British/UK Fiction

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

Websites offering readers the chance to vote for their favourite books seem to be flavour of the month at the moment: every couple of months yet another novel is proclaimed by some website or other as the nation's favourite book.

Poll the People is a little more interesting: wider in scope, this site encourages you to vote not just for your favourite read, but in many categories including best film and best album. The site also allows you to have your say on other people's choices, and add comments or reviews of your own.

Current favourite, perhaps unsurprisingly, is J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, followed by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.

Voice your own opinions at the Poll the People website.

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

The winner of The Best of Booker, a prize marking the 40th birthday of the Man Booker Prize, will be announced on July 10th, and will be chosen by the reading public from a list of six specially selected from all previous winners. The final six, as chosen by Victoria Glendinning, Mariella Frostrup and John Mullan are:

Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981)

JM Coetzee's Disgrace (1999)

JG Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur (1973)

Nadine Gordimer's The Conservationist (1974)

Pat Barker's The Ghost Road (1995)

Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda (1988)

Salman Rushdie is the favourite to win, having already won The Booker of Bookers which marked the prize's 25th anniversary. You have until July 8th to vote for your favourite, at the Man Booker website.

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

The 21st Hay Festival, sponsored by The Guardian, will run from Thursday 22nd May to Sunday 1st June, and will squeeze 477 events into its 11-day run.

Highlights look set to include appearances from literary giants Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Will Self, Hanif Kureshi, Louis de Bernieres and Fay Weldon. Poetry fans will be well-served with readings from Lemn Sissay, Roger McGough and Brian Patten.

If your tastes tend towards non-fiction, Jimmy Carter will be talking about conflict resolution and human rights, and there will be contributions from gardener Monty Don, musician Jools Holland and car botherer Jeremy Clarkson.

Parents will be pleased to know there will be plenty going on to keep the kids entertained, with talks by Judith Kerr, author of The Tiger who Came to Tea, and Julia Donaldson, creator of The Gruffalo.

Full details available from the Hay website.

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction is now in its thirteenth year, and this year's strong shortlist suggests that there are more talented women writing than ever before. This year's list is also notable for including three debut novelists: Patricia Wood, Sadie Jones and Heather O'Neill.

The award was set up in 1996, and awards an annual prize of £30,000 to the best work of fiction written by a woman. The prize is international, rewarding novels written in English and published in the UK, but not necessarily by British writers - two of this year's list, Nancy Huston and Heather O'Neill, are Canadian.

Full Shortlist

Fault Lines by Nancy Huston

The Outcast by Sadie Jones

When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelson

Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill

The Road Home by Rose Tremain

Lottery by Patricia Wood

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

Lists of favourite writers or books are a tricky thing, inevitably subjective and bound to omit works which other people would find essential. This week's list, published in the Books section of The Times, was created by Marcel Berlins, crime fiction reviewer for the paper, and is therefore the opinion of just one man. The question is, do you agree with his choices? His top five was as follows:

1. Patricia Highsmith

2. Georges Simenon

3. Agatha Christie

4. Raymond Chandler

5. Elmore Leonard

All undeniably great writers. But where are the more recent champions of the crime novel? Ian Rankin, creator of Rebus, just scrapes into the Top Ten at number 9, while the phenomenally successful Patricia Cornwell languishes at number 38. There is no place for either Kathy Reichs or Karin Slaughter, and the prolific Val McDermid manages number 28. No Jack Reacher? James Ellroy - creator of L.A. Confidential - at number 20?

Crime novels really do seem to be flavour of the month at the moment, and whilst we should rightfully acknowledge the pioneers of the genre, it seems unreasonable to overlook some of the modern masters. Check out the full list and have your say at The Times website.

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

Not too many surprises at this year's Nibbies - so called because the winners receive a trophy in the shape of a pen nib - with Ian McEwan receiving two major awards for his recent novella On Chesil Beach. This short but moving tale scooped both the Galaxy Book of the Year Award and The Reader's Digest Author of the Year prize.

Richard & Judy's Best Read of the Year Award - the winning of which seems a licence to print money - was won by Khaled Hosseini for A Thousand Splendid Suns, the already immensely successful follow-up to The Kite Runner.

Controversy was avoided when Katie Price failed to win the WHSmith Children's Book of the Year - instead the prize went to Francesca Simon for Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman.

A full list of winners is available at the Publishing News website.

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

One in 10 British people surveyed by the poll admitted to having cheated at school by watching film adaptations of classic novels rather than actually reading the book itself.

The survey of more than 2000 people suggested that Londoners are the worst culprits, with 16% admitting this time-saving tactic. Perhaps the only surprise in these figures for British teachers will be that the numbers are not higher!

The poll also revealed that the favourite classic book for women is Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, whereas classic of choice for men is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

The nominees for the prestigious Galaxy British Books Awards - the "Oscars" of the British book industry - have been announced. The awards, known as the "Nibbies" as winners receive a statuette in the shape of a pen nib, will be handed out by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan on April 9th.

Katie Price - Best Children's Book?

The nominee lists contain few surprises - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Khaled Hosseini, Doris Lessing, Ian McEwan and David Peace up for Reader's Digest Author of the Year, for example - but the name that has provoked the most comment is that of Katie Price, better known as former glamour model Jordan. She is listed for the WH Smith Children's Book of the Year Award for My Pony Care Book, despite admitting using the services of a ghost writer to help her produce the book. Response to this has been mixed, with many feeling her inclusion on a prestigious list including Michael Morpurgo and Jacqueline Wilson is nothing but an insult, whilst a few have defended the book and said it has every right to be on the list.

Whatever happens, all the nominees will receive plenty of publicity in the coming weeks, suggesting that even those who don't win will feel the benefit on increased book sales.

British Book Awards Shortlists in Full

Check out the full list of nominees and cast your vote at the Awards homepage.

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

One of the UK's most famous libraries has received funding to allow the public to see its collection of rare manuscript treasures.The Bodleian Library in Oxford is one of Britain's oldest and most beautiful libraries, founded in 1602 and the guardian of many priceless literary works.

Shakespeare First Folio 1623

As a library of legal deposit, the Bodleian by law receives a copy of every book published in every year dating back over the last four centuries - and therefore counts amongst its holdings a copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, printed in 1623. Other delights include a Gutenberg Bible (one of eight surviving copies), original Tolkien drawings and Gustav Holst's score for The Planet Suite.

All these and more will be on display after a redevelopment of the New Bodleian building, made possible thanks to a £5 million donation from Julian Blackwell. The bad news? The collection won't be on show until sometime after 2010: keep an eye on the Bodleian website for more details.

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

Congratulations to young British writer Jonathan Trigell, who yesterday won the World Book Day "Book to Talk About" award with his brilliant but controversial novel Boy A.

His margin of victory was convincing, as Trigell polled 21% of the total votes, some 7% ahead of the second placed Ishq and Mushq. Trigell's book was originally published in 2004 to rave reviews, and was the winner of the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in that year. The book's current popularity may in part be due to the dramatisation screened by Channel 4 last year to great acclaim.

Trigell's second novel Cham was published last year and he is currently working on his third. Nice to see someone with a Manchester connection doing so well - he completed an MA here in Creative Writing in 2002.