Chorlton Book Festival (UK)

"Poet Laureate Carol Anne Duffy, playwright Charlotte Keatley and poet and novelist Jackie Kay are some of the top literary names who will be making an appearance at this year's Chorlton Book Festival in Manchester, UK. The Festival runs from 8-21 November 2010 when Chorlton will be awash with writing workshops, story times, competitions and talks at venues as diverse as a local bar, the local library and a toy shop. Now in its sixth year, the Chorlton Book Festival celebrates local talent and makes the world of books and words accessible to everyone"
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Observer/Cape Graphic Short Story prize 2010 winner

Stephen Collins is the winner of the Observer/Cape Graphic Short Story prize 2010, for "Room 208"
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2010 Galaxy National Book Awards winners (UK)

The winners of the 2010 Galaxy National Book Awards have been announced
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Wellcome Trust Book Prize 2010 winner announced

'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' (Pan Macmillan) has won the second Wellcome Trust Book Prize
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New title from Bodleian Library Publishing. An Englishwoman in California: The Letters of Catherine Hubback 1871-1876

"The Bodleian Library has released a cache of previously unpublished letters by a niece of Jane Austen: An Englishwoman in California: The Letters of Catherine Hubback 1871-1876. Catherine Hubback, herself a novelist, was fifty-two years old when she left England for America. Travelling on the Transcontinental Railroad in 1871, she settled in Oakland, on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. There, where she lived with her son Edward, who commuted by ferryboat to a wheat brokerage in the city, she began a faithful correspondence with her eldest son John and his wife Mary in Liverpool. Her extraordinary letters offer an intimate and unguarded view of an eventful life in the 1870s and give an intelligent and coherent account of the San Francisco area at a time of rapid growth and financial unrest...."

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Roald Dahl Funny Prize winners

Louise Rennison and Louise Yates have won this year's Roald Dahl Funny Prizes with 'Withering Tights' (7-14 year-olds) and 'Dog Loves Books (0-6) respectively
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Costa Book Awards 2010 shortlists announced

Costa Coffee has announced the shortlists for the 2010 Costa Book Awards. The Costa Book Awards recognise the most enjoyable books in five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book - published in the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland:

Costa First Novel Award

* Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai
* Coconut Unlimited by Nikesh Shukla
* The Temple-Goers by Aatish Taseer
* Not Quite White by Simon Thirsk

Costa Novel Award

* Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty
* The Blasphemer by Nigel Farndale
* The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell
* Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Costa Biography Award

* How to Live A Life of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell
* My Father's Fortune by Michael Frayn
* The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

Costa Poetry Award

* Standard Midland by Roy Fisher
* The Wrecking Light by Robin Robertson
* Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott
* New Light for the Old Dark by Sam Willetts

Costa Children's Book Award

* Flyaway by Lucy Christopher
* Annexed by Sharon Dogar
* Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud
* Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace
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Celia Walden on "Babysitting George "

"Babysitting George" is a unique and moving memoir of a young journalist's summer in the company of George Best, in the year before he died. Here, Celia Walden gives an insight into this book and why she decided to write it


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Society of Young Publishers Conference 2010 (UK)

Society of Young Publishers Conference 2010 : Publishing on the World's Stage - 13 November 2010 - London, UK
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James Bond novels go digital, cutting out Penguin (UK)

"The books industry could lose out on millions of pounds because publishers have failed to sign up the digital rights to authors, who are expected to bypass traditional publishing houses in favour of Amazon or Google. The fears were raised after the estate of Ian Fleming announced that all the Bond novels are to be made available as e-books in the UK for the first time this week. But they are not being released by the author's print publisher Penguin. Industry insiders suggested that blockbusting authors including JK Rowling, Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie would be looking at the deal closely" - The Telegraph

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SAGE wins JISC TechDis Award for library service (UK)

SAGE has won the inaugural JISC TechDis Publisher Lookup Award for library service, which recognises publishers who have been nominated by library staff for their excellent service in supplying books in alternative formats. SAGE received the award at the CILIP Digital Information Conference in London on 28 October 2010. The JISC TechDis Publisher Lookup Awards are the brainchild of Alistair McNaught, senior advisor at JISC TechDis. Alistair said: "There was a really strong field of candidates. Judges were impressed by the sheer number of nominations for SAGE by library staff and the glowing feedback that highlighted their responsiveness, exemplary standards of service and commitment to end users"
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British Library acquires Harold Pinter's awards

The British Library has acquired the collection of awards and honours presented to writer and Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter during the course of his long career. The UK national library - which acquired Pinter's archive in December 2007 - received the awards through the Acceptance In Lieu (AIL) scheme. Highlights of the collection include:

* Pinter's 2005 Nobel Prize medal and diploma
* 1960 Evening Standard award for the best play of 1960 (for The Caretaker)
* The iconic bronze mask of the BAFTA fellowship, presented in 1996

HM Government's Acceptance in Lieu scheme, managed by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council is one of the primary ways of ensuring that important cultural treasures pass into the UK's public collections. In June the British Library acquired the archive of J G Ballard through the scheme. The awards include more than 50 medals, medallions, plaques and original artworks, of all shapes and sizes and testifying to the range and international profile of Harold Pinter's achievements. The Herman Kesten Medal - presented by German PEN in 1985 - recognises Pinter's work on behalf of persecuted and imprisoned writers, while the 2004 Wilfred Owen Prize was awarded in response to the controversial poems that expressed his opposition to the Iraq War

