Now He’s Only Hunted by Cameras

By Patricia Cohen, New York Times
Published: May 25, 2008

THE written record cannot be trusted in Salman Rushdie’s newest novel, “The Enchantress of Florence,” a story that roams from the red sandstone palace of the great Mughal emperor Akbar to the towered Palazzo in Machiavelli’s Florence. One character is erased from official history, a second is imagined into existence, a third is hopelessly mischaracterized.

First Chapter: The Enchantress of Florence (May 25, 2008)
Times Topics: Salman Rushdie

Author pic, Dave Benett/Getty Images
It is a situation with which Mr. Rushdie is all too familiar. In books and periodicals, photographs and newspapers (like this one) that capture fragments of contemporary life, he is well known to millions of people who have never read him as a damnable blasphemer of Islam, an arrogant and ungrateful British subject, or a member of a literary Brat Pack with a preference for young models.
“A cartoon of yourself is created, then it is used to attack you with,” Mr. Rushdie said over a lunch of steak tartare, French fries and a Diet Coke on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Read the full New York Times story........

A thriller in ten chapters

The Observer's literary editor Robert McCrum stood down this month after more than 10 years in the job. And what a tumultuous 10 years. When he started it was a world of 'cigarettes, coffee and strong drink'. But that has all changed - new writers, big money, the internet, lucrative prizes and literary festivals have all helped revolutionise the books world. Here he charts the changes in 10 short chapters - and wonders if an 'iPod moment' is imminent

Timeline: 1997 to 2008, a decade in books

This story from The Observer, Sunday May 25, 2008

When I joined The Observer in 1996, the world of books was in limbo between hot metal and cool word processing, but it would have been recognisable to many of our past contributors, from George Orwell and Cyril Connolly, to Anthony Burgess and Clive James. Everything smelled of the lamp. It was a world of ink and paper; of cigarettes, coffee and strong drink. Our distinguished critic George Steiner used to submit his copy in annotated typescript.

This is a superb review of the past 10 years of publishing by former Faber publisher, author and journalist Robert McCrum which I warmly recommend to you.

Link here for the full story from The Observer.

REMINDER

YARNS IN BARNS hits off this Wednesday night in Masterton, NZ at 7pm with a great night of entertainment

Enjoy a glass of Ata Rangi Celebre or Pinot Gris and listen to an hour indepth discussion between Dame Fiona Kidman and Jenny Pattrick chaired by publisher Ian F Grant

Titled FACT OR FICTION - a discussion on the processes of writing historical fiction, New Zealand history, writing a memoir - this will be an inspiring and fascinating discussion by two of New Zealand's most celebrated authors.

Full details at http://www.hedleysbooks.co.nz/

A PUBLISHER RESPONDS

Canvas and David Hill gave generous coverage and comments to My Dear Chick, reviewed on May 24.

However, David Hill says that, with modern technology, “books which may not have made it into print if submitted to mainstream publishers are increasingly appearing in shops, via personal presses”. It is unclear why he thinks My Dear Chick was the product of a ‘personal press’, a kinder way of saying ‘self-publishing’.
Possibly it was because Fraser Books and the author are both based in Masterton. In fact, Fraser Books has quietly published nearly 100 books since its first bestseller,
Sonja Davies’ Bread & Roses in 1984, and one of its principals has been publishing books for nearly 40 years. Certainly, modern technology allows short runs to be produced more economically,but has nothing to do with how well a book is shaped, edited and designed.

It is true, though, that ‘mainstream publishers’ are largely overseas owned and preoccupied with the bottom line, so often more committed to publishing books by or about marketable ‘personalities’ than the work of unknowns. Fraser Books continues to publish to give a voice to these writers and to tell stories that would otherwise be lost. There are a number of other small presses, particularly in Auckland and Wellington, who are publishing some of the country’s most interesting and important books for the same reasons.”

Ian and Diane Grant,

Fraser Books.

For more on the Grants and Fraser Books use this link.

Gutenberg's Glorious Text
Museums

By John Goodrich writing in The New York Sun, May 22, 2008

According to some, the printed word — those paper-borne squiggles of ink you're currently gazing at — will be obsolete in another generation or two. This, of course, remains to be seen, and in the meantime the Morgan Library's installation of its three Gutenberg Bibles provides a glorious reminder of the aesthetic virtues of printed text. It also illuminates the early challenges posed by the letterpress, an invention that revolutionized human communication, and spread, little changed over the next 350 years, to almost every corner of the globe.

Johann Gutenberg (c. 1400-68) did not invent printing — the Chinese had for centuries employed various printing methods — but by the 1450s in Mainz, Germany, he had developed a new ink and a means of casting moveable metal type that made large-scale production of text feasible. A press could now complete in weeks what a team of scribes formerly produced over their lifetimes. Not a great deal is known about Gutenberg's business or personal life, but his talents appear to have been manifold; they clearly included the capabilities of a mechanical inventor, a craftsman, a salesman, and above all the genius to conceive and push through a novel and highly complex enterprise. As the Morgan's installation demonstrates, he also had a fine eye for the design of the printed page.

For the full story link to The New York Sun here.

Footnote:

The Morgan Library & Museum is one of The Bookman's most favourite places in all the world. Every trip to NYC includes a visit to this marvellous repository of treasures, and the great thing is it is not too big so one is not struck down with museum fatigue which often happen to me in the larger and more famous museums around the world. And of course this museum is actually a library with extras!

Here is my brief report on my last visit there.

JOY COWLEY - WONDERFUL WRITER, GREAT NEW ZEALANDER

And of course she cleaned up the New Zealkand Post Book Awards last week so I was thrilled to see this lovely tribute to her by Nicky Pellegrino in the Herald on Sunday yesterday.Story reproduced by kind permisson of the author and the newspaper.

