Accessorise your home

Just like their wearable counterparts, home accessories can pull together the look of a room. Accessories complete a space, adding personality and creating an environment which is unique to the home’s inhabitants. Here’s three easy ways to accessorise your home.     BOOKS In bookcases or shelves, piled on coffee tables or stacked beside beds, […]

Mother’s Day must-haves: Piccadilly Bookshop

From cookbooks to memoirs, this round-up features a bit of everything. All of which can be found at Piccadilly Bookshop in Avonhead. When you can’t find the words to show you care – find a book.     The Missing Sister – Lucinda Riley From the Sunday Times No.1 bestselling author comes the latest instalment […]

Dealing to dyslexia

The Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand estimates 70,000 schoolchildren in Aotearoa are affected by dyslexia; that equates to one in 10 of us. Beth Beamish is the mother of one such child, and recently she published a book on the subject, Dyslexia: Wrestling with an Octopus.     Q. Beth, when you began your research […]

In dogs we trust

The bond between human and dog is unmatched. And when a dog’s role is to help their person, intriguing tales are to be told. Love for animals was Sue Allison’s inspiration to write the book Friends Indeed: Assist Dogs and Their People. However, it was the human connections that captured her heart.     The […]

On the shelf

What simpler pleasure can there be than getting stuck into a riveting holiday read. Whether you’re stretched out on a beach towel or sun lounger, or snuggled up in your favourite chair at the bach or at home, here are Metropol’s page-turning picks to take with you on your summer break, or to gift the […]

Re-ordering post traumatic stress disorder

In overcoming post-traumatic stress disorder, Pleasant Point author Emma Stowell found there were only heavy text books to turn to. She soon formed her goal of making learning about the disorder more accessible.     Emma decided to mix mental health issues with intense love scenes in her debut novel, Beautifully Broken, seeking to make […]

A poignant profession

Dr Cynric Temple-Camp sees dead people. But rather than some spooky phenomenon, he is one of New Zealand’s leading pathologists and over the years has been tasked with working on many famous and private cases. His latest book The Quick and the Dead is set to hit the streets this month, exposing the fascinating world […]

Winter Reads

We’ve all certainly had a lot of time to ourselves over these last few months. If you’ve rediscovered reading during lockdown, we’ve got some hot new titles to add to the collection before you hunker down again, this time for the winter months.     LOVE HER OR LEAVE HER A juicy rom-com about a […]

A gripping affair

Described as a rip-roaring wartime romance with chilling danger unknown to most, The Rigel Affair is the true story of Mattie Blanc and her love for US Navy Diver Charlie Kincaid. Metropol talks to local author L M Hedrick about this epic novel.   When did you first become aware of Charlie Kincaid? When I […]

A guide to helping your mates

Got a mate who’s looking down, isn’t themselves, maybe gone a bit quiet? Want to help but aren’t sure how? Site Safe has created a new pocket guide about how to have conversations about mental health which has great advice on looking after friends and colleagues. Christchurch carpet and vinyl installer Paul Lynch lost his […]