Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography winner

"Actor Simon Callow's memoir My Life in Pieces (Nick Hern Books) has won the Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography. The "Four Weddings and a Funeral" actor combined "zest, originality and passion" in the memoir to win the £2,000 prize, according to the judges. He beat a shortlist comprising Reluctant Escapologist by stablemate Mike Bradwell, Finishing the Hat by Stephen Sondheim (Ebury), Putting it On by Michael Codron and Alan Strachan (Duckworth) and Born Brilliant –The Life of Kenneth Williams by Christopher Stevens (John Murray). The Sheridan Morley Prize is awarded annually for the best biography, autobiography or diary of a theatrical or show‐business subject published in the English language" - The Bookseller

Technorati Tag: Books

Historical Writers' Association (UK)

The Historical Writers' Association grew from the belief that we as historical writers need to have the same kind of professional body run by professional writers for professional writers (and their agents and publishers and booksellers) to sustain, promote and support each other and our work in the way that the Crime Writers' Association supports writers of crime. Our initial plans involve a Festival of Historical Literature to be held in conjunction with English Heritage's Festival of History at Kelmarsh, near Northampton on 16th - 17th July 2011

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The 2011 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Award shortlist announced

The shortlist for the The 2011 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Award has been announced:

* Will Cohu – 'East Coast – West Coast'
* Anthony Doerr – 'The Deep'
* Roshi Fernando – 'The Fluorescent Jacket'
* Yiyun Li – 'The Science of Flight'
* Hilary Mantel – 'Comma'
* Gerard Woodward – 'The Family Whistle'
Technorati Tag: Books

2011 Orange Prize for Fiction (UK) longlist

The Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK's only annual book award for fiction written by a woman, has announced the 2011 longlist. Celebrating its sixteenth anniversary this year, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing throughout the world:

* Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - Sudanese; 3rd Novel
* Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate) - British; 10th Novel
* Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador) - Irish; 7th Novel
* The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury) - Indian; 1st Novel
* Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber) - British; 6th Novel
* A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair) - American; 4th Novel
* The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury) - British/Sierra Leonean; 2nd Novel
* The London Train by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape) - British; 4th Novel
* Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson (Sceptre) - British; 1st Novel
* The Seas by Samantha Hunt (Corsair) - American; 1st Novel
* The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna (Faber and Faber) - British; 2nd Novel
* Great House by Nicole Krauss (Viking) - American; 3rd Novel
* The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus) - American; 3rd Novel
* The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - Serbian/American; 1st Novel
* The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Viking) - American; 1st Novel
* Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile (Serpent's Tail) - British; 1st Novel
* Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus) - American; 1st Novel
* The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin (Serpent's Tail) - British/Nigerian; 1st Novel
* The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (Harper Press) - British; 4th Novel
* Annabel by Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape) - Canadian; 1st Novel
Technorati Tag: Books

UK's most borrowed ebooks announced

Ebook retail and library service provider OverDrive has released a list of the most borrowed ebooks from UK libraries for February 2011. The list covers books checked out and on a waiting lists at libraries using OverDrive's fulfilment service. Books loaned by libraries can be read on any ePub/Adobe DRM compatible device any on a number of apps for tablets and smartphones. They cannot be read on Amazon's Kindle or Apple's iBooks which use their own proprietary DRM
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Julian Barnes wins David Cohen Prize for Literature

Author Julian Barnes, whose novels include Flaubert's Parrot and England, England, has been presented with the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Past recipients of the £40,000 prize, described by judges as the UK's Nobel Prize for Literature, include Harold Pinter and Doris Lessing. The biennial lifetime achievement award went to Seamus Heaney in 2009. BBC

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"More Dickens" competition (UK)

"To celebrate the bi-centenary of Charles Dickens' birth in 1812, the Dickens Fellowship and the English Association announce the More Dickens competition, to be first awarded in 2012. First prize of £500 will be awarded for an extended class project based on one of Dickens' works. The runner up will receive £250. The competition is open to classes of all ages in primary schools in the UK and can be completed at any time during 2011. Projects may link with regular literacy and numeracy work and include other areas of the curriculum, for example, art, geography, history, music, science. The judges will be looking for originality and lively outcomes, but are also very much interested in hearing about the teaching and learning processes that are part of everyday good practice"