Benedicte Page guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 13 April 2011
An inside look into the life story of Apple boss Steve Jobs, a revolutionary book from a rising star of popular science, and a sought-after debut drawing on Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence are among the books causing a stir at this year's London Book Fair. Despite the tough economic times, and worries over the health of the high street, the fair – celebrating its 40th year - is bustling again after the washout in 2010 when the Icelandic volcano kept international visitors away.
Former PM John Major's stirring tale of derring-do in the British music hall has been announced, as has The Lennon Letters, coming in the autumn. Meanwhile the tricksily titled iSteve: The Book of Jobs, out in 2012, will be notable as the first biography with which the Apple co-founder has agreed to co-operate.
The author, journalist Walter Isaacson, has had the benefit of three years' worth of interviews with the 56-year-old mogul, who remains on medical leave of absence from the company after serious health problems. Ursula McKenzie, head of publisher Little, Brown, promised the biography would offer "a unique insight into the life and thinking of the man who has single-handedly transformed the world for all of us and in ways we never thought imaginable".
Quantum of Life by Iraqi-born theoretical physicist Professor Jim al-Khalili, who is presenting a high-profile BBC Radio 4 documentary series this autumn, sparked an auction which raged on the eve of the fair. Transworld's Sally Gaminara – who edits Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking – eventually won the book with a six-figure bid, calling it a "new direction and a cutting-edge examination of how physics is revolutionising biology".
And another hotly-contested auction was fought over a first novel by Francesca Segal, daughter of Love Story author Erich Segal. Chatto and Windus secured Temple Fortune, described as "age-old tale of love, temptation, confusion, commitment and coming to terms with the choices we've made". The novel recasts Edith Wharton's tale The Age of Innocence from its 1870s New York setting into that of a close-knit Jewish community in contemporary north London, where a young man experiences pre-wedding jitters.
A follow-up to the novel Push, the story of illiterate 16-year-old Precious Jones, filmed as Precious, was also announced at the fair. Author Sapphire has written a sequel, telling the story of Precious's orphaned son Abdul, and the book will be published in August.
The fair has also seen the customary bandwagon-jumping, with acres of Scandinavian crime being bought and sold, with a Finnish serial-killer tale set in a futuristic Helskinki, The Healer by Antti Tuominen, among the hottest properties. A vogue for fictional Gypsy weddings also appears to be on the way (publisher Cornerstone snapped up Gypsy Wedding, the novel), and numerous book proposals have been offering ripostes to Amy Chua's hotly debated parenting memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.
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