Latest news overnight from The Bookseller including new bookshops open selling hats and ale

Shareholders to challenge Pearson strategy at a.g.m Pearson is reportedly exploring the sale of its cloud-based business, GlobalEnglish Corp, less than four years after buying it, according to Sky News. The report comes ahead of Pearson's a.g.m, where a segment of Pearson's shareholders are demanding change in the business's trajectory under c.e.o. John Fallon.

Pupil interest in reading drops in secondary school Secondary school pupils are far less interested in reading than children at primary school, with only 40% of 14-16 year-olds saying they enjoy reading compared with more than 70% of 8-11 year-olds, according to a new National Literacy Trust (NLT) report.

Gurr to replace North at helm of Amazon Amazon’s China country manager Doug Gurr will move to the UK to replace Christopher North at the helm of the e-commerce giant this May.

Academic printer Polestar goes into administration Polestar, the UK’s largest independent printing company and a specialist producer of academic books and journals, is going into administration, putting 1,400 jobs at risk.

New bookshops open selling hats and ale Bookshops in Oxfordshire and Southampton are among the latest independents to open in the UK - with a twist.

Scientology leader threatens UK publisher with legal action British independent publisher Silvertail Books has been threatened with legal action by lawyers representing Scientology leader David Miscavige.

FBF takes majority stake in IPR License The Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) has taken a majority shareholding in global rights and licensing trading platform, IPR License Ltd.

Griffiths becomes m.d. of Melville House Nikki Griffiths, former publishing director at Duckworth Publishing, has joined Melville House UK as managing director and will be based in the company's London headquarters.

Kobo partners with Turkey's D&R bookshop chain Rakuten Kobo has partnered with D&R, Turkey’s largest book and media retailer, to sell e-books and devices to Turkish readers.

Pears' app shortlisted for Arthur C Clarke award Iain Pears’ Arcadia (Faber & Faber), a story that can be read either as a print book or an app, is in contention for this year’s Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction, along with novels by authors such as Becky Chambers and Nnedi Okorafor.

Ebury to publish Silicon Valley exposé Ebury is publishing a "no-holds-barred" insider's account of Silicon Valley by a former employee of Twitter and Facebook.

Nepal earthquake anthology profits to go to charity Head of Zeus is to publish the "biggest, most comprehensive" collection of writing about Nepal in print a year after the earthquake that devastated the country.