Morning News with The Bookseller

Government must fund digital resource for libraries, says Sieghart The Sieghart review into public libraries, to be published today (18th December), calls on central government to give local authorities the funding to create a national digital resource for libraries, with free Wi-fi as standard, and workforce training for all public libraries in England.

PRH UK rethinks its sales teams Penguin Random House UK has announced a series of appointments in a restructure across its sales teams, with new roles for Martin Higgins, Helen Randles and Sarah Roscoe among them. Also among the changes are a new sales director for Benelux, Germany, France and Austria, following the decision of Penguin Germany m.d. Edith Strommen to retire next May after 30 years.

Germany's Thalia 'off the market' Less than four weeks after Advent appointed the investment bank Macquarie to find a buyer for its German bookselling operation Thalia, the US investor has reportedly taken the chain off the market because none of the interested parties was prepared to pay the asking price.   According to Manager Magazin, Advent will now continue the ongoing restructuring and modernization of Germany’s largest bricks-and-mortar bookseller, part of Douglas holding, acquired by Advent in 2012.

Hot Key acquires contemporary Nazi tale Hot Key Books has acquired a novel by Julie Mayhew which imagines what society would be like if the Nazis had won the Second World War. In The Big Lie, young girls must attend their local Bund Deutscher Mädel meetings and learn about being good mothers and housewives. Jessika Keller is an exemplary young girl but when her outspoken friend Clem falls foul of the regime she starts to question all that she has accepted for so long. Hot Key acquired world rights from Louise Lamont at LBA and will publish in August 2015.

IPA calls on China to release Xu Xiao The International Publishers Association has called on China's government to release Xu Xiao, a prominent publisher, writer and editor, and 2014 IPA Freedom to Publish Prize nominee. Xu was arrested on 26th November during a crackdown on writers, journalists, publishers and civil society activists seen to be supportive of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

Picador signs Blume novel for adults Picador is to publish Judy Blume’s first adult novel in 16 years, In the Unlikely Event. Editorial director Francesca Main pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights from Elizabeth Sheinkman at WME. Blume said that In the Unlikely Event “is based on a series of tragedies in the town I lived in when I was growing up, and the terrible time it was for the adults and the children, although the adults never talked to the children about it”.