Accolades haven’t exactly been thin on the ground for author Joy Cowley over the course of her long career so you could forgive her for being a bit blasé about the latest one to land in her lap. But actually she sounds thrilled that her children’s novel, Snake and Lizard (Gecko) has just won the NZ Post Book of The Year prize, in the annual Children and Young Adults Literary Awards.
“I feel delighted,” says the 72-year-old writer, “although I do also feel a little for other authors who probably wish people like me and Margaret Mahy would drop off our perches! But I’m particularly pleased about this one because it’s my husband’s favourite of all my books. He likes it because Snake and Lizard are based on him and me.”

The book is a collection of gently moralistic tales about two very different creatures learning about the give and take of friendship. Lizard can be a bit excitable rather like Joy, while Snake is calmer and more sensible like Terry, her husband of 20 years. Together they adventure round the desert finding out about life and each other.
Cowley says she and her husband don’t argue quite so much as their fictional counterparts. “But we’re very different. He’s a slow, gentle man and I tend to be on the go and energetic. We compliment each other. He’s the part of me that’s missing and I’m that for him. If we’d met when we were young we wouldn’t have known how to talk to each other but because this was a mature marriage we came into it as friends. Actually I think we’re romantic as a couple. We always go to sleep holding hands and we hold hands in the street.”

Life has slowed down a lot for Wellington-based Cowley lately. A bout of ill health means her husband can no longer travel overseas and she doesn’t much want to go without him so she’s scaled back her commitments in places like Brunei, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore where she’s been running writing workshops for people whose culture is inadequately represented in their children’s books. Her own writing too is slowing down but Cowley can’t imagine giving it up altogether.
“I don’t know what I’d do otherwise,” she says. “What would I do with all those ideas? I’d probably turn into a horrible liar!”
She has a new children’s book out called Chicken Feathers, and is also somewhat tentatively embarking on her memoirs which she plans to call Navigation, “because I think that’s what life is all about.”

In the beginning storytelling was something Cowley did as an escape from her childhood. Her father suffered from a heart condition, her mother from a mental illness and she and her four younger sisters were raised on a sickness benefit.
“Both my parents were pretty violent - towards each other and us - so we tended to avoid them as much as we could,” she says. “My sisters and I told each other stories every night and they were always Indiana Jones type adventures about children like us who won no matter how hard things got. I think that was us remaking our childhood.”
The family moved around a lot and, by the time she was seven, Cowley had been to five schools. “I struggled and was a slow reader,” she recalls. “I didn’t start until I was nine. But once I discovered that reading accessed stories I was away.
Her first novels were for adults and she says they were awfully bleak. “They were obviously therapy novels. As a writer I think you’ve got to unload a lot of that stuff before you get down to the seat of creativity. I’m glad I got my therapy writing out of my system before I started writing children’s books.”
Her own childhood experiences left Cowley wanting to produce early reading books that were not just interesting and entertaining but also loved and affirmed children. She’s been prolific - publishing more than 600 stories - and children from around the world still write her letters that she tries to always respond too. Now a great grandmother, Cowley stays in touch with how children are thinking and is careful not to make her stories too didactic.
“Lots of adults write serious message books for children but when they come home from work feeling tired they don’t tune to an improving documentary, they choose an entertaining sitcom instead,” she points out. “I think sometimes we expect more from children than we do from ourselves.”
Cowley’s award-winning book, with its beautiful illustrations by Gavin Bishop, has the feel of a classic tale that will be read by children for generations.
“Throughout children’s fiction there are friends who have to find a way to friendship through thier differences,” says Cowley, “like Winnie the Pooh and Piglet or Mole and Ratty in Wind in the Willows.
So it seems like Snake and Lizard are in good company.

Nicky Pellegrino is a biographer, novelist and the book editor of the Herald on Sunday.

Her novels are Delicious, and The Gypsy Tearoom and she is currently working on her third, The Italian Wedding, due early 2009. All published by Orion.

PAUL HOLMES DISPLAYS HIS IGNORANCE & ARROGANCE

IN THE HERALD ON SUNDAY

Here he is in the final paragraph of his weekly column:

If I see a book that has won a Pulitzer Prize, I always get it. It will always be a stunner. If I see it has won the Booker Prize I know it will be a bore of a thing and avoid it like the plague. Ditto the recommendations of the Listener or the Sunday Star Times, both of which might one day start to review the books that people read. Or at least the books that men read.

My suggestion to Holmes is that he sticks to waffling on about current affairs on talk-back radio rather than making himself look a prize dork with nonsense like this.

Photo by Doug Sherring, NZ Herald.

SEBASTIAN FAULKS INTERVIEW
Bestselling author Sebastian Faulks is the brains behind the new Bond novel.

He talks exclusively to The Sunday Times

Rows of empty, shiny black dust jackets line a corridor in Penguin’s smartly renovated offices on the Strand. Each cover is flamingly emblazoned with what, at first, looks like a poppy, but is actually the silhouette of a svelte nude girl with a flamboyant head of scarlet hair. They are waiting to be wrapped around the season’s most excitedly anticipated novel. Devil May Care by “Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming” will be published worldwide on Wednesday, the centenary of the birth of the creator of James Bond. Until then, Penguin is guarding it with a ferocity Rosa Klebb would envy, and under conditions that make Dr No’s security arrangements for his Caribbean lair look slapdash.

So it is with a feeling of having accomplished a mission that would have taxed the resources of 007 himself that I settle down to talk about the book with Faulks. Outside the room where we meet in Penguin’s HQ is the spectacular view down the Thames to Westminster that Monet painted from his suite in the adjacent Savoy hotel. Facing out from the shelves around us are books representing highlights of Penguin’s publishing history, to which Devil May Care is designed to be a handsome addition. Appearing under the company’s new James Bond imprint, Penguin 007, it’s a continuation of the secret agent’s adventures, written by Faulks at the invitation of the Fleming estate.

