Melissa Doyle always knew it would be the children who’d touch her heart. Earlier this month, the devoted mother of two made a six-day dash away from her job as co-host of the Seven Network’s Sunrise program, to the icy steppes of Mongolia where — as World Vision’s Guardian Angel — she distributed handmade Aussie […]

Exclusive extract from Sparkles (Headline/Review) by Louise Bagshawe. ‘So,’ the lady said. ‘You have come at last.’ ‘Just so, madame,’ said Sophie, nervously. Her mother in law shook her head and made a little moue of annoyance with her thin lips. ‘Speak English, girl, for heaven’s sake,’ she snapped. ‘You were never any good at […]

1. Go on a reading course. Nobody wants to hear this, everybody ignores it. It’s not sexy advice. But it matters. To write in a given style you must steep yourself in that style. Say you want to write a chick lit book. Before you start, pop down to your bookstore. Get the Shopaholic books, […]

Exclusive extract from The Stone Angel (Macmillan) by Katherine Scloles. Stella’s hand looked large and pale in the undersea light. Strands of hair drifted in front of her mask. She held onto a rock as a swell came through, swirling the weeds. When the sea became still again she pulled her knife from the sheath […]

Loss and tragedy have tainted many of her relationships but Olivia Newton-John still believes in the power of love. Olivia Newton-John dropped a bombshell on the world on August 22 last year. In a carefully worded statement, the multimillionaire singer revealed that her lover of nine years, Patrick McDermott, 48, had vanished nearly two months […]

Seven successful Australian women aged from their 30s to their 60s share their style and beauty secrets, and reveal what makes a woman fabulous. What makes a woman fabulous? If you knew the answer and could bottle it, you’d make a mint. Some women seem to have an intrinsic supply of it and yet, if […]

Exclusive extract from Anybody out there? By Marian Keyes. I used to dream of a white wedding. The kind of dream where you jerk awake in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, your head pounding. A dream in the worst nightmare kind of way. I could see it all. The months of bickering […]

America’s richest woman can’t stop giving away her fortune. We look at the demons driving TV queen Oprah Winfrey. On Boxing Day, 2005, Oprah and her longtime boyfriend, Stedman Graham, had just taken off in her private Gulfstream jet from the airport in Santa Barbara, California, near her 17-hectare estate in Montecito, when something went […]

Exclusive extract from Left Bank by Kate Muir. Olivier was in Barthélémy’s cheese shop on the Rue de Grenelle, his nostrils flaring on delight at the loamy, buttery smell. You could leave the cooking up to the maid, but not the selection of cheeses for a dinner party. Was it not Olivier’s favourite foodie, Anthelme […]

The besotted parents-to-be are tired of hiding their love for each other and are finally revealing the details of their new life together. The world’s most talked about couple are coming clean. After months of refusing to admit they were a twosome, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are finally stepping into the spotlight, and opening […]