Andrew Motion explains why Bob Dylan's lyrics should be studied in schools

Bob Dylan's debut on the schools curriculum could be just what's needed to turn pupils who listen to rock music on to the full range of poetry.

OCTOBER 4 IS National Poetry Day, the annual celebration of rhyming (and not-rhyming) launched in 1994 by William Sieghart of the Forward Arts Foundation.

In its 14-year existence, it has become a distinctive event – part carnival, part education, entirely a good thing.
This year’s NPD looks set to be one of the most interesting and fruitful yet. The organisers have teamed up with Sony BMG to commission an online secondary-schools project “to celebrate poetry through the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s legendary songs”.

The full story is in The Times. Pic above shows Dylan with Joan Baez and others at The Savoy in 1966, also form The Times.

AN INVITATION FOR NEW YORK VISITORS TO BEATTIES BOOK BLOG

We hope you can join us Tuesday, October 2, for a reading by local author
Edmund White from his recently published novel, Hotel de Dream.

White's historical novel portrays the tragic moments of literary giant Stephen Crane on his deathbed, wasting away from tuberculosis, as he dictates his final novel.

Edmund White
HOTEL DE DREAM
Tuesday, October 2
7.00 p

Three Lives & Company
154 W 10 Street, bet. Sixth & Seventh Avenues
West Village

Tel. 212.741.2069
www.threelives.com

subway:
A/C/E or B/D/F/V -- W 4th St
1 -- Christopher St/Sheridan Sq

Review from The Guardian.

Review from the International Herald Tribune.

How the new Mr Books plans to change the way we read

In the first interview after his surprise takeover of Borders, Luke Johnson plans expanding into toys .

From The Observer 23 September

It is hard to resist scanning a new acquaintance's bookshelf for a clue to their personality.

Take Luke Johnson's favourite novels: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson and Nostromo by Joseph Conrad. In between chairing Channel 4, sitting on several boards and writing a newspaper column, he is currently reading - 'before I go to bed, when I travel on trains and on holiday, and sometimes on a Sunday afternoon if the children will let me,' - JG Ballard's Kingdom Come .

There is no obvious theme linking the three books - unless, perhaps, it is excess
in a capitalist world. He rates Fear and Loathing as 'a brilliant
description of Las Vegas, which is America at one extreme'. Nostromo
appeals to him as 'an incredibly clever description of capitalism in the
19th century in Latin America'. Ballard's recent novel is a satire of
consumerism gone mad.

This weekend Johnson,who made his name at Pizza Express, became Britain's third biggest
bookseller with his surprise purchase of Borders for £10m. In an interview
yesterday he told The Observer about plans for a new Borders online store,
a possible expansion into computer games, stationery and toys, and the
probable demise of CDs and DVDs. But any suspicions that his interest is
purely capitalist will be tempered by his impassioned plea for books'
inherent social value.

'Books are different, as people have always argued through the ages,' the 45-year-old said. 'They are a cornerstone of civilisation, so they're not quite like other
consumer products. They are fundamental to intellectual development. The
very depressing statistics you read about the coincidence of dyslexia and
prison inmates suggest that in the modern world if you can't read and
don't enjoy reading it's a major disadvantage. I think a home that doesn't
have books is a bit of a sad place, really.'

The full story from The Observer on Sunday.

WYOMING STORIES Annie Proulx 4th estate $30

I reviewed this collection on Radio New Zealand National earlier today. Here are my notes:

Annie Proulx is of course one of the truly great contemporary American writers. Amazingly her first novel, Postcards, was published when she was 56 years of age. It won her the Pen/Faulkner Award. Then came perhaps her greatest work, The Shipping News, which won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the Irish Times International Prize and really established her as a very fine writer. After that were two more novels Accordian Crimes and That Old Ace in the Hole. All four novels received much critical acclaim.

In between these novels came three collections of short stories – Heart Songs, Close Range and Bad Dirt and before Annie Proulx’s legions of fans get too excited about a new work from her this title we are reviewing today is not a new collection but rather the combining into one book of the two previous collections published as Close Range and Bad Dirt. It says a lot for Proulx that even though it is not a new work it is still being reviewed as if it were. She has of course won many awards for her short stories including the O.Henry Prize on two occasions. Her stories often appear in collections of The Best American Short Stories, in fact I recall seeing stories by her in collections put together by both Garrison Keillor and John Updike. So she is up there with the very best, no question of that.

It’s a big book, more than 500 pages, so if you have a long plane journey ahead of you, or a Pacific island holiday planned, then this is the book to take with you.
Each of the two books that make up this omnibus edition contained 11 stories and so in this new title there are 22 short stories.

Of course the first collection, Close Range , contained Brokeback Mountain, the 32 page story from which the Academy award-winning film of the same name was made. After the film was released and became such a hit the paperback edition of Close Range containing the Brokeback Mountain story became an enormous best-seller being reprinted 19 times.
Interestingly Brokeback Mountain, like many of her short stories was first published in The New Yorker. In her acknowledgements she speaks fondly of working with Bill Buford the fiction editor at The New Yorker.

So these stories, as the book’s title suggests, are all set in Wyoming where the author has lived since 1994. They are mostly stories of the harsh, lonely beauty of that state and the country folk who live and work there. The stories are often of people with little hope living in tough conditions, I guess you could call them extreme environments, and there is a sadness that pervades many of them. Brokeback Mountain itself is a superb piece of writing but it is an extremely sad story.
You don’t read this book then to be cheered up, but you do read it if you enjoy short fiction of the highest quality with masterful use of the language by a woman writing at the top of her game.

Author pic from the New Yorker. There is a lot of other information & review coverage of her titles on this site, its worth a visit.

Hazard Press goes into liquidation

Sad story from The Press.

Christchurch publisher Hazard Press has gone into liquidation, two months before its 21st anniversary.
Liquidator Iain Nellies, of Insolvency Management, said there were a number of secured creditors who were substantially out of pocket. However, he was still in the process of establishing how much money was owed and how many creditors there were.
"We're just getting all the information together and establishing what the exact position is with all the creditors."
Hazard Press is an independent publisher with more than 450 titles in print. It publishes a range of mostly non-fiction books as well as literary fiction and young-adult fiction.
It is privately owned and has six shareholders, including director Quentin Wilson who owns two-thirds of the shares through his company Roseneath Consulting.
The company was placed into liquidation at the request of the shareholders.
Nellies said he was working through issues surrounding authors who had contracts with Hazard Publishing for published books and for books due to be published.