Read this interesting story in full at The Times Online.

Hay festival: Joanna Trollope
From The Guardian:

Author pic, Matin Godwin for The Guardian

On the train down from London I was finishing the most fantastic novel called Half of a Yellow Sun. It's really about the political struggles in Nigeria, but it's also about cross-racial conflicts, and the fascinations and complexities of forming relationships between different races, creeds and cultures. It's beautifully written: it's really lyrical and also very strong, as well as being instructive about that particular conflict. It won the Orange prize and I heartily recommend it. I'm afraid I always avoid reading fantasy. I can't do fantasy, it has to be real. And I think I would have to be on a desert island before I went anywhere near a political biography. A particular example at the moment? I think I've cherry picked one from the newspapers ...
Read the rest from The Guardian online......

Putting art on their sleeves

Sydney Writers' Festival: Susan Wyndham reveals the secrets of the year's best book covers.

Looking good … Reuben Crossman, who's design for MoVida won three awards. Inset: Daniel New's award-winning cover designs for Maggie's Harvest and Gravity Sucks

It is hard to believe Daniel New when he says, "I like simple ideas." His design for Maggie's Harvest by Maggie Beer, which has been named best-designed cover in the Australian Book Design Awards, takes cookbooks to a new level of lushness.
New, 36, is a senior designer for Penguin Australia, where he works on many illustrated food and travel books in the imprint Lantern. When the publisher, Julie Gibbs, asked for something "special" for Beer's book, he thought of screen-printing on fabric an illustration of a pheasant in a tree.
But Gibbs demanded something "more special", suggesting he try an embroidered fabric cover, which she had seen on a small-edition book from Penguin UK. Doing that for an edition of 50,000-plus books was a challenge but New and the production team had the covers embroidered, padded and bound in China.
"I didn't change my design one bit," he says. Each $120 copy has a protective coating but, New says, "it's going to look beautiful even when it gets grubby".
Cookbooks have been frequent winners in the Australian Publishers Association's design awards. Another has overtaken even New's beautiful creation to take this year's awards for best-designed cookbook and overall best-designed book of the year. MoVida: Spanish Culinary Adventures also helped win Reuben Crossman, 33, the title of young designer of the year.

The full report from the Sydney Morning Herald.

THE CURRENT STATE OF BOOK PUBLISHING

There is a thoughtful essay on this subject at the Editorial Ass blog. Worth a read.

ELOISE RETURNS TO PLAZA HOTEL



NEW YORK (AP) - Eloise, the Plaza hotel's most famous fictitious resident, has officially returned to the storied landmark following a $400 million renovation -with a portrait of the mischievous 6 year old prominently displayed near its famous Palm Court dining room.

Actress Jordana Beatty poses for photographers after the unveiling of a portrait of Kay Thompson's character "Eloise" at the Plaza Hotel Wednesday, May 14, 2008 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Beatty was on hand for the unveiling ,the 9-year-old Australian actress who will play Eloise in the upcoming feature film adaptation of "Eloise in Paris," opposite Uma Thurman.
"Children of all ages have been asking for Eloise and it is our pleasure to have her call The Plaza home once again," said Shane Krige, the hotel's general manager.

The portrait was returned to its original spot on a wall outside the sumptuous restaurant, whose stained-glass ceiling, covered with plaster in the 1940s, was uncovered and restored during the two-year renovation.
The Plaza, a National Historic Landmark, first opened in 1907. It officially reopened to the public on Sunday after its new owners, Elad Properties, converted the hotel's original 805 guest rooms into 282 hotel rooms and 181 condominiums.
Read the full story..........

Longlist announced for Guardian Children's Fiction award

Claire Armitstead writing in The Guardian, Friday May 23, 2008

One of the publishing sensations of the last year becomes just a little more sensational tomorrow when Jenny Downham is shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction award for her first novel, Before I Die.
Downham, a 43-year-old former actress who lives in London, finished writing Before I Die on the last day of February 2007. Seven days later it was snapped up by publisher David Fickling, and by mid-March it had sold in 10 languages.

To read the full story go to The Guardian online.

Before I Die joins six other books on the longlist for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. They are Cosmic, by the screenwriter and novelist Frank Cottrell Boyce; The Goldsmith's Daughter, by Tanya Landman; Bad Blood, by Rhiannon Lassiter; Bog Child, by Siobhan Dowd; The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness, and The Knife that Killed Me, by Anthony McGowan.

And for Bookman Beattie's review of Before I Die written in December 2007 link here.

SPEAKING FOR MYSELF: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

By Cherie Blair, Little, Brown & Co

Did you read ths review by Barbara Ellen in The Observer last Sunday, or the New Zealand Herald yesterday, May 23? It has to be one of the most devastatingly harsh reviews I have read in many a long year. Look for the book in remainder piles before long.............

Oh, Cherie! As the journalist from the 2003 "Lippygate" story, I was there when Cherie Blair let in Marie Claire (myself and photographer Jane Hodson) to observe her having her lipstick applied by the "Juicy Couture Rasputin", Carole Caplin, on the PM's bed.
At the time, I found Cherie "flawed, shrill, a charm-free zone", as well as "weird and inappropriate" (at one point clutching my arm in the back of a car and roaring show tunes into my face).
Most of all, I saw Cherie as "wrenchingly innocent" when dealing with journalists - the "ultimate New Labour Icarus free-falling from grace under a suddenly hostile media sun". Well, free-falling is one thing - five years later, with Speaking for Myself, Cherie Blair/Booth/whatever appears finally to have landed, and with quite a splat.

The full review from the NZ Herald

And here is a slightly kinder review from The Independent.

And from The Times which says the author has nothing to say, and says it badly.

