London may be luminous with festive lights, but none was able to outshine Dolly Diamond as she glided into the FANZA Christmas party in a glittering golden gown.

This week sees the publication of Looted Gold, a book written by New Zealanders Blake Wilkins and Mike Dwight to debunk the myth of the missing Kruger millions, and expose the efforts of President Paul Kruger’s oligarchic regime to plunder the wealth of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) before Kruger fled the country in May 1900.

The Dame Edna Everage creator will be back on stage a decade after announcing his retirement. The Australian actor will tour the UK next year from April to June, mainly performing as himself but also as his alter egos such as Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.

David Gulpilil, the actor who lit up the screen in his 1971 debut film Walkabout and recently starred in a biographical documentary about his remarkable life, has died aged 68 after being diagnosed with lung cancer four years ago.

A little magic was sprinkled when Tait Memorial Trust hosted Festive Firebird - an evening of music and ballet - at Leslie MacLeod Miller’s glorious and glittering salon in London.

Sorrow and Bliss, the critically acclaimed debut novel by New Zealand author Meg Mason, is being serialised this week as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week.

Hollywood stars Cate Blanchett and Ben Stiller are teaming up to turn the 1960s espionage television series The Champions into a film. In addition to acting, Stiller is directing the upcoming adaptation while Blanchett - an ambassador for the UK/Australia Season - is producing through her company, Dirty Films.

Tickets are selling at lightning speed to see Killing Eve star Jodie Comer make her highly-anticipated West End debut next year. Prima Facie is written by Australian-born Suzie Miller, a former criminal defence lawyer working in the human rights sector whose job required her to listen to people talk about their experiences of being sexually assaulted.

The dazzling new autobiography by Leanne Benjamin - former principal dancer at The Royal Ballet - is the talk of the dance world as it goes on sale on Monday 1 November.

It was a full house at Australia House in London this week for the launch of Leanne Benjamin’s autobiography, Built for Ballet. As the High Commissioner for Australia George Brandis noted in his speech, the room was sparkling with ballet stars.

Can Hollywood star and FANZA Arts Patron, Sam Neill, defend Oklahoma against a terrifying alien takeover? That is the question that lies at the heart of his exciting new television series, Invasion, in which the New Zealand actor plays Sheriff John Bell Tyson, who is tasked with exactly that.

The long-awaited arrival of the latest book by international bestselling author Heather Morris is finally here! Three Sisters is based on the lives of Holocaust survivors Cibi, Magda and Livia Meller, whom Morris met when she was promoting her bestselling novel The Tattooist Of Auschwitz.

British songwriter Larry Mindel has just released Ōkārito Ways, a love song to the wetlands of Southland’s beautiful but vulnerable Ōkārito Lagoon.

(An eye-witness account from your FANZA roving reporter) Mary Beard riddled with guilt. Leanne Benjamin teetering. Julia Gillard disbelieving. Barry Humphries quelling his inner Sir Les. And Professor Chris Gosden delivering an immutable truth. 

Congrats to Robbie Arnott for winning the Age Book of the Year Award with his novel The Rain Heron.  This is Arnott’s second novel (following the widely-acclaimed Flames (2018) which was short-listed for several major Australian awards).

'WHAM it hit me. (In fact WHAM-BAM, it hit us.) There is just no denying the arrival of the other half of your soul. Irresistible, scientific and inevitable as planets colliding after a million years of apparent circling.

Welcome to the FANZA Fringe –Our own companion  to the UK Australia Season. Our inaugural Fringe event is a chat about books with the Diving In podcast, Virginia and Louise.

Ancestors, artefacts, empire: Indigenous Australia in British and Irish museums