Footnote.

Bookman Beattie extends his regret and sympathy to Quentin Wilson, long-time publisher at Hazard Press at this development. He has been a courageous and imaginative publisher being especially supportive of poets and new writers, two areas traditionally difficult in which to publish.

Borders announces sale of UK arm

Borders UK and Ireland has been sold to Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson's Risk Capital Partners for a £10m up front cash payment plus an additional deferred £10m cash consideration.

Borders Group will retain an equity interest of around 17% in the business
The transaction includes all 41 Borders superstores in the UK, the Borders superstore in Ireland and all 28 Books Etc stores in the UK. Risk Capital Partners also retains the right to use the Borders and Books Etc brand names. Risk Capital Partners has set up a new, wholly-owned subsidiary, Bookshop Acquisitions, for the purpose of acquiring Borders.

Chief executive David Roche will remain as c.e.o. of Borders UK and Ireland and will become a shareholder going forward. Together with RCP he will carry out a comprehensive plan to revitalise the business. He said that the transaction would transform the balance sheet of the business going forward: "it will be virtually debt free and have tangible net worth of over £75m,".

Roche said: "The securing of a new investor is exciting and good news for Borders in the UK and Ireland and a great compliment to our brand, business and staff. Moreover, I am delighted that out of the options presented over the past months, this is this one that has the most potential to provide continuity of the Borders experience that we have all worked so hard to build since our launch in 1998. It has been almost 6 months since we announced the start of this process back in March and we now have a agreeable result and a stimulating future that is in our own hands. This interim period can often prove a major, and negative, distraction to the strongest of businesses. I am so proud of everyone working across Borders that our performance has actually grown and improved significantly over this period. With the support and experience of RCP, I am relishing the opportunity to lead the company to success in the future."

Luke Johnson, chairman of Risk Capital Partners, said: "We are excited by the opportunity presented by Borders UK and Ireland and pleased that Borders Group will have an equity position in the new company. We intend to build on the strength of the business and this well-respected brand as one of the UK's largest book retailers. Our strategy will focus on improving sales and optimizing the store base while improving margins and inventory management."
Johnson said that he believed "passionately in the future of books and think Borders has a great formula". He added: "These are mostly well-invested, new shops in excellent locations. Around 30 million customers visited the stores last year, with an average dwell time of an hour. We have an experienced management team now free to run the business as an independent British operation. We know many book buyers want to browse and get great personal service, and we believe Borders delivers that. As a published writer from a family of writers, I understand the cultural importance of books and have seen through Richard & Judy's book club at Channel 4 how people can be stimulated to buy and read books."
"The sale of our U.K. and Ireland subsidiaries is a major step forward in our previously announced strategic plan to drive a turnaround of Borders Group," said Borders Group c.e.o. George Jones. "This sale allows us to focus investment and resources on our core business, which is the US superstore segment, and gives the UK and Ireland business the opportunity to succeed with the focus and investment Risk Capital Partners will bring. In addition, the equity interest Borders Group received allows our company to participate in the potential future upside of the U.K. business."

Borders Asia Pacific is not included in the sale. Neither is the company's Paperchase operation, which includes shops within existing Borders stores in the UK and Ireland, and in Borders superstores in the US, as well as its freestanding stores in the UK.
Borders Group said it will incur a non-cash, after-tax loss for the sale of the UK and Ireland subsidiaries of approximately $115 million with minimal tax benefit. The loss will be recorded in the third quarter.

ESPECIALLY FOR TRAIN LOVERS

"MAKING RAILWAY HISTORY”

presented by Neill Atkinson -

Wednesday 3 October 2007
Ground Floor, Radio NZ House, 155 The Terrace, Wellington.
12.15pm to 1.30pm.

This seminar will explore new approaches to New Zealand's railway history, a subject that has been exhaustively researched by enthusiasts but largely ignored by academic historians. It will also consider the Railways Department's role as a history-maker. Years before the 1940 Centennial, this state agency was publishing historical booklets, tourist guides and a monthly general-interest magazine, blurring the lines between public history and publicity.

Enquiries to: lyn.belt@mch.govt.nz
www.mch.govt.nz/events.html

And watch out for Neill's superb new book being published by Random House on 5 October - TRAINLAND

This will be reviewed by Bookman Beattie next week.

BANNED BOOKS WEEK - From the Los Angeles Times Sept.23.

GET hooked on a banned book.

That's the American Library Assn.'s mantra for Banned Books Week, which begins Saturday.

Part of living in a democracy means respecting each other's differences and the right of all people to choose for themselves what they and their families read," Judith F. Krug, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, said in a statement.

In 2006, there were 546 reported challenges to remove books from library shelves, most (61%) made by parents and most (71%) involving schools.

Topping the list was "And Tango Makes Three," a tale of two male penguins parenting an egg from a mixed-sex penguin. Toni Morrison's novels "Beloved" and "The Bluest Eye" also made the list, but the most challenged books of the 21st century remain J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" novels.

As part of Banned Books Week, libraries and bookstores are expected to schedule readings and special events through Oct. 6. Other sponsors are the American Booksellers Assn., the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Assn. of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Assn. of College Stores.

Cover image above from the Wikipedia website.

Thousands of hyphens perish as English marches on

About 16,000 words have succumbed to pressures of the internet age and lost their hyphens in a new edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.
Bumble-bee is now bumblebee, ice-cream is ice cream and pot-belly is pot belly.
And if you've got a problem, don't be such a crybaby (formerly cry-baby).

The hyphen has been squeezed as informal ways of communicating, honed in text messages and emails, spread on websites and seep into newspapers and books.
"People are not confident about using hyphens anymore, they're not really sure what they are for," said Angus Stevenson, editor of the Shorter OED, the sixth edition of which was published this week.
Another factor in the hyphen's demise is designers' distaste for its ungainly horizontal bulk between words.
"Printed writing is very much design-led these days in adverts and websites, and people feel that hyphens mess up the look of a nice bit of typography," he said. "The hyphen is seen as messy looking and old-fashioned."

