Celebrity News

The word is out… The Sydney Writers’ Festival (May 19-25), will feature an all-star line-up of 150 writers from Australia and the world. Most of the festival unfolds at Wharf 4/5 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay with these writers already lined up: Janette Turner Hospital, Iain Banks, Augusten Burroughs, Robert Dessaix, Jackie French, Louis Nowra and […]

Meet MARILYN MONROE in an exclusive extract from March Great Read: Too Close To The Falls – A Memoir by Catherine Gildiner (Flamingo, $21.95) The Marilyn Monroe saga: It is 1952 and four year old Cathy and Roy are delivering a prescription to Marilyn Monroe on the set of the movie Niagra, which is being […]

Our Great Read for February is The Sunday Wife by Cassandra King (Allen and Unwin). Look out for it in your local bookshop, bearing the Great Read Sticker! I ENDED UP AT Grayton Beach because I came to Crystal Springs first. It was three years ago, the first Wednesday in June, that Ben and I […]

Stranger than fiction… get the scoop on the happenings of the book world! It isn’t easy being the son of someone famous. And it’s even harder if you choose a career in the same field. Thomas Steinbeck, son of John, who has made a living writing screenplays and teleplays, has waited until his mid-50s to […]

A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy L. Sayers, Hodder Headline, $29.95. While Harriet Vane’s husband, Lord Peter Wimsey, is aboard on hugely hush-hush business at the beginning of World War II, she takes their children to the safety of Tallboys, their country home. But as villagers emerge from the inn cellars […]

A cute teddy-bed sleeping bag is perfect for sleepovers! DIAGRAMS: Teddy Grid Mattress Pocket, Cover Lining and Pillow Pocket Back and Cover MATERIALS: 3.1m x 150cm cotton or woollen fabric 30cm x 40cm fur fabric 30cm x 40cm press-on interfacing 108cm x 75cm polyester padding sewing thread 4 press studs 104cm x 65cm rubber or […]

We hope you enjoy this extract from our Great Read for January: The Last Girls, by Lee Smith (Hodder). Look out for this, and other books bearing the ‘Great Read’ sticker in your local bookshop. *Mile 736 Memphis, Tennessee Friday 5/7/99 1645 hours* Harriet thinks it was William Faulkner who said that Mississippi begins in […]

Gilding is the magic that can turn plain objects – such as these dried gourds – into gorgeous decorations. Materials: Dried gourds Metal scourer Sandpaper Cloth 2.5cm paint brush Jo Sonja’s artists’ gouache in Indian Red Oxide Jo Sonja Tannin Blocking Sealer (used as an adhesive) Imitation gold leaf Silky scarf Water-based sealer Varnish (water […]

MATERIALS: Milford Knitting and Crochet Cotton 4ply (50g balls): 2 (3, 3, 3, 4) balls. One pair each 3.25mm and 3.00mm knitting needles or sizes required to give correct tension. One stitch holder. Note: Yarn quantities are approximate only as they can vary between knitters. Use only the yarn specified for this garment. Other yarns […]

This month sees the release of a book that tells the shocking, true story of Katherine Knight, the first Australian woman to be sentenced to prison for life. Her crime- the ritual slaying and skinning of her defacto husband, made worse by the fact that she then cooked some of his body parts and served […]