New Random House chief “will protect autonomy"

BERTELSMANN'S CHAIRMAN AND CEO, Hartmut Ostrowski said this week that the appointment of a new Chairman and CEO of Random House worldwide, Markus Dohle, will not affect the autonomy of its many different imprints. Ostrowski made the comments shortly after it was announced that the 39 year-old CEO of Bertelsmann's print company Mohn Media will take over from Peter Olson.

"Markus Dohle will grant the publishers the same independence and publishing freedom as his predecessors did. This autonomy is crucial to the success of Random House - and of Bertelsmann," Ostrowski told Bertelsmann's BeNet site. "Markus is a highly motivated entrepreneur, he is a problem-solver, an innovator, a communicator, and very smart. He is used to setting ambitious goals and achieving them with his team. These are the reasons he has been appointed to head Random House, not because of any book publishing experience he might have. Random House needs a man with his skill set now.

The full Publishing News story.........

Bookseller Says Time Is Right to End Returns

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 5/22/2008

In Barnes & Noble’s first quarter conference call, CEO Steve Riggio gave his firm backing to looking for ways to end the traditional returns practice and predicted that it could be possible to find a solution “in a year or two.” Riggio said B&N has always been open to finding alternate ways to deal with unsold books, calling the current practice “insane” and “expensive.” Changing the returns policy would lower costs for both publishers and B&N, Riggio said. He speculated that the given the current environment, publishers might be more receptive to seriously looking to change the returns model.

2008 London literature festival unveiled-

Colm Toibin,(left), Antony Gormley, Sir Ian McKellen and Wendy Cope among the contributors to this year's events

Chris Moran writing in The Guardian, Friday May 23, 2008

The programme for the 2008 London literature festival, hosted at venues across the Southbank Centre in July, is announced today.
Highlights include readings of new fiction from Colm Toibin and Jenny Diski, Sir Ian McKellen in discussion with Bishop Gene Robinson, and Tony Benn and David Davis debating democracy.

Comedienne Josie Long will provide an evening of live comedy, while Zaha Hadid and Antony Gormley will take part in a discussion of urbanism. Poetry will be provided by Wendy Cope, Simon Armitage and Lavinia Greenlaw.

The full Guardian story here.

Volumes to Go Before You Die

By Wiliam Grimes writing n The New York Times.
May 23, 2008

An odd book fell into my hands recently, a doorstopper with the irresistible title “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.” That sounds like a challenge, with a subtle insult embedded in the premise. It suggests that you, the supposedly educated reader, might have read half the list at best. Like one of those carnival strength-testers, it dares you to find out whether your reading powers rate as He-Man or Limp Wrist.

Photo illustration by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

The book is British. Of course. The British love literary lists and the fights they provoke, so much so that they divide candidates for the Man Booker Prize into shortlist books and longlist books. In this instance Peter Boxall, who teaches English at Sussex University, asked 105 critics, editors and academics — mostly obscure — to submit lists of great novels, from which he assembled his supposedly mandatory reading list of one thousand and one. Quintessence, the British publishers, later decided that “books” worked better than “novels” in the title.

The full New York Times story.....

MORE RANDOM HOUSE GOSSIP - THIS FROM THE BOOKSELLER

Bertelsmann: ready for the fallout
21.05.08 Philip Jones in The Bookseller

There are revelations aplenty in the media following the appointment of the 39-year-old German Markus Dohle to the top job at Random House, including the suggestion that Random House's outgoing c.e.o. Peter Olson had wanted to "dismiss" RH's UK head Gail Rebuck. While other reports suggest that those executives passed-over for the top job might now take their careers elsewhere.The Rebuck story comes from the The New York Times and it should be noted was shot down emphatically by Stuart Applebaum, Random House's spokesman: "I wouldn’t dignify it with a comment. I would just label it as gossip."

However, the newspaper reports that a senior Bertelsmann executive said that Olson’s split with the German management began last September when he proposed dismissing Rebuck. This was vetoed by Bertelsmann's c.e.o. Hartmut Ostrowski and Thomas Rabe, Bertelsmann’s chief financial officer.

The full Bookseller piece here.

People with an interest in New Zealand writing may wish to know of a new
website devoted to New Zealand literature.

Created by Ian Richards,("Everyday Life in Paradise", "To Bed at Noon: The Life and Art of Maurice Duggan"), the site presents literary essays on NZ writers, such as Janet
Frame and Kendrick Smithyman, and works of short fiction and poetry. The
name of the site is "No Frills New Zealand Literature" and it can be reached
at:
http://nofrillsnzlit.angelfire.com/index.html

24 HOUR BOOK SALE IN DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND

and for a good cause - restoration of the Regent Theatre.

THE BUSINESS HERALD

I always enjoy this supplement that comes each week with Friday's New Zealand Herald , a publication I guess that must be something of a worry for NBR, NZ's leading weekly financial newspaper which also hits the streets on a Friday.
One major difference between the two publications is the generous space given in NBR to the arts under the direction of veteran arts journo and man-about-town John Daly-Peoples. Rarely does one find references to the arts in The Business Herald.
So it was with some surprise this morning that I read in The Business Herald two pieces about last week's hugely successful Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.

First this in John Drinnan's always interesting MEDIA column:

THE PEOPLE'S FLAG
Left-wing political commentator Chris Trotter raised some eyebrows at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival this month, where a panel of two writers discussed the dangers of free-market globalisation.
After handling the session with some aplomb, the high-profile journo became animated in his praise of the panellists and finished by paying tribute to those who had fought for freedom.
And let us remember the words of Bob Dylan, he said, before breaking into a verse of Dylan's Chimes of Freedom, in full voice. The sing-song is a bit of a party piece for Trotter, who stood up during coverage of one election to break into a full-throated chorus of the Socialist anthem Internationale.