The full story is on the New Zealand Herald's website.

THE AGE OF TURBULENCE – Adventures in a New World
Alan Greenspan Allen Lane $65

Greenspan is something of a phenomenon having been born in 1926 and until his retirement last year had been Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board since Ronald Reagan appointed him to the post 20 years before.
Remarkably his working life did not start in the world of financé & economics, rather he studied the clarinet at New York’s famed Julliard School, (he had started playing the clarinet when he was 12, these were the days of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw & other great jazz musicians), and later working as a professional musician he earned his BA, MA, and PhD in Economics from New York University.

This is a huge and handsome hardback book of 530+ pages (plus another 32 pages of interesting b&w photograpahs) and I felt somewhat daunted when I picked it up. However what Greenspan has done in a most readable way is to tell the story of his life and in so doing also show how the global economy got to where it is today, (hence his book’s title, The Age of Turbulence), and where he sees the future.

Along the way of course he worked with every US president from Nixon to George W. Bush as well as British Prime Ministers Thatcher, Blair & Brown and almost every other significant political leader from around the globe

The publishers claim that The Age of Turbulence is Alan Greenspan’s personal & intellectual legacy. I think that is a fair claim.

There is a problem with the cover colours on my blog, sorry about that.

The book has received enormous review attention worldwide and here are just a couple of those reviews:

From the New Zealand Herald this past Saturday. This is an Aussie slant!

And from The New York Times. An excellent review.

Dave Eggers's pet project breathes new life into the publishing world.
McSweeney's Issue 22 - good things come in beautiful packages.

Dave Eggers, best known for his novels A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and What Is the What, founded McSweeney's in 1998. These days McSweeney's has grown to become a publishing house. It produces this quarterly publication, a monthly magazine, a DVD "magazine" and an active website, as well as books, both fiction and nonfiction, published in four imprints.

It's an independent powerhouse that could only exist in a market as big as the US but there is still much that Australian publishers could learn from its success. For a start, with its innovative use of technology such as the internet and DVDs, as well as its integration of events including live music, McSweeney's breathes real life into the publishing world.

Then there is the beautiful design of its publications, of which this issue is a great example. At first glance it appears to be a leather-bound hardback. The hard cover encloses three paperbacks, each of which can be removed and returned thanks to an ingenious magnetic spine. Sure, it's gimmicky but it's also very useful. Instead of lugging around a heavy, 473-page tome, readers can remove a section and slip it into their jacket pocket.

Read the full story from the Sydney Morning Herald via this link.

Footnote: Bookman Beattie bought issue 22 of McSweeney's in New York in August and a local review will appear shortly.

MICHAEL KING THE PENGUIN HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND ILLUSTRATED
Publication October $65.00

I’m sure Michael would be delighted to learn that his mega best-selling Penguin History of New Zealand is to be published in a most handsome and sumptuous illustrated hardcover edition.

After all it uses his wonderful original full text, (full texts are frequently a casualty with illustrated editions), to which David Filer has added some 300 photographs and other illustrations. And what a marvelous collection of illustrations.

Even if you have already read the book, (and judging by the vast sales the book has enjoyed, one would have thought that everyone in NZ has read it), prepare to spend several hours browsing the photographs, cartoons, paintings and posters.

For the record David Filer is an experienced historian, writer and illustrations researcher. He has written several works of New Zealand military history and has played a prominent role in historical and illustrations research for a number of major television series, including ‘Frontier of Dreams’. He lives in Wellington.

Well done Penguin Books, a wonderful addition to our national library.

Basic instincts - A life in writing

Steven Pinker caused outrage by arguing that everything from adultery to altruism has its roots in natural selection. His work on irregular verbs still provokes hate mail Oliver

This summer, the linguist and evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker flew to London on the kind of mission that is all part of the job, when your job is the nebulous one of "intellectual rock star". His publishers had arranged for him to be the headline act at a gathering of senior buyers in the book trade, and his presence was intended to let a little of his glamour rub off on the rest of the firm's titles.

Pinker, who has just turned 53, seems built for the limelight to an almost parodic degree, with his Roger Daltrey hair, prominent jawline, and fondness for jeans and leather boots. His latest book, The Stuff of Thought, revels in its mass appeal, drawing conclusions about the human brain from the cute mistakes that children make ("we holded the baby rabbits") and the rich lexicon of swearing. "Think of the transitive verbs for sex ... fuck, screw, hump, ball, dick, bonk, bang, shag, pork, shtup," Pinker writes in one typical section. "They're not very nice, are they?"

Full story from the Guardian on Saturday.

Pinker caricature above from his website.

Penguin Books New Zealand advise NZ release date for The Stuff of Thought is November, RRP $39.95

Why Jordan is better read than Ian McEwan
As highbrow literature becomes dwarfed by celebrity biographies, Adam Lusher, writing in the Daily Telegraph, investigates why model Katie Price is better read than Ian McEwan.

Katie Price's Crystal outsold the Booker shortlist
Fears for the future of the literary novel have been heightened by the revelation that a book by Katie Price, the surgically enhanced model, has outsold the entire Booker Prize shortlist.
Sales for the Man Booker Prize contenders show that the combined efforts of the cream of Britain's literary talent cannot match the appeal of Crystal, by Katie Price, the topless model better known as Jordan.
Figures that make grim reading for lovers of highbrow literature show that Crystal is beating the combined sales of all six works on the Man Booker shortlist.

A study provided by Nielsen BookScan shows UK sales of all hardback and paperback editions of Crystal reaching 159,407 copies. Despite a deluge of publicity about the shortlist, the six Booker hopefuls can muster only 120,770 copies between them.

The revelation has thrown the literary world into depression – and contradicts the claim by author Martin Amis last week that the literary novel is "in rude health".

Use this link to the Daily Telegraph to read the full story, but be warned, its a little depressing!

jamie at home – Cook Your Way to the Good Life

Jamie Oliver Michael Joseph $75

New Zealand publication date is 5 October but those good folks over on the North Shore at Penguin Books know how I have been counting down the days to get my hands on Jamie’s latest book so on Friday they delivered me an advance copy. Yay! You can guess what I have been doing all weekend! Yes, reading the book from cover to cover, and I can tell you that the lad has done it again. Another winner.
I own all of his books of course, and use them too, but I think this one will prove to be the best yet. I have already marked 17 recipes for early use. What about curried cauliflower fritters? Crispy & sticky chicken thighs with squashed new potatoes & tomatoes? Or Incredible smashed peas and broad beans on toast – I fancy that for a Sunday brunch.

