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... ted companies. All rights reserved. 2024</copyright>
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<dc:date>2024-05-20T04:07:18Z</dc:date>
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<dc:language>en-gb</dc:language>
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<dc:rights>Guardian News &amp; Media Limited or its affiliated compa ...
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... ted companies. All rights reserved. 2024</dc:rights>
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<title>The Guardian</title>
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<link>https://www.theguardian.com</link>
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<dc:date>2021-06-30T12:53:17Z</dc:date>
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><rss xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Books blog | The Guardian</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog</link> <description>Latest news and features from theguardian.com, the world's leading liberal voice</description> <language>en-gb</language> <copyright>Guardian News &amp; Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2024</copyright> <pubDate>Mon, 20 May 2024 04:07:18 GMT</pubDate> <dc:date>2024-05-20T04:07:18Z</dc:date> <dc:language>en-gb</dc:language> <dc:rights>Guardian News &amp; Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2024</dc:rights> <image> <title>The Guardian</title> <url>https://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.png</url> <link>https://www.theguardian.com</link> </image> <item> <title>Good Omens is going beyond the book? That’s not a bad sign</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/jun/30/good-omens-going-beyond-book-not-a-bad-omen-neil-gaman-terry-pratchet-amazon</link> <description><p>While Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett never wrote a sequel, they did sketch out a plot that will now form a second season. If they wanted to continue the story, I want to watch it</p><p>In 2017, when Neil Gaiman first sat down in St James’s Park, London, ready to start filming the television adaptation of Good Omens, his showrunner’s chair collapsed under him. “I thought, <em>that’s not really a good omen</em>,” <a href="https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2021/06/really-bloody-excellent-omens.html">he wrote</a>.</p><p>When Gaiman announced on Tuesday that the BBC and Amazon are making a second season of the hit show, moving beyond the novel Gaiman co-wrote with Terry Pratchett in 1990, <a href="https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2021/06/really-bloody-excellent-omens.html">his website collapsed under the sheer volume of traffic</a>. I’d take that as, to quote Gaiman, a “really bloody excellent” omen.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/jun/30/good-omens-going-beyond-book-not-a-bad-omen-neil-gaman-terry-pratchet-amazon">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/terrypratchett">Terry Pratchett</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/neilgaiman">Neil Gaiman</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/media/amazon-prime-video">Amazon Prime Video</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/media/media">Media</category> <pubDate>Wed, 30 Jun 2021 12:53:17 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/jun/30/good-omens-going-beyond-book-not-a-bad-omen-neil-gaman-terry-pratchet-amazon</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/33505bcfc18ea429630de6cfb73f8c3a7390851c/0_1034_4028_2416/master/4028.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=6ab0ea78f4448ed2fd96ce4f97da34a2"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Steve Schofield/BBC/Amazon</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/33505bcfc18ea429630de6cfb73f8c3a7390851c/0_1034_4028_2416/master/4028.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=176aa519d92e8d45f82ae31530de3e77"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Steve Schofield/BBC/Amazon</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Alison Flood</dc:creator> <dc:date>2021-06-30T12:53:17Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Lionel Shriver v Cynthia Ozick: hurrah for the new literary beef</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/may/18/lionel-shriver-v-cynthia-ozick-hurrah-for-the-new-literary-beef</link> <description><p>The books world was growing worryingly well-mannered, but Ozick’s response – in verse – to a bad review by Shriver has revived the fine art of feuding<br></p><p>Whether it is Henry Fielding mocking Samuel Richardson’s painfully virtuous Pamela with his spoof, Shamela; Lillian Hellman suing Mary McCarthy for millions of dollars over her quip that <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/91900/mary-mccarthy-lillian-hellman-libel-suit">“every word [Hellman] writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’”</a>; or <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2012/august/gore-vidals-fights">Norman Mailer knocking Gore Vidal to the floor</a> at a party (“Once again words fail Norman Mailer,” remarked Vidal), there is little more cheering than a good literary feud.