The second piece, by Peter Bromhead, the ultimate grumpy old man, perhaps bitter & twisted might be a better description of him, is one of the most distasteful and savage efforts at humour I have read in a long while. He takes out his own failure as an author by flailing the Festival, Kim Hill, other authors and publishers and in the end just makes himself look childish and petty. Which I guess he is.

Queen is asked to appoint first female Poet Laureate after 22 men in 340 years

By Arifa Akbar, Arts Correspondent for The Independent from where this excerpt is taken.

Pic left by Chris Watt in The Independent shows poet Jackie Kay,one of those mentioned in the following story.

Ever since the Royal household crowned John Dryden as the first Poet Laureate in 1668, the honour has been bestowed on men of letters from William Wordsworth to Ted Hughes. No woman has ever held the position.
But now, organisers of one of the most significant poetry festivals have decided that the wait for a female laureate has been long enough. Chloe Garner, director of the Ledbury Poetry Festival, has made an impassioned call for the appointment of a female poet laureate to redress the imbalance in the 22 male laureates chosen over three centuries.
Yesterday, Ms Garner wrote a letter to the Queen, Gordon Brown, the Tory leader David Cameron, and the Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, in which she calls for the appointment of a female poet laureate when the position falls vacant next year. She is to launch a campaign urging the appointment of a woman to the role in July, to coincide with the opening of the festival.Read the full story in The Indepedent.

Poet Laureate: the female runners and riders - here is Arifa Akbar's list:
Carol Ann Duffy
Duffy, 52, was born in Glasgow and read philosophy at Liverpool University. As well as verse (her key works include 1985's Standing Female Nude and 1987's Selling Manhattan) she also writes picture books for children, and is a popular playwright. She was awarded an OBE in 1995, a CBE in 2001 and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999. She was put forward to become Poet Laureate the same year, but lost out to Andrew Motion.
Wendy Cope
Born in Erith, Kent, 62-year-old Cope read History at St Hilda's College, Oxford, before training as a teacher. She was television critic for The Spectator magazine until 1990, and three books of her poetry have been published (Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis in 1986, Serious Concerns in 1992 and If I Don't Know in 2001). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in Winchesters. In 1998 she was the listeners' choice in a BBC Radio 4 poll on who should succeed Ted Hughes as Poet Laureate.
Lavinia Greenlaw
Born in 1962, Greenlaw read Modern Arts at Kingston Polytechnic, studied Publishing at the London College of Printing and has an MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute. Her published poetry includes the collections Night Photograph (1993), which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award and Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year), and A World Where News Travelled Slowly (1997).
Jackie Kay
Mixed-race Kay was born in Edinburgh in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father but was adopted by a white couple at birth and brought up in Glasgow. She studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Stirling University where she read English. The experience of being adopted by and growing up with a white family inspired her first collection of poetry, The Adoption Papers (1991). Her first novel, Trumpet, published in 1998, was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize. Kay lives in Manchester, and in 2006, was awarded an MBE for services to literature.
Fleur Adcock
The 74-year-old Adcock was born in Auckland, New Zealand but spent much of her childhood, including the war years, in England. She studied Classics at Victoria University in Wellington. She was awarded an OBE in 1996. A collected edition of Adcock's poetry, Poems 1960-2000, was published in 2000, and she is a regular contributor to, as well as editor and translator of, poetry anthologies. She was awarded the prestigious Queen's Medal for Poetry in 2006.
Ruth Padel
Padel, 62 is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been Chair of the UK Poetry Society since 2003. She is also the great great grand-daughter of Charles Darwin. She wrote her PhD on Greek tragedy at Oxford University. When her first pamphlet of poems was published, she left academia and wrote features and reviews for a number of newspapers including The Independent. She is a Fellow of the London Zoological Society, and a Member of the Royal Geographical Society.

BARNES & NOBLE - BORDERS

Following the report I posted yesterday quoting the Wall Street Journal, Borders have overnight issued this brief statement:

"Borders Group today reported that the company is in the midst of the strategic alternatives process and has not engaged in substantive discussions regarding any specific transaction to date. The company does not intend to make any further comment while the process is ongoing."

Grilled Prawns with Apple and Fennel Dressing

The sweetness of juicy prawns is set off by a sharp dressing.

Preparation time 30 minutes

Cooking time 4 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

750 g green tiger prawns

3 teaspoons olive oil

salt and black pepper
For the dressing

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons apple juice

50 g fennel, finely sliced

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

To garnish: a few fresh chives

Preparation:
1 Peel and devein the prawns, leaving the tail shells on. Rinse and pat dry with paper towels.
2 Heat a small nonstick frying pan over medium heat and dry-fry the fennel seeds for 1–2 minutes, then grind coarsely in a spice mill or with a pestle and mortar. Whisk together with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and the other ingredients for the dressing, adding more lemon juice to taste.
3 Heat the griller to medium-high. Toss the prawns in the oil and season to taste, then grill for 2 minutes on each side, or until pink and opaque.
4 Divide the prawns between serving plates, pour over the dressing, garnish with chives and serve warm or at room temperature.
VariationsYou could barbecue the prawns on skewers instead of grilling them, if you like, or cook them on a ridged, iron grill pan. You could also chop the fennel into chunks instead of finely slicing it, and cut up the feathery tops to use as a garnish instead of the chives.

Yummy! Recipe from:

LOW FAT NO FAT COOKBOOK

Readers Digest Australia (Bookwise International) NZ$35

Featuring more than 280 recipes, this lavishly illustrated cookbook (in full colour) will help you keep trim while still enjoying delicious meals.