In Jamie’s intro, (which he calls “a nice little chat”), he tells us something of his philosophy for the book,(it is divided into the four seasons), of the pleasure it has been to write, and confesses that he has fallen in love with his garden, and his vege patch in particular.

Here is one of the paragraphs from his nice little chat:

I grew up watching that TV programme, The Good Life, about Barbara and Tom, the couple who didn’t have much but grew everything themselves. They lived next door to the posh couple called Margo and Jerry, who did have everything but weren’t all that happy. Thinking back, which couple did we all aspire to be? And would it be the same couple these days? My view is that we’re all pretty spoilt now, as far as luxuries are concerned, but I reckon that the best luxury in life comes from experience (“luxuriance” as a mate of mine recently called it) and knowledge, and I think food and cooking are among the most important things out there for us to learn about.

Good on ya Jamie. I’m with you on that one. I’d add wine to the list too!

More later about jamie at home, remember that New Zealand publication date is 5 October. Put your name down now at your local bookstore or library.

EXIT MUSIC Ian Rankin Orion $37

This review of mine appeared in the Sunday Star Times today and is reproduced here for those who are outside the SST distributiuon area.

This is the 20th and final title in Ian Rankin’s hugely successful Inspector Rebus series.
I have read them all, not a dud among them, in fact I think they got better and better as the series progressed. There is no doubt for me that Rankin is the number one British author working in the crime fiction genre.

His plots are always topical, the previous title, The Naming of the Dead, was built around the G8 Conference when it was held in Edinburgh, while this latest one includes several references to the London murder of Alexander Litvinenko, which occurs around the same time, November 2006, as the murder in Rebus’ last case, that of a dissident Russian poet in Edinburgh following a reading to promote his latest collection of verse.

This brutal murder occurs ten days before the compulsory retirement at 60 of Detective Inspector Rebus, something his superiors are keenly looking forward to, while his longtime colleague, DS Siobahn Clarke, has very mixed feelings.

At first the murder looks to be an abortive mugging but the presence in Edinburgh of a delegation of Russian businessmen tends to muddy the waters and as Rebus and Clarke and others in their team dig deeper the attack appears to be less random, something far more sinister.

The close scrutiny of the Russian delegation by Rebus’ team starts to annoy the Scottish authorities and all sorts of pressures are brought to bear. Rebus, renowned for his irascibility and unpredictability is desperate to resolve the case before his departure, a task made all the more difficult when three days before his retirement ,in a moment of great provocation his superior bans him from Gayfield Square Police Station.

Underlying the story is the presence of Ger Cafferty, the Edinburgh gangster who has long been Rebus’ nemesis, and who Rebus has always wanted to “put away”.

There is a significant amount of dialogue in the novel, (Rankin is a master of dialogue), with much of it taking place in various bars, and in particular Rebus’ “home” bar, The Oxford. This is a real Edinburgh pub where Rebus has always drunk, and where Rankin drinks in real life. Indeed the medical team of Professor John Gates and Doctor John Hurt who are always called in to do the grisly work in the Rebus novels are named after the owner and the barman at The Oxford.

Inevitably the case is solved, following a few unexpected twists, we attend the farewell party for Rebus, at The Oxford of course, where among his gifts is an I-Pod, most appropriate as he is fond of a wide range of popular music which has always been a major part of his life – “My exit music, Rebus commented with a look close to contentment”. There is also a bottle of 25 year-old malt, also appropriate.

So will he be back? Certainly not as a policeman as it is mandatory to retire at 60 in Scotland, but there is a slight hint that he might sign up with the Serious Crime Unit, “three retired detectives whose job was to look at unsolved”.

Time will tell I guess, Rankin may well be tired of him after 20 novels, and 20 years.
I for onewill be sorry to see him go.

Rankin is visiting New Zeland in November, we may get a chance to ask him about Rebus' future.

Here is Rankin's NZ itinerary:

· Tuesday 20th November: ‘An Evening with Ian Rankin’, Rosnini College, 7pm, tickets $15 available from Ticketek
· Wednesday 21st November: ‘An Afternoon with Ian Rankin’, Glenroy Auditorium, Dunedin, for free tickets call 03 474 3690 or visit your local library
· Wednesday 21st November: ‘An Evening with Ian Rankin’, Holiday Inn Centre, Christchurch, tickets $12 available from The Press office, or call Ruth on 03 384 4721
· Thursday 22nd November: ‘The Final Cut’, Rutherford House, Wellington. Tickets available at http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/index.html
· Thursday 22nd November: Rebus strikes for the last time! Martinborough Wine Cente, Martinborough. Tickets available from Hedleys bookstore or book at www.hedleysbooks.co.nz
· Friday 23rd November: Dymocks Literary Lunch, Rendezvous Hotel. Enquires and bookings phone: 09 5208805, or email newmarket@dymocks.co.nz

Critics Right and Left Protest Book Removals
From the New York Times, September 21, 2007

The federal Bureau of Prisons is under pressure from members of Congress and religious groups to reverse its decision to purge the shelves of prison chapel libraries of all religious books and materials that are not on the bureau’s lists of approved resources.

'Standardized Chapel Library Project' Lists
These lists were provided by a source who works in the federal prison system. The exact date of the lists is unknown, and they may have been revised.
Bahai
Buddhist
Catholic
General Spirituality
Hindu
Islam
Jehovah's Witnesses
Judaism
Messianic
Mormon
Nation of Islam
Native American
Orthodox
Other Religions
Pagan
Protestant
Rastafarian
Sikh
Yoruba

Related
Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries (September 10, 2007)

Outrage over the bureau’s decision has come from both conservatives and liberals, who say it is inappropriate to limit inmates to a religious reading list determined by the government.

Use this link to read the full story.

BITCH & FAMOUS Wendyl Nissen

On Thursday last I received an e-mail press release from Harper Collins NZ that I immediately posted to my blog.

