Publishing Company Blog: May 2022

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Workplaces as run down as parliament would cause picketing, says Jess Phillips

Labour MP tells Hay festival that Palace of Westminster is ‘falling apart’ and would be condemned if it were any other building

Monday, May 30, 2022

Joanne Harris says she saw her cancer as a fictional ‘monster’ she could ‘destroy’

The Chocolat author was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020 and has shared her experiences on social media

‘Tragically ugly’ school textbook causes social media outcry in China

Education ministry orders publisher to rectify illustrations of children deemed inappropriate

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Lenny Henry criticises TV streamers’ commissioning tactics

Comedian says BBC approach is better as the focus is on the story being pitched rather than whether it will sell

Jacqueline Wilson: my mother slept with a gun under her pillow

Children’s author says she told her elderly mother to get rid of it as she was terrified of being mistakenly shot

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Monica Ali ‘terrified’ of writing sex scenes in new novel

Brick Lane author says fear of winning Bad Sex award loomed over writing of latest book, Love Marriage

British empire nostalgia played part in Brexit vote, says Nobel laureate

Abdulrazak Gurnah said imperial attitudes were fuelled by the government withholding details of Britain’s colonial past

The love song of TS Eliot: intense letters reveal the passion behind the pen

The great poet’s newly released missives to his lost love put the lie to his aloof image – but were dismissed by the man himself as fantasy

Friday, May 27, 2022

Anthony Horowitz: I’m still waiting to see benefit of Brexit

Author who has previously called himself a Conservative tells Hay festival he ‘can’t understand’ the government’s actions

Thursday, May 26, 2022

Sabba Khan and Maisie Chan triumph in Jhalak prizes for writers of colour

Khan wins for her ‘timeless’ debut graphic novel, The Roles We Play, while Chan takes the children’s and YA award for Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths

How to Murder Your Husband writer found guilty of murdering husband

Portland jury finds Nancy Crampton Brophy guilty of killing chef Daniel Brophy in June 2018

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Atwood responds to book bans with ‘unburnable’ edition of Handmaid’s Tale

Auction of fire-resistant edition comes ahead of an expected US supreme court ruling reversing the right to abortion

Monday, May 23, 2022

Orwell’s 1984 was about liberalism, not totalitarianism, claims Moscow diplomat

Maria Zakharova says idea book is about totalitarianism is ‘one of the biggest global fakes’, in claim disputed by Russian translator

Russia-UK war: latest updates

Friday, May 20, 2022

Student helps reveal Anne Brontë’s active interest in geology

Sally Jaspars says writer’s rock collection shows she ‘was in tune with the scientific inquiry of the time’

Thursday, May 19, 2022

Deborah James’s second and final book tops Amazon chart ahead of publication

The columnist and podcaster’s How to Live When You Could Be Dead is out in August heads the bestsellers list

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Colin Kaepernick to publish memoir aimed at young adults

Graphic novel recounts time in high school when ex-quarterback chose football despite pressure to play baseball

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Trump promises to depress readers with big lie book: ‘I don’t think you’ll enjoy it’

Former president trumpets work in progress on his false claims about electoral fraud in 2020

Monday, May 16, 2022

‘Unflinching’: Villawood graphic novel wins book of the year at NSW premier’s literary awards

Safdar Ahmed’s Still Alive: Notes from Australia’s Immigration Detention System lands top prize and $30,000, alongside books by Tony Birch and Kate Holden

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Friday, May 13, 2022

Blonde: will a shocking new film shatter the myth of Marilyn Monroe?

From Cannes to the Met Gala, the screen icon’s lucrative legacy lives on. But how will a new film affect the way the world sees her?

Thursday, May 12, 2022

Debut novelist wins £20,000 Dylan Thomas prize for No One Is Talking About This

Patricia Lockwood follows acclaimed memoir Priestdaddy with book focusing on a life lived on social media

Author Mario Vargas Llosa backs Bolsonaro over Lula in Brazil election

Peruvian writer criticises incumbent’s ‘clowning around’ but says he is still preferable to former president

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Whiti Hereaka wins New Zealand’s Ockham fiction prize for novel subverting Māori myth

Kurangaituku, 'an epic poem of a novel’, won the Jann Medlicott Acorn prize at a ceremony that delivered ‘loads of surprises’

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Bono to release memoir about ‘the people, places and possibilities’ of his life

Surrender, which will ‘draw in detail’ what he had previously only sketched in songs, will contain 40 chapters, each named after a U2 song, and include 40 original drawings by the singer

Monday, May 9, 2022

Writer’s essay on why she plagiarized her book removed for … plagiarism

Jumi Bello’s essay was briefly published on the Literary Hub website until it was revealed she had again lifted material

Washington Post wins public service Pulitzer for Capitol attack coverage

Paper beat out two other finalists, the New York Times and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to give books to refugee children

Singer’s global initiative to offer a book each month to 200 refugee children in London until they turn five

Sunday, May 8, 2022

Revealed: Noël Coward’s unseen plays aimed to deal with homosexuality

Playwright planned scenes on same-sex relationship at a time when it was illegal and British theatres faced strict censorship

From Loch Ness to the Essex Serpent, why are humans so keen to invent sea monsters?

As Sarah Perry’s novel becomes a TV drama, the human need to escape reality with a shiver of fear remains as strong as ever

Saturday, May 7, 2022

Tortured to death: the 14 Cypriot men killed by British in 50s uprising

Book reveals fate of EOKA guerrilla fighters at the hands of the army during the dying days of empire on the Mediterranean island

Friday, May 6, 2022

Trump sought strike on top Iran military figure for political reasons – Esper book

Robert O’Brien told top general shortly before 2020 election that Trump wanted to kill unnamed official, according to Esper memoir

Dave Eggers offers to replace books a South Dakota school board wants to pulp

The writer calls the planned destruction of copies of five titles – by Bernardine Evaristo, Alison Bechdel, Imbolo Mbue and Stephen Chbosky as well as his own – ‘an unconscionable horror’