I like the nutritional analysis at the foot of each recipe. e.g. for the prwan recipe above:-

Kilojoules 624

Carbohydrate 1g

Protein 22g

Fat 6g

This is a big lump of a book, lavishly illustrated with colour pics of alkl dishes, and great value at $35 , a worthwhile addition to the cookbook shelf. And it is first and foremost about enjoying food with the low fat thing being a bonus if that is of concern.
Note - cover image not the same as on my book. In contact with publisher and will post correct cover as soon as I have a new image.

Stefan Merrill Block, Faber & Faber's latest literary star, is in Auckland next week to promote his heart-breaking debut novel, The Story of Forgetting.

He will be at the wonderful independent bookstore, Time Out, 432 Mt.Eden Road, Mt.Eden Village, Auckland - 5.30pm-7.00pm Tuesday 27 May.

Tel.(09) 630 3331

books@timeout.co.nz

(Visit http://www.stefanmerrillblock.com/ for reviews etc)

For further information - Abba Renshaw, Publicity Manager at Allen & Unwin, abbar@allenandunwin.com

OXFORD DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY

Creators of British landscapes and gardens enter the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

http://www.oxforddnb.com/

Today, Thursday 22 May 2008 sees the eleventh online update to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, with the addition of 91 biographies of men and women who have shaped British history between the first and late twentieth century.

The update provides a special focus on garden designers and landscape architects responsible for some of Britain’s best-known—and most-visited— landscapes, public parks and city gardens. This update is the first of three highlighting people who have shaped the history of British gardening, with further biographies published over the coming year. The May 2008 update also adds sets of biographies of people influential in the British empire and early Commonwealth, and in the pre-Reformation church.

The May update also adds 45 essays on well-known groups—part of the Oxford DNB’s ongoing project to write a history of the significant clubs, gangs, and coteries by which individuals came together to shape Britain’s past. This new selection ranges chronologically from the ninth-century scholars of King Alfred’s court to the Kitchen Sink School of painters of the 1950s. Geographically, the new selection ranges from the Antarctic, with Captain Scott’s expedition party of 1912, to Burma with an account of the Chindits who fought the Japanese during World War II.

In the past three years there are have been nine updates to the Oxford DNB, adding new biographies of 1600 men and women to the existing 55,000 lives. Updates since 2004 have also added nearly 400 theme articles for quick reference and research. The next update of the Oxford DNB will be published in October 2008.

The complete Oxford DNB is freely available to 48 million residents in England and to all residents of Northern Ireland via their local public library. There is further extensive public library access in other parts of the United Kingdom and worldwide. Remote log-ins allow library readers to consult the online Oxford DNB from home or any other computer at any time.

Research project to improve adult literacy

A four-year Wanganui-based research project is providing invaluable information to help improve New Zealand adult literacy standards.
Massey University Associate Professor Frank Sligo, who is leading the $2 million project, said it focuses on adult literacy and employment in Wanganui and aims to create new employment opportunities through higher literacy standards.

More from the New Zealand Herald online.

Doyenne of Children’s Writing Wins Top Award

Joy Cowley has won the New Zealand Post Book of the Year prize for her novel, Snake and Lizard.

The delightful tale of give-and-take friendship was illustrated by internationally renowned Christchurch illustrator, Gavin Bishop.

New Zealand Post Book Awards 2008 judges’ convenor, Dylan Owen says Snake And Lizard brings together the best of New Zealand writing and illustration that deserves a readership beyond its intended audience.
‘Cowley’s book impressed the judges with its assured writing, humour and gentle, unforced observations on the nature of friendship.
‘Both witty and wise these timeless stories are an utter joy. They make you laugh, sigh and read all over again.’

The judging panel comprising Mr Owen, who is national advisor for the National Library’s schools collection, writer and illustrator, Fifi Colston and award-winning novelist, Vince Ford also noted that complementing the writing were the book’s superb production values.

‘From dust cover to endpapers and Gavin Bishop’s exquisitely detailed illustrations that added another rich dimension to both the book’s characters and its American South West setting.’

The award was presented to Joy Cowley’s husband, Terry Coles in Mrs Cowley’s absence, and Gavin Bishop at the Wellington Town Hall today by the Prime Minister, Helen Clark.
Joy Cowley was unable to attend the awards because of a long-standing engagement to present writing workshops for the Ministry of Education in Singapore.

She said in a speech read by her husband that she remembered a time when writing for children was considered to be the occupation of people who had failed at adult writing.
‘The New Zealand Post Book Awards… have given children’s literature in this country rightful status. Clearly this is good for the authors of children’s books; but I believe that the greater benefit goes to the children of Aotearoa.
‘The award validates them as readers who have their own authority and who are deserving of standards of excellence.
‘From this compulsory distance I send my sincere thanks, New Zealand Post, on the behalf of our beautiful tamariki.’

The category winners and honour awards recipients in the New Zealand Post Book Awards 2008 are:

Picture Book - Tahi – One Lucky Kiwi by Melanie Drewery, illustrated by Ali Teo & John O'Reilly (Random House New Zealand)
Honour Award: To The Harbour written and illustrated by Stanley Palmer (Lopdell House Gallery)
Non Fiction - Which New Zealand Spider? By Andrew Crowe. (Penguin New Zealand)
Honour Award: Reaching The Summit by Alexa Johnston with David Larsen (Penguin New Zealand)
Junior Fiction and New Zealand Post Book of the Year-Snake and Lizard by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Gavin Bishop. (Gecko Press)
Young Adult- Salt by Maurice Gee. (Penguin New Zealand)
Honour Award: The Sea-Wreck Stranger by Anna Mackenzie (Longacre Press)
Best First Book Award - Out of The Egg written and illustrated by Tina Matthews. (Walker Books)
Children’s Choice Award
The King’s Bubbles by Ruth Paul (Scholastic)

The winner of each category was awarded with $7,500. The winner of the New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award takes home an extra $7,500.

The winner of the Best First Book and the Children’s Choice Award receive prize money of $2,000 each.