It read as follows:

HarperCollins Publishers regrets to advise that they have agreed with Wendyl Nissen not to proceed with the publication of Bitch & Famous.
The book was due to be published on 1 October 2007. Tony Fisk, Managing Director of HarperCollins Publishers (NZ), has expressed his disappointment at the decision.

I responded the press release asking simply, What’s the story? To this I received an even briefer reply, No story.

Well now I have read the Sunday Star Times and the Herald on Sunday and both papers carried pieces that show that indeed there is a story. A major story.

It would seem, assuming the reports are correct, that Harper Collins Australia got cold feet and required a further legal opinion as to whether or not the material was defamatory. The author did not accept that this was necessary and asked that rights in the book be reverted to her to which Harper Collins agreed.

Since then, according to the Sunday Star Times both Penguin Books and Allen & Unwin have expressed interest in publishing the title.
The Herald on Sunday, a more sensational paper than the Sunday Star Times, which gives the story almost a page as opposed to the Times quarter page, carries the following especially interesting para:

Harper Collins won’t say why it was pulled other than to acknowledge a “legal issue”. But the Herald on Sunday believes intervention by Harper Collins Australia, as a result of a letter from Auckland writer and producer Colin Hogg, is behind the move. Details of references to Hogg – Nissen’s boss at the Auckland Star in the 80s – were leaked to him.

The long piece from the Herald on Sunday concludes:

In the meantime, Bitch & Famous, is in limbo. Nissen says she won’t be making any changes and might even add another chapter.

So there!

Read the full story from the Herald on Sunday here.

LITERARY ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

After last week's ceremony Wellington children's bookseller John McIntyre contacted me to say what a superb speech Fiona Farrell had made in accepting her award.

Courtesy of Creative New Zealand you can now hear this address, and those of the other two winners, Dick Scott and Bill Manhire. Use this link for their speeches plus author profiles and other information.

STUNNING WORLD CLASS TURANDOT PRODUCTION

Puccini’s final opera, Turandot, opened to great acclamation in Auckland on Thursday evening. After the Auckland season, details at. http://www.nzopera.co.nz/, the production will move to Wellington.

Margaret Medlyn in the title role is an absolute star but there are many other superb performances as well – I was most taken by Maria Constanza Nocentini as Liu and Dongwon Shin as Calaf. And in especially fine form the 60 members of the Chapman Tripp Chorus.

This is opera as good as you will see it. Don’t miss it !

Here is William Dart’s review from the New Zealand Herald today. Pic also from NZ Herald.

SIX PACKS DOMINATE THE BESTSELLERS LIST

After only being on sale for two weeks The Six Pack Two, an anthology of new NZ writing published to celebrate NZ Book Month, is the number one bestseller on the Booksellers New Zealand Bestsellers List for New Zealand Fiction.

It’s sister publication, the first Six Pack, has also returned to the list at number five. Project Director Phil Twyford says, “The Six Pack Two reaching number one on the bestsellers list so swiftly reflects the huge interest the New Zealand public has shown in NZ Book Month and New Zealand writing. The fact that last year’s Six Pack is also a bestseller again shows that these NZ Book Month anthologies are becoming collectible and they will stand the test of time.”

Booksellers New Zealand CEO Linda Henderson says, “It is fantastic to see so many New Zealanders supporting NZ Book Month by buying and reading The Six Pack Two. The book offers everyone the opportunity to sample a selection of great New Zealand fiction during this celebration of New Zealand books.” The Booksellers New Zealand Bestsellers List represents the best selling books in New Zealand for the two weeks up to the date given. 30,000 copies of The Six Pack, an anthology of new New Zealand writing have been published to celebrate NZ Book Month 2007. Booksellers around the country have reported strong sales and exceptional public interest in the book and the six winners: scriptwriter and current Writer in Residence at Victoria University Dave Armstrong; one of New Zealand’s most successful and promising writers Charlotte Grimshaw; poet, novelist and former Te Mata Estate Poet Laureate Elizabeth Smither; emerging novelist and poet Tracey Slaughter; and new authors Faith Oxenbridge and Jennifer Lane.

A NZ Book Month competition led to the selection of the six winning pieces in the anthology. The authors each received $5,000 prize money for winning. Their identities were kept secret as their entries were judged by a public online poll at http://www.nzbookmonth.co.nz/ and a panel of judges including author and literary legend Dame Fiona Kidman, presenter of TV2's 20/20 programme Miriama Kamo, journalist and media personality Finlay Macdonald, retiring Director of Auckland University Press Elizabeth Caffin, and Joan Mackenzie, Book Manager for Whitcoulls.

To ensure that it will be accessible to all New Zealanders, three complimentary copies of The Six Pack Two have been donated to every secondary school and public library in the country, and it is available from all good bookstores for only $6. Last year’s inaugural NZ Book Month Six Pack spent 14 weeks on the Bestsellers List. NZ Book Month, from 3-30 September 2007, is a month long celebration of NZ books and NZ writers which aims to get more New Zealanders reading New Zealand books and to inspire book lovers all over the country.

Visit http://www.nzbookmonth.co.nz/ to explore how NZ Book Month has something for everyone.

Kid Lit Experts Converge on Katonah

Wednesday night, the Katonah Museum of Art hosted a panel discussion on children's books featuring Scholastic editorial director David Levithan (also a major novelist in his own right), Schwartz and Wade co-founders Anne Schwartz & Lee Wade, author and illustrator Istvan Banyai, and Roaring Brook Press co-founder Deborah Brodie. Jude Watson, a writer for young readers who served as a judge on last year's National Book Award jury in the category, was one of the organizers of the event and shared a choice moment from the evening:

"Anne Schwartz told a great anecdote about spotting a New Yorker cover and asking the illustrator to come in," Watson emails. "He arrived, a 'weird-looking guy with a goatee' and announced that he wouldn't illustrate anyone else's text, but he happened to have a 95-page book he'd illustrated for his niece. These are things you do not want to hear at a first meeting with an illustrator. Then, he opened the book. Anne said he had page after page of incredible black and red drawings. She'd never seen anything like them before. His niece's name? Olivia. Ian Falconer got a book contract on the spot and a childrens book legend was born."

