Publishing Company Blog: April 2023

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Tim Minchin says editing Roald Dahl’s books ‘a slippery slope’

Comedian behind Matilda musical says texts would need to be repeatedly updated to keep up with modern sensibilities

Read the full interview with Tim Minchin: ‘Politics affects my mental health … I feel gaslit’

Friday, April 28, 2023

Unseen Gabriel García Márquez novel to be published next year

Colombian author’s En Agosto Now Vemos (We’ll See Each Other in August) had been just a rumour but now fans will get to read it

Baillie Gifford winner of winners James Shapiro: ‘I draw a very sharp line between fiction and nonfiction’

The 1599 author on the difference between historians and novelists, looking at Shakespeare differently and hitchhiking to the Edinburgh festival to immerse himself in the bard’s work

• James Shapiro wins Baillie Gifford anniversary prize with ‘extraordinary’ Shakespeare biography 1599

Thursday, April 27, 2023

James Shapiro wins Baillie Gifford anniversary prize with ‘extraordinary’ Shakespeare biography 1599

The English professor’s analysis of a pivotal year in the playwright’s life triumphed over a shortlist that included Craig Brown, Barbara Demick and Wade Davis

Amy Winehouse’s journal entries to be published in new book

Family-approved book will also feature handwritten lyrics and personal photos and will be published two weeks before the singer would have turned 40

Sarah Holland-Batt wins Stella prize for ‘tender’ poems about her father’s death

Poet and outspoken advocate for aged care reform is the second poet in a row to win $60,000 award for Australian women and non-binary writers

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Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Dead Ink wins Republic of Consciousness prize with Missouri Williams’s ‘astonishing’ debut

The award, championing small presses with fewer than five staff, was won by The Doloriad – an audaciously original novel set in a post-apocalyptic dystopia

Three debut novels compete among Women’s prize for fiction shortlist

First-time novelists are joined by two former winners on the diverse list, as the six ‘ambitious and hard-hitting’ contenders are revealed

• ‘We were blown away’: how we chose the Women’s prize shortlist

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Design news: the father of video art, London Craft Week and Frank Lloyd Wright trainers

Read a tome on time, watch a documentary about artist Nam June Paik and marvel at the work of graphic designer Neville Brody

Monday, April 24, 2023

Children read almost 25% more books last year, UK and Ireland study finds

What Kids Are Reading report found communities on sites such as TikTok helped stimulate interest in reading

Calls to ban books hit highest level ever recorded in the US

Demands to censor, most often for gender themes or sexual detail, rose 38% year on year in 2022, with Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe being last year’s ‘most challenged’ title

Letter from King Charles to be included in new Trump book, report says

Letters to Trump reportedly contains 150 messages from key figures also including Queen Elizabeth and Ronald Reagan

Sunday, April 23, 2023

Never too late: over-50s urged to write fiction with prize for debut novel

Award launched at London book fair aims to help older authors take the plunge and submit a first work

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Hilary Mantel was working on ‘mashup’ of Jane Austen novels before her death

Wolf Hall trilogy author remembered at memorial service at Southwark cathedral on Thursday

Book bans in US public schools increase by 28% in six months, Pen report finds

Writers organisation denounces ‘relentless’ Republican crusade as 1,477 books banned in first half of 2022-23 school year

‘Chilling’ arrest of French publisher by UK counter-terrorism police condemned

Éditions la Fabrique says foreign rights manager Ernest Moret was held for several hours and asked ‘disturbing questions’ about his political opinions

Third of UK librarians asked to censor or remove books, research reveals

A survey by Cilip shows members of the public using increasingly threatening behaviour about the removal of books on empire, race and LGBTQ+ themes

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Society of Authors creates new campaign to help writers hold publishers to account on sustainability

Tree to Me aims to give authors more say in reducing the environmental impact of physical books, including from the manufacture of paper, transportation and the use of chemicals

Lydia Davis refuses to sell her next book on Amazon

The garlanded short story author will release her next collection solely in bookshops and select independent online outlets to coincide with Bookshop Day

Pioneering publisher Margaret Busby named new president of PEN

The editor, writer and literary critic who was the UK’s first Black female publisher will replace Philippe Sands

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

International Booker prize reveals ‘very cool and very sexy’ shortlist

Two of the six books are translated from languages that have never featured before in the prize

Monday, April 17, 2023

UK publishing industry reports record-breaking year in 2022

There were 669m physical books sold in the UK last year, according to new figures from the Publishers Association

Friday, April 14, 2023

Stormzy’s #Merky Books festival aims to ‘light imaginations’ of young storytellers

Speaker Malorie Blackman says two-day event exists to ‘spark the aspirations’ of those who might not have considered a creative career

Thursday, April 13, 2023

Granta reveals its pick of future star British novelists

The journal’s once-in-a-decade selection of the best fiction writers under 40 has broadened its selection of 20 to include authors who ‘regard the UK as their home’

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Harry Potter TV series announced, with JK Rowling executive-producing

Service formerly known as HBO Max, rebranded Max, will host live-action show

Billy Porter to play James Baldwin in new biopic

Porter to star in and co-write film based on 1994 biography of influential writer and civil rights activist

Sunday, April 9, 2023

‘All the details that were missing’: Harry Potter fans on their hopes for TV series

While many Potterheads celebrated reports of HBO Max show, some feel it would be tainted by JK Rowling’s stance on gender

Saturday, April 8, 2023

Rachel Pollack, trans activist and comic book writer, dies aged 77

Pollack, who created the first mainstream transgender superhero, Kate Godwin, had been fighting Hodgkin’s lymphoma

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Alice Oseman reveals plans for sixth volume of Heartstopper graphic novels

Forthcoming fifth volume of the hit series was planned to be the last but writer says a sixth book will give characters ‘their final moment to shine’

Democrats bid to use censorship law against DeSantis and ban his book

Opponents say memoir The Courage to be Free, published in February, violates law governor signed last year

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Booker shortlistee and UK playwright among winners of Windham-Campbell prizes

Recognising work in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama, the $175,000 awards aim to free writers to work without financial pressures

Jill Barklem’s family find the tree that inspired her Brambly Hedge tales

The children’s author was famed for her intricate illustrations and the site in Epping Forest that inspired her – thought lost to storm damage – has been located still standing