The honour awards were presented in three categories this year. These awards are discretionary and are awarded in recognition of particular features in each book. For the first time this year, all honour award recipients received a monetary award of $500.

The New Zealand Herald ran a nice piece on Joy Cowley this morning. Read it online.

Footnote for Maurice Gee fans:

On 2 June, Penguin Books will be releasing Gool, the sequel to Salt.

AUCKLAND ONE WEEK, SYDNEY THE NEXT - THE FESTIVAL ROUNDABOUT

The following from The Australian this morning:

Irish Booker Anne Enright winner joins gathering

EARLIER this week, Irish novelist and Booker Prize winner Anne Enright found herself talking with fellow Sydney Writers' Festival headliner Junot Diaz.

Anne Enright, Booker prize winner and guest of Sydney Writers Festival. Picture: Alan Pryke

Apparently, he found her books deliciously rude.
"I said that I hated the idea of my mother reading the rude bits, and suggested he must feel the same, since his books are far sexier than mine," Enright said.
Happily for Diaz, his Dominican mother doesn't read English.
And the rest of Enright's countrymen? Surely they're avid readers of her work.
"Oh, it's a conspiracy of silence," she said yesterday. "Everyone knows that I've written books. Some even own copies of them. But they would never actually discuss the contents. It's a question of privacy, you see."
What about Enright's novel The Gathering, the scabrous instant classic that won her last year's Man Booker Prize? Weren't its swipes at Catholicism a bit, well, blasphemous?
"I've never done blasphemy, ever! And I know blasphemy - my mother's a Catholic, for goodness sake! There's one borderline remark in my entire oeuvre."
It turns out that Enright's mother gave her an early lesson in religious tolerance.

Read the full acount at The Austrailan online.

Free of the monster, Stalin's analyst revels in fresh air

And this story in the Sydney Morning Herald about Simon Montefiore, another who was in Auckland last week.

JUST A BANG ON THE HEAD
Rosie Belton – Craig Potton Publishing - $24.99
This is a remarkable book written by a remarkable woman.

Rosie Belton was a high achieving theatre director, producer and teacher, a casting agent, a company director, as well as being a wife, a mother of three adult kids and a grandmother of four. She was a human whirlwind who seemed to have endless energy and enthusiasm for everyone and everything around her.

Then one night, in a flash, it all changed. She fell while dancing at a wedding party. She hit her head and subsequently had two cerebral haematomas or brain bleeds. These have left her with a permanent brain injury and her life has not been the same since.

In this riveting story, it reads like a good novel which resulted in me reading it in one long sitting, she tells in a succinct and compelling manner her astonishing story from immediately prior to the accident through the surgery, through the long and slow recovery and the resulting debilitating effects of the hidden disability of brain injury.

JUST A BANG ON THE HEAD deserves the widest readership and will be especially valuable for the friends and family of those dealing with brain injured persons. I warmly recommend this outstanding book.

JUST A BANG ON THE HEAD was launched at the University Bookshop, Canterbury University, Ilam, Christchurch on Thursday 22 May, 2008
.

Barnes & Noble Studies Bid for Borders
By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg writing in The Wall STreet Journal

Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation's largest book chain by sales, has assembled a team of executives and advisers to study the possibility of acquiring No. 2 chain Borders Group Inc., according to a person familiar with the situation.Whether such a deal would pass antitrust hurdles is unclear. Barnes & Noble has about 20% to 22% of the retail book market, while Borders controls 10% to 12%, estimates Albert Greco, a professor at the Fordham Graduate School of Business

Eco-Friendly Books Dominate Design World

The BPANZ Book Design Awards 2008 shortlist was announced today, with a list dominated by beautiful books with eco-friendly themes and a social conscience.

With subjects ranging from recycling to organic farming, Bill Hammond's art to Cook Islands tivaevae quilting, the list represents the best in book design for books released in 2007. Dear to Me is also included¸ an anthology that features well-known New Zealanders' favourite poems, and gives all royalties from sales to Amnesty International.

The judges had a tough time narrowing the field to just twelve titles, and this was a process not without conflict, with a few books' inclusion splitting the team of three judges led by New Zealand Listener's Guy Somerset. They were looking for "the complete package: the book whose insides matched their outside for the thought and care that had gone into them, striving for something a little bit different, or a little bit better".

A new player in the Book Design Awards, Scholastic's Vasanti Unka, is well-represented with two shortlisted books, What is a Bird? and The Bean's Story, which showcases her own hand-quilting in every illustration.

Also included in the final list are seasoned designers such as Robbie Burton from Craig Potton Publishing, Sarah Maxey for Victoria University Press, and well-known artist and designer Aaron Beehre for Christchurch Art Gallery.

The competition is judged in four categories, including Non-Illustrated, Illustrated, Educational and Children's books, with the winners being announced at the Booksellers' NZ Industry Awards Dinner in late July. There are also highly-coveted Best Cover and Best Book winners chosen from within the shortlist.

The Awards help promote excellence in, and provide recognition for, the best book design in New Zealand, a worthy cause for an oft-overlooked arm of the New Zealand design world.

The Book Publisher's Association of New Zealand is proud to be principle sponsor of the awards. The BPANZ Director Tony Fisk says "The books shortlisted for this year's awards exemplify the very best of book design and it is once again gratifying that the quality of work produced in New Zealand competes favourably with that produced anywhere else in the world."

