Elizabeth Gregory's Blog
Posted by Elizabeth Gregory
The six novels still in the running for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction have been announced. There is no place on the list for Salman Rushdie, winner of Best of Booker and the Booker of Bookers, but two debut novelists have made the chosen few. The full shortlist is:
Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole
Linda Grant, The Clothes on their Backs
Philip Hensher, The Northern Clemency
Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies
Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture
Posted by Elizabeth Gregory
Voting has finished now in this year's Richard and Judy Summer Read, and readers have chosen Linwood Barclay's No Time For Goodbye as their favourite book.
Readers were able to cast their vote via the Richard and Judy website, or on special cards distributed through bookshops and libraries.
The top three were:
1. No Time for Goodbye, Linwood Barclay (Orion)
2. The Outcast, Sadie Jones (Vintage)
3. East of the Sun, Julia Gregson (Orion)
All eight shortlisted titles are winners though: they are all currently in the best-seller charts.
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.
