The Year After by Martin Davies, Hodder &Stoughton, $32.99. It’s 1919 and, still grimy with Flanders dust, Captain Tom Abbott returns to a strangely muted London. Before the war, he’d vowed never to return to Devon and rose-scented Hannesford Court, the home of the charming Stansbury family. Yet a yearning for music, noise and bustle […]

The Affair by Lee Child, Bantam Press, $32.95. Jack Reacher fans are wildly possessive of him and there’s a guerrilla reader movement against casting Tom Cruise in the upcoming Reacher film. Their passion prompted me to read my first Reacher novel, the 16th in the best-selling series. I got lucky with the chronology. The Affair […]

Tiger Men by Judy Nunn, Random House, $32.95. Spanning 65 years of Tasmanian history from 1853 to 1918, actor and best-selling author Judy Nunn follows the fortunes of three disparate yet inexorably linked families in the sweeping saga Tiger Men. Where the term used to describe the bounty hunters who hunted the Tasmanian tiger into […]

Adventures in Correspondentland by Nick Bryant, Random House, $32.95. For five years, until he hung up his headphones last month, Nick Bryant was the BBC’s man in Australia. For 11 years prior to his posting Down Under, Bryant roamed the globe as a foreign correspondent. His reflections on this time as a microphone-wielding witness to […]

Matilda Is Missing by Caroline Overington, Bantam Australia, $32.95. It sounds like it could be dry and grueling content — a novel about a custody fight for a little girl from a family torn apart by divorce. Yet Matilda Is Missing is so much more than that. It is a gripping and emotional tale of […]

Lola’s Secret by Monica McInerny, Penguin, $29.95. Lola Quinlan’s 12-year-old great grand-daughter approvingly likens her to Lady Gaga; kitted out with panache in pink tights and leopard-print dress. Family saga author Monica McInerney’s 84-year-old creation also loves the internet and slips in smiley emoticons on emails like they are going out of fashion. Lola’s secret […]

Demi Moore has announced that she is filing for divorce, ending her six-year marriage to Ashton Kutcher. The 49-year-old actress released a statement today, confirming she was ending the relationship with “great sadness and a heavy heart”. The split comes two months after Ashton was accused of cheating on Demi on their six-year wedding anniversary. […]

Sofia Vergara is famous for her curvaceous body, but when she first moved to Los Angeles her publicist told her she needed a breast reduction if she wanted to be taken seriously. The 39-year-old Modern Family star moved to the US from Colombia and tried to pursue a career in television. In pictures: The worst […]

Denmark’s littlest prince and princess celebrated their first birthday on Sunday with matching Eskimo cakes. Crown Princess Mary’s youngest children Vincent and Josephine spent their big day at home at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen with their older siblings Christian, six, and Isabella, four. An official photographer captured the family celebrating the occasion in a series […]

We’re constantly reminded about the perils of the sun. Although crops wouldn’t grow, solar panels would be wasted and vitamin D in our skin would be deficient without it, the sun is often given a bad wrap. Yet when we look at the irreversible damage it causes to our skin, we do need to make […]