmas gifts for gardeners.
Before the Otago Rose Society's annual show, Gillian Vine visits an Outram garden where roses are just one of the attractions.
Readers of Nora Roberts will probably know she has written close to 200 novels, many of them trilogies and quartets. The Next Always is the first in a trilogy: each in turn focuses on the love life of one the three Montgomery brothers.
Australian Di Durston is visiting Dunedin at the beginning of next month to give a public lecture on old tea roses and the importance of their preservation.
The Quest for Anna Klein (Corvus pbk) is the 24th novel written by Thomas H. Cook, an American crime writer with plenty of fans.
Short story collections are tricky, as each tale must capture the imagination, an even standard has to be maintained and the numerous characters need some individuality.
Fantasy and science-fiction themes dominate fiction for youngsters, with the quality varying from top notch to bottom rung.
A grand Victorian villa in North Otago is notable for its numerous original features. Gillian Vine reports.
Good travel books should instil in the reader a yearning to visit a place.
Despite a successful career in Australian publishing, all Derelie Cherry really wanted was two dogs and a garden. A husband did not figure in the dream until 1999, when she met Bob Cherry at the Melbourne International Flower Show.
The garden-tour season is now in full swing. Gillian Vine reports.
All in One Basket (John Murray) brings together two earlier collections, (Counting My Chickens and Home to Roost) by Deborah, dowager Duchess of Devonshire.