Books

The drama on the hit cooking contest is nothing compared to the contestants’ real-life experiences. Dominic: My drinking problem He admits he cracked under the intense, pressure-cooker atmosphere of MasterChef and lapsed into drinking again, but Dominic Corrigan insists he has his demon well under control. The big-hearted Sydney father of four, who had a […]

Read our review of Maggie O’Farrell’s The Hand That First Held Mine then tell us what you think on the form below for a chance to win a copy of the AWW Cooking School cook book and have your critique printed in The Australian Women’s Weekly books pages. Two women born 50 years apart are […]

MasterChef’s Jonathan Daddia is prepared for anything in the kitchen. And when it comes to romance, the aspiring chef is equally well organised. In between shooting scenes for the TV cooking competition, Jonathan crammed in a walk down the aisle that had been thrown into doubt by his success in the kitchen … and a […]

Following his elimination from MasterChef Devon Headland spoke to Woman’s Day about who likes who in the MasterChef house, why he thinks his elimination was unfair and his plans to wed his long-time partner Cat. You’ve said that your friends and family motivated you to come on the show, as did the chance for a […]

Sarah Carmichael stunned fellow contestants and viewers alike with her decision to sacrifice her spot on MasterChef for the sake of her children last week, but even she admits she is blown away by her next surprise revelation – she’s pregnant! Despite making the final 24 by impressing judges with her coconut snapper, Sarah says […]

Beautiful Malice, by Rebecca James, Allen & Unwin, $24.99. Rebecca James has been hailed as the “next J.K. Rowling”, not because her book has anything to do with wizards, but because it was the subject of a frenzied, worldwide bidding war that pushed advances past $1million. Often, things don’t live up to the hype, but […]

Secret Daughter, by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, Morrow , $23.99. A fabulously turbulent family drama set in two great cities, Los Angeles and Mumbai. The two settings are almost characters themselves, the smog, the traffic jams and the teeming, chaotic nature of the East alongside the clipped lawns and somewhat antiseptic, sliced-white-bread nature of the West […]

The Winter of Our Disconnect, by Susan Maushart, Bantam $34.95. The author’s three children didn’t remember a time before email or instant messaging or Google. They didn’t just use the media, they “inhabited” it. And so Maushart embarks upon The Experiment, to live without any of it; pull the plug on the family’s entire armoury […]

Trust, by Kate Veitch, Penguin $32.95. Life can change at any given minute, so watch out. And you may think you know those you love, but you don’t. Not really. Susanna, the central character in this gripping emotional drama, learns this as her life goes into a tailspin. Not even her 20 plus years rock-solid […]

Gran’s Kitchen, by Natalie Oldfield & Dulcie May Booker, Hardie Grant Books, $45. Ninety-five-year-old Dulcie May Booker’s recipes and cooking tips have the wonderful whiff of a bygone era. Dulcie grew up in a rural farming community in Weymouth, Auckland, and started cooking as a child on her family’s coal range, winning prizes for her […]