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2010 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry shortlist

The shortlist for the 2010 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry has been announced:

* Seeing Stars - Simon Armitage (Faber)
* The Mirabelles - Annie Freud (Picador)
* You - John Haynes (Seren)
* Human Chain - Seamus Heaney (Faber)
* What the Water Gave Me - Pascale Petit (Seren)
* The Wrecking Light - Robin Robertson (Picador)
* Rough Music - Fiona Sampson (Carcanet)
* Phantom Noise - Brian Turner (Bloodaxe)
* White Egrets - Derek Walcott (Faber)
* New Light for the Old Dark - Sam Willetts (Jonathan Cape)
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Ten new Quick Reads will be published on World Book Day, 3 March 2011

Ten new Quick Reads will be published on World Book Day, 3 March 2011 (UK)

* Bloody Valentine by James Patterson
* Clouded Vision by Linwood Barclay
* Follow Me by Sheila O'Flanagan
* Men at Work by Mike Gayle
* Trouble on the Heath by Terry Jones
* Jack and Jill by Lucy Cavendish
* Strangers on the 16:02 by Priya Basil
* My Dad's a Policeman by Cathy Glass
* Kung Fu Trip by Benjamin Zephaniah
* Tackling Life by Charlie Oatway
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2010 Galaxy National Book Awards shorlists (UK)

The shortlists for the 2010 Galaxy National Book Awards have been announced:

Sainsbury's Popular Fiction Book of the Year
* Dead Like You Peter James (Macmillan)
* The Ice Cream Girls Dorothy Koomson (Sphere)
* Jump! Jilly Cooper (Bantam Press)
* One Day David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)
* The Red Queen Philippa Gregory (Simon & Schuster)
* Worth Dying For Lee Child (Bantam Press)

Non-Fiction Book of the Year
* Alex's Adventures in Numberland Alex Bellos (Bloomsbury)
* At Home Bill Bryson (Doubleday)
* D-Day Antony Beevor (Viking)
* The Making Of Modern Britain Andrew Marr (Pan)
* Must You Go? Antonia Fraser (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
* Operation Mincemeat Ben MacIntyre (Bloomsbury)

National Book Tokens New Writer of the Year
* Patrick Barkham The Butterfly Isles (Granta Books)
* Edmund de Waal The Hare with Amber Eyes (Chatto & Windus)
* Katherine Webb The Legacy (Orion)
* Rebecca Hunt Mr Chartwell (Fig Tree)
* Natasha Solomons Mr Rosenblum's List (Sceptre)
* Simon Lelic Rupture (Picador)

WH Smith Children's Book of the Year
* The Great Hamster Massacre Katie Davies, illus Hannah Shaw (Simon and Schuster)
* Monsters of Men Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
* Mr Stink David Walliams (HarperCollins Childrens Books)
* Shadow Michael Morpurgo (HarperCollins Childrens Books)
* TimeRiders Alex Scarrow (Puffin)
* Zog Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler (Alison Green Books)

Tesco Food & Drink Book of the Year
* The Flavour Thesaurus Niki Segnit (Bloomsbury)
* Jamie's 30 Minute Meals Jamie Oliver (Michael Joseph)
* Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home Nigella Lawson (Chatto & Windus)
* Kitchenella Rose Prince (Fourth Estate)
* Plenty Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Press)
* Tender II Nigel Slater (Fourth Estate)

Tesco Biography of the Year
* Coco Chanel, The Legend And The Life Justine Picardie (Harper NonFiction)
* Decline and Fall: Diaries 2005-2010 Chris Mullin (Profile Books)
* The Fry Chronicles Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph)
* A Journey Tony Blair (Hutchinson)
* Wait For Me Duchess of Devonshire (John Murray)
* What You See Is What You Get Alan Sugar (Macmillan)

International Author of the Year
* Colm Toibin Brooklyn (Penguin)
* Jonathan Franzen Freedom (Fourth Estate)
* Stieg Larsson The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Quercus/MacLehose Press)
* Kathryn Stockett The Help (Fig Tree)
* Emma Donoghue Room (Picador)
* Christos Tsiolkas The Slap (Tuskar Rock Press)

Waterstone's UK Author of the Year
* Tom McCarthy C (Jonathan Cape)
* Maggie O'Farrell The Hand That First Held Mine (Headline Review)
* Kate Atkinson Started Early, Took My Dog (Doubleday)
* David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Sceptre)
* Rose Tremain Trespass (Chatto & Windus)
* Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate)
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2010 Guardian first book award shortlist (UK)

The shortlist for the 2010 Guardian first book award has been announced:

Novels

* Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed
* Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman
* Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto by Maile Chapman

Nonfiction

* In Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by journalist Kathryn Schulz
* Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper by Alexandra Harris

The winner will be announced on December 1, 2010
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The Green Carnation Prize Shortlist 2010 (UK)

The shortlist for The Green Carnation Prize 2010 has been announced:

* Paperboy – Christopher Fowler (Bantam Books)
* God Says No – James Hannaham (McSweeneys)
* London Triptych – Jonathan Kemp (Myriad Editions)
* Children of the Sun – Max Schaefer (Granta)
* Man's World – Rupert Smith (Arcadia Books)
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