Later, Levithan discussed "the curse of Goodnight Moon," wherein the simplicity makes people imagine it would be easy to do a similar book if they just come up with the idea...but studying the book closely would reveal the meticulous crafting that went into its creation. Picture books may seem easy to write, Levithan warned, but they are extremely hard to do well.

See David Levithan Wikipedia website.

Story from mediabistro.com

YET ANOTHER REASON TO AVOID FLYING THRU THE U.S.

U.S. Airport Screeners Are Watching What You Read

International travelers concerned about being labeled a terrorist or drug runner by secret Homeland Security algorithms may want to be careful what books they read on the plane. Newly revealed records show the government is storing such information for years.

Privacy advocates obtained database records showing that the government routinely records the race of people pulled aside for extra screening as they enter the country, along with cursory answers given to U.S. border inspectors about their purpose in traveling. In one case, the records note Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore's choice of reading material, and worry over the number of small flashlights he'd packed for the trip.

The breadth of the information obtained by the Gilmore-funded Identity Project (using a Privacy Act request) shows the government's screening program at the border is actually a "surveillance dragnet," according to the group's spokesman Bill Scannell.
"There is so much sensitive information in the documents that it is clear that Homeland Security is not playing straight with the American people," Scannell said.

Read the full report from WIRED.

Footnote: It is this sort of thing that made me decide to fly to London for the Man Booker Awards via Asia rather than thru the U.S. The attitude of the security people at L.A. when we passed through last month puts me off ever wanting to use LAX again. A place to be avoided at all costs.

BORDERS UK HOLD LAST-EVER CONFERENCE?

BORDERS HELD WHAT must surely be its last conference under the present ownership this week and the mood was positive and upbeat, even without an announcement that the offer from Luke Johnson's Risk Capital Partners had been accepted by Borders US. The bid was widely expected to go through imminently, with CEO, David Roche, telling guests at the Hotel Russell in Bloomsbury on Monday night: “I am extremely confident that we will have something exciting to announce later in the week.”

As if to underline this confidence, the Project Ocean team that has worked on Borders UK Vendor Due Diligence for prospective purchasers, was named Team of the Year at the company's internal awards. Other awards went to Nicky Boardman (Superstore General Manager (GM) of the Year, Norwich); Amanda Temlett (Store GM of the Year, Victoria Street, Victoria); Derrick Reilly, Property (Outstanding Contribution Award); Blanchardstown, Dublin (Superstore of the Year); Stansted Airport (Store of the Year); and Eileen Parkes of the Solihull store (Bookseller of the Year). The week held both good and bad news for the company. Ahead of the opening of its new superstore in Cardiff next Friday, it announced the closure of Borders in Gallions Reach, Beckton, East London, in October. Roche said: “Despite the very best efforts of a talented team, the store has not reached its targets. This is the only Borders store we have closed in the UK and the decision was not taken lightly.” The shop employs 26 staff which it hopes to relocate.

Publishers at the conference were unanimous in not wanting WHSmith to remove the only real alternative to Waterstone's, but analysts contacted by PN warned that the headline- making activities of the global money markets in the last fortnight could slow any deal. “Assets are being re-priced every day which will make people revisit deals,” said David Stoddart at Teather & Greenwood. “The uncertainty in the US has spread its tentacles far and wide and made banks less willing to lend.” Richard Ratner at Seymour Pierce believed that Borders US “may have to take as little as £20m now”, while sources close to Johnson told PN: “They're still negotiating. You cannot be oblivious to what has happened in the money markets, but they certainly haven't given up.”

This report from Publishing News, essential reading for everybody in the business of books

This press release is just in from Bloomsbury, via their NZ agents Allen & Unwin:

Major Motion Picture Deal for AGENT ZIGZAG, by Ben MacIntyre

A dazzling review in the New York Times turned early film interest into a major bidding war for movie rights to Ben Macintyre’s AGENT ZIGZAG: The True Wartime Story of Eddie Chapman: Lover, Traitor, Hero, Spy, published by Bloomsbury in the UK earlier this year, and by Harmony in the States this month.

(Author pic, right, from the New York Times).


In AGENT ZIGZAG, Macintyre presents the first, complete story of Eddie Chapman, a criminal, con man, and philanderer who was recruited and trained by the Nazis at the beginning of World War II. Chapman quickly became a master of espionage, and while on a mission to destroy an airplane factory in Britain, contacted the M15, Britain’s Secret Service, thus beginning his life as a double-agent.
For the next four years he would continue to work for the Germans, all the while spying on his comrades on behalf of the Allied forces. Smart, cunning, and completely unpredictable, Chapman was as much hero as he was villain, one who made an indelible mark on history.

A real-life James Bond figure, Chapman’s “incredible wartime adventures, recounted in Ben Macintyre’s rollicking, spellbinding ‘Agent Zigzag,’ blend the spy-versus-spy machinations of John le Carré with the high farce of Evelyn Waugh” (William Grimes, The New York Times).

WELLINGTON - WRITERS ON MONDAYS

24 September: Short/Sharp/Script (1)

Scriptwriting is in the spotlight this week as professional actors give rehearsed readings from plays by writers taking the MA (Script) workshop, chaired by Ken Duncum. Five scripts, one lunch-hour, and always one of our fastest-moving and most unpredictable events! This session features work by Ellie Smith, Simon Price, Kent Hainsworth, Sarah Boddy, and Catherine Bisley.

All Writers on Mondays events are open to the public and take place at City Gallery Wellington, Civic Square, at 1-2pm.
Admission is free.

For further information see http://www.vuw.ac.nz/modernletters or email modernletters@vuw.ac.nz or ring 463 6854.

TWO NEW CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS FROM OUTSIDE THE SQUARE

THE EMPTY CITY

David Megarrity & Jonathan Oxlade Lothian $33

and

THE BEDTIME TREASURY OF REAL FAIRY TALES
Jane & Graeme Smallfield Scholastic $25

THE EMPTY CITY
This is what it says about the authors which may help explain what makes this book somewhat unusual, surprising even:

David Megarrity loves writing plays, short films and music. He enjoys playing the ukulele. This is his first picture book.

Jonathan Oxlade is a theatre designer, illustrator and puppeteer. This is his first picture book.

So first time author/illustrators; it doesn’t say so but I suspect they may both be fathers of young children. Whether they are or not they have certainly produced something different, and special.

