British/UK Fiction

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

Major publishers are due to start using age-banding guides on children's books from this Autumn - a move opposed by many authors. The petition at www.notoagebanding.org has now been signed by over 3000 people, including Philip Pullman, Jacqueline Wilson, Quentin Blake, Anne Fine, Michael Rosen and now JK Rowling.

Many writers feel the age-banding is a bad idea as it may discourage children from reading, as books they may wish to read might be "too young" or "too old" for them.

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

Last December, JK Rowling went some way to filling the void left by Harry Potter by unveiling some handmade copies of a new work called The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of five fairy stories illustrated by Rowling herself.

The collection is now to be widely available from December 4th 2008, with illustrations reproduced from the original. The most interesting aspect of the new book for Harry fans will be the commentary (including footnotes) by Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who brings his own perspective to the collection.

The book will be available as a standard edition, or as a special limited-edition collector's copy with ten new illustrations, likely to be priced at £50.

Both are available for pre-order from Amazon.

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

The results from the Best of Booker Award were announced on Friday, and there was no real surprise when Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children was revealed to be the most popular choice.

The novel has shown no signs of fading in popularity since its publication in 1981: Rushdie's novel was also the winner of the Booker of Bookers in 1993. This year's award was slightly different in that readers chose the winner, albeit from a rather limited shortlist of six titles. Midnight's Children secured 36% of the vote, making it a clear winner.

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory

Whether you think their influence is healthy or not, there's no disputing the enormous power of TV presenters Richard and Judy over the book-buying public.

As in previous years, they have produced a list of titles they recommend we read this summer:

The Outcast by Sadie Jones

No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

Down River by John Hart

The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller

Addition by Toni Jordan

The Resurrectionist by James Bradley

The first two books on the list are already jostling for pole position in the best-seller charts, with Sadie Jones currently winning out.

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.