BPANZ Book Design Awards 2008 SHORTLIST

Non-Illustrated Book
The Wild Green Yonder
Graeme Leather/Dexter Fry
Philippa Jamieson
New Holland Publishers NZ
Dear To Me
Aland Deare
Amnesty International
Random House
A Perfect World
Catherine Griffiths
David Cohen
Random House

Illustrated Book
Aberhart
Sarah Maxey
Laurence Aberhart
Victoria University Press
New Zealand's Wilderness Heritage
Robbie Burton
Les Molloy
Craig Potton Publishing
Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning
Aaron Beehre
Jennifer Hay et al
Christchurch Art Gallery

Educational Book
What is a Bird?
Vasanti Unka
Feana Tu'Akoi
Scholastic NZ
Astronomy Aotearoa
Marie Low
Robert Shaw
Pearson Education NZ
Rubbish!
Ruby-Anne Fenning
Rachael Goddard
Raupo Publishing

Children's Book
The King's Bubbles
Ruth Paul & Mary McIntyre
Ruth Paul
Scholastic NZ
Willy's Dad
Murray Dewhurst & Scott Tulloch
Scott Tulloch
HarperCollins Publishers NZ
The Bean's Story
Vasanti Unka
Tatiana Aslund
Scholastic NZ


Contact:
Sarah Byrne
021 160 8732
On behalf of BPANZ
Whitireia Diploma in Publishing
designawards2008@gmail.com

Alan Loney ‘The Printing of a Masterpiece’ PB $34.95

Last night Parsons Bookshop in Auckland launched this memoir which is

‘the flowing intermesh of typography, ink-and-paper, Renaissance cultural history and deeply personal hands-on knowledge’.
‘It is about the printing of an exquisite book, an object in which every stage of craftsmanship has been scrupulously considered’.
‘Alan Loney is a beautiful stylist – lucid and compelling He takes us into the heart of that question: How is a book actually made?’
Quotes from Chris Wallace-Crabbe

‘Alan Loney’s work has always been at the cutting edge of New Zealand’s place in world literature. He is a poet of international stature, whose mastery has become a resource for us all’.
Quote from Robert Creeley

Alan Loney - a fine New Zealand poet, writer, printer and until recently Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Australian Centre.

Parsons Bookshop in Auckland
26 Wellesley Street East
Auckland 1010
New Zealand
Phone +64 9 303 1557
Fax+64 9 357 0877
books@parsons.co.nz

Richard Till star of the very popular TVNZ series “Kiwi Kitchen” and author of the number one best selling cookbook of the same name will be in Timaru on Thursday June 5th.

He will be speaking about his love for our domestic culinary traditions at 7:30 pm at the Norah Dickie Hall
Timaru Girls High School in Cain Street.

Copies of his book, Kiwi Kitchen, and the two DVDs of his television series will be available for purchase and he will be happy to sign them.

Tickets $15:00 each available from local bookseller Chapters and Verses.
The evening will conclude with tasty bites and coffee.
This event is being run in conjunction with Altrusa and all profits will be going to South Canterbury Hospice.

NZ LISTENER , MAY 24

SO MUCH FOR RETIREMENT

After 11 novels for children, Maurice Gee thought he had written his last, but soon he found he was wrong. (And yes, there's another adult novel, too.

So begins a marvellous piece by David Larsen about Maurice Gee and his superb children's books in the NZ Listener this week. Race out and buy a copy, this is required reading for all of Gee's many fans, adult and children.

This issue also includes reviews of the following titles:

BACK & BEYOND: NEW ZEALAND PAINTING FOR THE YOUNG & CURIOUS by Gregory O'Brien, AUP

VIOLENCE by Slavoj Zizek, Profile

BUYING THE LAND,SELLING THE LAND:GOVERNEMNTS & MAORI IN THE NORTH ISLAND 1865-1921 by Richard Boast, VUP.

As well as Kevin Ireland talking about funerals! His is part of a longish piece on this subject which I found both interesting and thought provoking.

GIL HANLY PHOTOGRAPHER

She seemed to be everywhere, and indeed she was. As official photographer at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival this past week Hanly captured on her large SLR digital camera every single person who participated. She filled four DVD's and a few CD's with images for the Festival organisers.(I wonder what the Festival organisers do with them?).

Hanly pic of Paula Morris and Hermione Lee before Lee delivered the Michael King Memorial Lecture.

Hanly has done many things during her working life and indeed when Bookman Beattie first joined Penguin Books way back in 1977 she was the text book buyer at the University Bookshop, a hugely responsible position which she carried out with great skill. Most of us in the publishing world were slightly fearful of her! Woe betide you if your company's text books were delivered late for the start of the university year.

Around this time she became a part-time photographer and then in 1984 she made the move to working fulltime in the field.

Over the years since she has focussed on social, political & environmental issues but in the course of attending hundreds of theatre and gallery openings from which she has gathered thousands of shots, and of course she is recognised as New Zealand's leading garden photographer having made major contributions to many superb books.

Currently she is the Patron for the Auckland Festival of Photography (30 May-22 June) and has an exhibition at the Auckland Museum - Nuclear Free:Protest Photography by Gil Hanly.

Two years ago she was made one of the Auckland City Mayor's Living Legends and here is the citation read out at the presentation:

Gil Hanly is one of Auckland's living treasures.
She and late husband, New Zealand artist, Pat Hanly have made a huge contribution to the arts scene in Auckland.
For 40 years, as a professional photographer Gil has documented nearly every social, political and environmental issue of the nation - particularly Auckland. She has used her images of women and peace to highlight topical issues to a wider New Zealand audience in order to create change.
Her photos have appeared in many publications from The Listener and Metro magazine to Craccum (Auckland University). Books such as Water Gardening in NZ, Peace is More than Absence of War and Auckland Trinity Gardens have featured her work. She won a Media Peace Prize in 1985.
Gil has specialised in the latter part of her career on gardens and she has been part of a movement in this country to highlight ordinary people's work in their gardens and encourage them into the gardening world.
At 72, Gil is still working. Her lifetime work warrants recognition as a Living Legend.

Gil, photographer extraordinaire and old friend, I thank and salute you for your huge contribution to the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival, and to the community at large. You are indeed a Living Legend.