It is the story of a little boy who is “dragged through the busy city” by his Mum who will not let him visit his favourite shop, something that many young kids, and their Mums will definitely relate to It should engender much discussion during its reading but don’t worry it has a satisfying ending.
Remarkable illustrations too.
Do seek it out.

THE BEDTIME TREASURY OF REAL FAIRY TALES

The first unusual thing about this title is that it is written & illustrated by New Zealanders. Have a look at any selection of traditional fairy tales in a New Zealand bookshop or library and you’ll find they all come from the UK or USA.
Also uncommon is the fact that the book is illustrated with photographs rather than drawings.
We are given a clue to this with the copy that appears in the inside back cover:

Having spent over 20 years working his special brand of photographic/digital imaging magic for internationally acclaimed advertising campaigns and photographers such as Anne Geddes, Graeme Smallfield decided to work some magic of his own.

In collaboration with his wife Jane, a public relations consultant and writer, they created a new way to encourage children to use their imagination by illustrating well-loved fairy tales with ‘real-life’ images.

Based in Auckland, New Zealand, the books are very much a family affair with their three daughters becoming involved in assisting with the model making, prop selection and photographic shoots.

The result is a spectacular hardback book with full colour plates throughout and remarkably good value at $25.The four traditional tales, all top favourites are Hansel & Gretel, Rapunzel, Jack & the Beanstalk, and The Shoemaker & the Elves.

Sorry but the reproduction of the cover has got the colours all wrong. It is actually a rich dark blue where it shows as red and the colours in the four panels are qute different. My apologies to the authors and publisher.

This charming book will make a perfect Christmas gift for a young one in your life.

Take A Look At What Bill Clinton's Been Reading

Once the camera crews, exuberant (and nostalgia seeking) fans, and Illuminati-crying conspiracy theorists had retreated to their respective rocks last week, former President Clinton decided to do some shopping at BookPeople.

In town to raise money for Hillary's campaign at the home of long time Clinton family friend Roy Spence of GSD&M, Bill made a stop at BookPeople where he signed over a thousand copies of his new book, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World this past Friday.

Once the coast was relatively clear, secret service fanned out in formations that would have made any football coach proud. "He's heading from two to one," they whispered to one another via high-tech secret service gadgetry as Bill perused the aisles of books, picking several up for himself, Hillary, and Chelsea, while making sure to comment on anything that caught his eye.
"How about a little nighttime reading?" said Clinton with a giggle, picking up a copy of Hans-Jurgen Dopp's Ecstasy.

As he pored over the shelves of books, he half-joked about having met most of the authors. One that he pointed out in particular was Unbowed, the memoir of his "good friend" Wangari Maathai — "a little kooky, but great." She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate, and the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Bill went on about other books like Sam Huntington's Who We Are, Dave Eggers' What Is the What, How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor by Erik S. Reinert, and a host of others that you would expect a socially-conscious world leader to have read. But then he picked up James Lee Burke's latest mystery/thriller The Tin Roof Blowdown, declaring him "just great, really great," and saying this was "definitely his best book yet."
Clinton may be an Oxford-educated Rhodes Scholar, political genius, former president and potential first First Gentleman, but he still likes to occasionally read cheap paperback thrillers you'd find at an airport news stand like the rest of us.
So, in the end, what did Bill Clinton plunk down a chunk of change for after all the perusing, cooing and ahhing?

The first things Bill picked up were two copies of a book to bring back to his wife and daughter.

To read the rest of this story from The Austinist use this link.

The pic of Bill also from The Austinist whose cool logo is at right.

Paul Muldoon to become poetry editor of The New Yorker.

Alice Quinn, the poetry editor of The New Yorker, is stepping down after 20 years and will be succeeded in one of the most influential posts in the poetry world by Paul Muldoon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.

Mr. Muldoon, 56, will remain chairman of the Princeton University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts. An Irish-born poet who has published 10 volumes of verse, he will also continue to write and teach at Princeton.

Full story from the New York Times today.... Author pic also from the NYT.

A LIST OF THE TOP 50 BOOKS THAT HOOKED US INTO READING AS VOTED BY 100,000 PEOPLE

Although this is an American list I am sure most of us will recognise many of the titles.

Use this link.

Love is a lunatic city
by C K Stead

“…el amor, sino una ciudad loca.” Pablo Neruda

Tropical fruit and thunder in the mountains;
the flash of water on crazily sloping streets,
precipitation on precipitation; the yellow cabs
and battered buses racing; the tiles I walk on,
the music (samba? salsa?) my ears are hearing
over the fan’s buzz; the shout of papaya sellers;
the bank guard with his automatic rifle
and his friend with the silver revolver;
the sign outside the trauma hospital meaning
“We never close”; and in a quarter seeming
without hope, “La Esperanza – Centro Dental” …
Everywhere, derelict lives and smiling faces.

They are dining on balconies; in boulevards
their cars are killing one another; somewhere
they will be dancing in the streets – because love
is a lunatic city and a river runs through it
whose gold enticed them to this Nowhere-nonplace
where mule-tracks crossed in the mountains.
The gold is gone. Over a patch of park
where drunks and addicts die, the condors hover.
I climb the stairs to my room -– for exercise,
or is it penance? The women are beautiful,
a beauty that lasts only as the gold lasted
and then is gone, replaced by a kind of grace.

Medellin, Colombia, July ‘07

The above C.K.Stead poem appears in the New Zealand Listener this week. How fortunate we book-loving Kiwis are to have this wonderful magazine that for over 68 years and through various ownership upheavals has continued to bring us lengthy thoughtful book reviews,poetry, new fiction, criticism and comment and constantly reminds us of our identity and place in the world.

Good on ya Listener people! Bookman Beattie is a fan, keep up the great work.

DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

Auckland Sept 27 - Oct 10

Dunedin Oct 11 - 21

Christchurch Oct 25 - Nov 4

Wellington Nov 8 - 21

The popular annual Documentary Film Festival is about to get underway.

Visit the website http://www.docnz.org.nz/ for the exciting programme.

Opera buffs like me will be especially interested to see Wonders Are Many: the Making of Dr Atomic described in the Hollywood Reporter as:
“Tightly layered with uncanny insights and profound illuminations, "Wonders" is a masterful distillation of explosive elements: science, art, psychology and humanity.

