THE GROOVE BOOK REPORT

Verb’s beloved, one-night-only, high-energy literary festival, VerbCrawl, will take over the streets of inner-city Wellington on Saturday 14 November. With untamed events unfolding in the unexpected -  across bars, fabric stores, galleries, bookshops and more. Expect a joyous celebration of writing, conversations, books & performance, in unexpected ways and unexpected places.  Across bars, fabric stores, galleries, bookshops and more.  Twenty-five events will take place between 6pm - 9.15pm, on Saturday November 14th, with all tickets  just $10 per event. It’s a fast-paced, vivacious festival with a focus on grassroots literary collectives, indie journals, and emerging voices. Many events blend performance and literature, with inventive new formats, making it a night of experimentation and wild provocations.  Following on from the hugely successful return of Verb Readers & Writers Festival in September 2026, the Verb team are incr...

Global sounds, powerful voices and Aotearoa talent join the 2027 festival lineup (Aotearoa New Zealand, Wednesday 14 October, 8am) WOMAD Aotearoa has today announced 23 new artists and performers from around the world joining the previously announced Troy Kingi, Tinariwen and Fijian Flying Circus for three days of music, culture and creative discovery at the Bowl of Brooklands, Pukekura Park, Taranaki, from 12–14 March 2027. Spanning 18 countries and six continents, the latest lineup brings together an eclectic mix of internationally acclaimed artists, emerging voices and some of Aotearoa’s most distinctive musical talent – from Ukrainian ‘ethno chaos’ to Puerto Rican percussion, Bhutanese traditional music, and Indian hip-hop. The new Aotearoa contingent sees Delany Davidson, Geneva AM, HUIA, LEAO, Pakōpakō, Richter City Rebels, Tami Neilson, T-Bone, YAMAS! and Yurt Party join the previously announced Troy Kingi, who will perform two unique sets at the festival...

Archer at the Oslo Book Fair - Björn Erik Pederson/ Wiki Media Commons Jeffrey Archer, the British novelist, politician, philanthropist, athlete and peer whose life was marked by extraordinary success and equally dramatic scandal, died at his London home on Monday aged 86. HarperCollins announced his death, and his final novel, Adam and Eve , was due to be published the following day. Renowned for bestselling thrillers and sagas about ambition, power and wealth, Archer sold hundreds of millions of books worldwide and became one of Britain's most commercially successful authors. Jeffrey Archer's literary reputation rests on a series of hugely popular page-turners built around ambition, rivalry, wealth and revenge. His breakthrough bestseller, Kane and Abel  (1979), follows the lifelong feud between Abel Rosnovski, a Polish immigrant who rises from poverty to become a business tycoon, and William Kane, heir to a powerful American banking dynasty. Other notable novels...