Publishing Company Blog: June 2023

Friday, June 30, 2023

Alan Arkin Oscar winning actor in Little Miss Sunshine dies aged 89

The veteran US actor won multiple Academy Award and Emmy nominations for his film and TV roles during a 65-year career

• Alan Arkin: a life in pictures – gallery

Rare Harry Potter bought for 30p may fetch up to 5000

First edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone bought by UK book collector goes up for auction next week

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Rights to Jorge Luis Borgess work go to his wifes nephews

Great Argentinian writer’s widow, who died in March, did not leave will, which put the rights in limbo

Author Michael Rosen wins 2023 PEN Pinter prize for fearless body of work

Writer of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is a ‘passionate linguist, gifted humanist, national treasure and ambassador of gibberish’

Notes ponderings doodlings: behind Capotes creation of In Cold Blood

New manuscript offers insight into the painstaking work of writer’s seemingly effortless storytelling in true crime classic

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Trump adviser suggested blowing up migrants boats with drones book says

Book by Miles Taylor says Stephen Miller made argument people onboard ship heading to US were not protected by constitution

Kari Lake revives Obama birther conspiracy with no mention of donation to campaign

In new book, Trump supporter and election denier avoids Obama donation in her name she has claimed was made by her husband

Monday, June 26, 2023

Nicolas Winding Refn to reinterpret Enid Blytons Famous Five for the BBC

The Danish director behind stylish actioner Drive and ultra-violent thriller Only God Forgives will create a three-part series

Friday, June 23, 2023

Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern to write a book on leadership

Ardern says the book will expand on how to be ‘your own kind of leader and still make a difference’

Thursday, June 22, 2023

Two debut books win Orwell prizes for political writing

Peter Apps’ magnificent account of the Grenfell fire tragedy and Tom Crewe’s historical novel about pioneering Victorian gay rights advocates will each receive £3,000

Unfinished novel by Françoise Sagan published posthumously

The Four Corners of the Heart was discovered by her son after the death of the French author, best known for Bonjour Tristesse, written when she was just 18

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

15000 prize launched for writers from refugee and migrant backgrounds

The new Footnote x Counterpoints prize for narrative nonfiction includes a publishing agreement, and welcomes work that ‘crosses cultures and borders’

Carnegie medal for childrens books goes to a translation for the first time

Manon Steffan Ros’s young adult novel The Blue Book of Nebo, set in a post-apocalyptic Wales, was praised by judges as ‘expertly realised’ and heartbreaking

Monday, June 19, 2023

Miles Franklin award 2023: shortlist revealed for Australias prestigious literary prize

Five first-time nominees are among the six authors competing for $60,000 award for novels that ‘present Australian life in any of its phases’

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Sunday, June 18, 2023

Mines lobster and champagne: Judy Dench reveals secret onstage supper at Shakespeare play

The Oscar-winning star discusses her major roles and the characters she brought to life in watercolours in her new book

Friday, June 16, 2023

Republican hopeful Mike Pence to release book on how faith makes family

Advice book Go Home For Dinner, co-authored with daughter Charlotte Pence Bond, to be published by Simon & Schuster

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Jeremy Corbyn and Len McCluskey to publish accessible poetry collection

Works by Maya Angelou, Russell Brand and Maxine Peake feature in Poetry for the Many, which aims to help readers shake off the idea that verse is only for ‘posh people’

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Barbara Kingsolver wins the Womens prize for fiction for second time

Winning for Demon Copperhead, a ‘deeply powerful’, US-set Dickens update, the American novelist becomes the first writer to win the contest for a second time

Books with neurodivergent characters mark new chapter for publishers

Children’s books featuring protagonists who are autistic or have ADHD are going to the highest bidder

Edinburgh book festival hoping Greta Thunberg will bring back audiences

Fallout from Covid crisis has left event struggling financially after last year’s ‘traumatic’ fall in sales

John Romita Sr Spider-Man artist and co-creator of Wolverine dead at 93

The celebrated artist began drawing for The Amazing Spider-Man in 1966, and served as an art director at Marvel for two decades. He died of natural causes

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Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Cormac McCarthy celebrated US novelist dies aged 89

Author of Blood Meridian, The Road and No Country for Old Men died in his home of natural causes, publisher announces

Maggie O’Farrell leads sales ahead of Women’s prize for fiction announcement

Historical novel The Marriage Portrait has sold 72,819 copies – more than any other title on the 2023 Women’s prize shortlist

‘Eat, pray, pander’: mixed reactions after Elizabeth Gilbert pulls Russia-set novel

Author’s decision to remove The Snow Forest from publication because of Russia-Ukraine war sparks intense debate

Monday, June 12, 2023

Eat, Pray, Love author withdraws new Russia-set novel from publication

Elizabeth Gilbert says now is ‘not the time for this book to be published’, following anger from Ukrainian readers over The Snow Forest, set in Siberia

Sunday, June 11, 2023

Man returns book to Washington state library – 81 years after it was taken out

Brad Bitar who returned copy of The Bounty Trilogy believes it may have been left by someone while visiting his family’s store

‘A voice from the past’: harp played by Jane Austen’s cousin sings again

Musician restores 250-year-old instrument of writer’s cousin, who is said to have inspired Mansfield Park character Mary Crawford

Saturday, June 10, 2023

Tove Jansson’s unseen Moomin sketches to go on show in Paris

Exhibition focuses on life and career of ‘brave and uncompromising’ Finnish artist and writer

Friday, June 9, 2023

Hever Castle to display 16th-century prayer book believed to be Thomas Cromwell’s from Holbein portrait

There are three copies of the 1527 Book of Hours in existence, two of which belonged to Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn

Abuse has led Sathnam Sanghera to ‘more or less stop’ doing book events in UK

Writer of Empireland, which examined Britain’s imperial past, says culture war-fuelled online trolling and heckling ‘gets to you’

Thursday, June 8, 2023

One in three say books offer best form of escapism when having a bad day

A survey by the Publishers Association found reading to be more popular than going to the cinema or browsing social media, coming second only to watching TV

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Novel about 18th-century black Briton Charles Ignatius Sancho wins RSL prize

Moving retelling of Sancho’s life by actor Paterson Joseph awarded prestigious Christopher Bland prize

Michael Caine announces debut thriller to be published in November

The actor’s novel, Deadly Game, features an ex-SAS police officer called Harry who must grapple with neo-Nazis, wealthy Russians and Colombian drug cartels