Here is a review summary from the New York Times today:

The creation of atomic weapons by a team of scientists led by Robert Oppenheimer in 1945 had a powerful impact on nearly every aspect of American culture, so it's not surprising that composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars, two leading figures in contemporary opera, would collaborate on a piece about Oppenheimer and his notorious invention.

In 2005, Adams and Sellars teamed up to create Doctor Atomic, an opera that focuses on Oppenheimer during the forty-eight hours before the first test of the atomic bomb, and filmmaker Jon Else -- whose credits include The Day After Trinity, an award-winning documentary on Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project -- chronicles the writing and staging of this performance piece in the film Wonders Are Many. Wonders Are Many intercuts footage about Oppenheimer's life and career with a detailed look at Adams and Sellars deep in the creative process as they rehearse their cast, work out their staging, struggle to complete last-minute changes in the music and libretto and attend to hundreds of other details as the date of the premiere performance draws near. Originally created for broadcast on public television, Wonders Are Many also was screened at a number of major film festivals, including the 2007 San Francisco International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Pic of Peter Sellars from tigerbeat.com

White Fungus Issue 8 to be launched at Happy this Wednesday

Irreverent Wellington-based arts and culture mag White Fungus is about to launch its
eighth issue at Happy Bar and Venue this Wednesday, September, 26.

The mag, which recently celebrated its third birthday, has grown from a free photo-copied handout to a print publication distributed around the world, but editor Ron Hanson says its roots remain firmly in Wellington.

"We're interested into tapping into stuff that's going on all over the place, but we've actually
managed to connect to other cultures through the magazine without actually having to physically leave Wellington."

The magazine is now on-sale in Australia, Berlin and through out Asia. Recently the publication signed a distribution contract with Ontario-based company Disticor to distribute White Fungus in Canada and the US. The mag recently received a grant from CNZ to support the new growth.

"The distribution contract was an amazing surprise to us," Hanson says. "But we think there's growing interest in New Zealand arts and also the company, Disticor, being from Canada, I think, can relate to our situation. The founders actually started the company about 30 years ago after leaving Gordon & Gotch because it refused to actually distribute Canadian publications."

The new issue features articles on Wellington artists including electro producer Disateradio and painter Rob McLeod, as well as new poems by Vivienne Plumb, whose play, The Cape, was recently staged at Circa. The issue also includes an interview with Nicky Hager discussing The Hollowmen and election spending.

The mag is being launched at Happy for the second time, following the release of issue 7 in December last year. The party kicks off at 8pm with a hilarious and gruesome short film directed by Wellington artist Kelly Pendergrast and produced by Thierry Jutel, currently head of Victoria University media studies.

Following the film screening will be music by Fertility Festival (featuring Jeff Henderson) and the Stumps (featuring Antony Milton) and a performance by artist Tao Wells.

Entrance is $10 an includes a complimentary copy of the new issue.

Footnore from Bookman Beattie:

Damn, I love this magazine (I wrote about Ron & the magazine back in Feb & March this year) but cannot be in Wellington next Wednesday. Hey Ron, what about an Auckland launch next time?! $10 bucks including a copy of the magazine? That's a free party in my book!

Sprechen Sie Potter? How Harry is spreading the English language

Muggle, quidditch and house elf are quickly becoming part of German schoolchildren's English vocabulary thanks to huge sales of the original language Harry Potter book.
Publisher Bloomsbury revealed yesterday that its English-language version of the boy wizard's final tale has sold as many copies overseas as in the UK. In Germany alone 1m copies were sold in the last month. Pre-orders in China were more than 200% higher than those of the previous book.

As well as being popular among children learning English, the untranslated Harry Potters have seen huge demand from impatient fans who want the books as soon as they come out.
"Half of Harry Potter sales were export sales," said Bloomsbury chairman Nigel Newton.
"Readers don't want to wait while it gets translated."

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has smashed records in the UK with sales now nearing 4m, according to industry monitoring service Nielsen BookScan.

Read the full story from the Guardian here.

CHERIE BLAIR SIGNS BOOK DEAL - story from Business week

Cherie Blair has signed a book deal to write about her life as a leading British human rights lawyer and the wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, her publisher said Wednesday.

Cherie Blair's autobiography will be published in October 2008, Little, Brown Book Group said in a statement. The publisher would not discuss the terms of the deal for the book's international publishing rights.

Her memoirs will likely come out before her husband's much-anticipated memoir, which a Blair representative said last month was years away from publication with no book deal yet.
Cherie Blair's publisher said her book would be a "warm, intimate and often very funny portrait of a family living in extraordinary circumstances."

But British political observers will likely be watching for anything she says about the Blairs' reputedly stormy relationship with Tony Blair's successor, Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Cherie Blair, who will be 52 on Sept. 23, is known for being gaffe-prone; her unguarded comments on both international and internal politics have caused trouble. But she is also a respected lawyer.
As a Queen's Counsel, she is recognized as one of Britain's leading human rights lawyers. She has taken on landmark cases that sometimes brought her into conflict with her husband's government.

She fought unsuccessfully last year in Britain's highest court for a high school student's right to wear a body-covering Muslim gown. She also insisted last year that torture was never acceptable and evidence obtained through torture should be inadmissible in court. She spoke after her husband's government was accused of failing to act on the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay and the U.S. practice of "extraordinary rendition," the transfer of terror suspects to countries where they may be tortured.

A year ago, when Brown said in a speech that it had been a privilege to have worked with Tony Blair, a journalist reported hearing Cherie say: "Well, that's a lie."
She denied saying it, but Britain's leading newspapers repeated her purported remark.
The book will begin with her childhood as the daughter of actor Tony Booth, who walked out on his family when she was a child, and will describe life with a young family in 10 Downing Street.
"I feel so privileged to have traveled so far. So much has happened -- things that my grandma could never have dreamt of -- that it feels wrong somehow just to let it pass as if the journey had no meaning," she said in her publisher's statement.

She previously co-authored a book in 2004 with Cate Haste, "The Goldfish Bowl: Married to the Prime Minister, 1955-1997," about how the spouses of previous prime ministers coped with public life.

The British media is full of this story. I uplifted the above from Business Week but the Guardian and many others are carrying the same story.