</p><p>But it’s been a while since a proper throwdown. Richard Ford famously shot an Alice Hoffman book and posted it to her after she wrote a bad review of his book (“It’s not like I shot her,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/feb/08/featuresreviews.guardianreview28">he told the Guardian in 2003</a>), and spat at The Underground Railway author Colson Whitehead over a similar offence, but Ford <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/05/richard-ford-literary-honour-questioned-by-peers-paris-review-hadada-prize">has lately refrained from such behaviour</a>. Tom Wolfe’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/15/tom-wolfe-obituary">death in 2018</a> put paid to his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/feb/10/fiction.artsfeatures">long-running and gloriously vituperative beef with John Updike, Norman Mailer and John Irving</a>. (Irving is now the only survivor from that contretemps: does that mean he wins?)</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/may/18/lionel-shriver-v-cynthia-ozick-hurrah-for-the-new-literary-beef">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/lionel-shriver">Lionel Shriver</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/cynthia-ozick">Cynthia Ozick</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/salmanrushdie">Salman Rushdie</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/johnirving">John Irving</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/richard-ford">Richard Ford</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/colson-whitehead">Colson Whitehead</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/maurice-sendak">Maurice Sendak</category> <pubDate>Tue, 18 May 2021 15:03:03 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/may/18/lionel-shriver-v-cynthia-ozick-hurrah-for-the-new-literary-beef</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/cfc63e9318d81ff89b014deb6911c9400a3f85de/0_17_2502_1501/master/2502.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=44035437f2604f52eac5e50b276848e5"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Composite: Getty, Tim Knox</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/cfc63e9318d81ff89b014deb6911c9400a3f85de/0_17_2502_1501/master/2502.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=a185815a478bd1a595f60bdd5a07823f"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Composite: Getty, Tim Knox</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Alison Flood</dc:creator> <dc:date>2021-05-18T15:03:03Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Why I am deleting Goodreads and maybe you should, too | Kat Smith</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/may/13/why-i-am-deleting-goodreads-and-maybe-you-should-too</link> <description><p>There’s a buzz to sharing your reading life, but for me it turned it into a kind of competition that distracts from what I love about books<br></p><p>I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed reading a book where my enjoyment wasn’t tied to the euphoric sense of achievement I got from finishing it. This is not because I don’t love reading, or would rather watch television. No, it’s because of a little app on my phone called Goodreads.</p><p>Home to about 90 million readers worldwide, Goodreads is a website that lets users track their reading and broadcast their tastes to the world – or, in my case, a few friends and vague acquaintances. At its core, it’s a harmless concept: an online community for bookworms, and an opportunity to discover new books your friends have loved.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/may/13/why-i-am-deleting-goodreads-and-maybe-you-should-too">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/amazon">Amazon</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/technology">Technology</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/internet">Internet</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/media/social-media">Social media</category> <pubDate>Thu, 13 May 2021 10:22:04 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/may/13/why-i-am-deleting-goodreads-and-maybe-you-should-too</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/34611c238b9a1fc4570224f95a9105c036a1e1c3/2682_1514_1898_1139/master/1898.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=d24c9da46af005b03a2cd045bc0e9923"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Eva-Katalin/Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/34611c238b9a1fc4570224f95a9105c036a1e1c3/2682_1514_1898_1139/master/1898.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=70c9621994a1feeb6838364023a56536"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Eva-Katalin/Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Kat Smith</dc:creator> <dc:date>2021-05-13T10:22:04Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Haruki Murakami's new T-shirt line proves it: he's no recluse</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/mar/03/haruki-murakamis-new-t-shirt-line-proves-it-hes-no-recluse</link> <description><p>The notoriously private author’s latest project, a stylish clothing collaboration with Uniqlo, marks the latest step in his opening up to the world</p><p>It may be time to stop calling the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/the-underground-worlds-of-haruki-murakami">“reclusive”</a>. Over the last few years, he has become <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/12/haruki-murakami-to-host-lockdown-radio-show-japan-stay-home-special">a radio show host</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/13/haruki-murakamis-agony-uncle-answers-become-eight-volume-book">a sort of literary agony uncle</a>, and now a fashion icon, having collaborated on <a href="https://www.uniqlo.com/us/en/ut-graphic-tees/haruki-murakami">his own T-shirt line at Uniqlo</a>.</p><p>The eight graphic T-shirts, which will go on sale in mid-March, feature all of the author’s favourite things: cats, birds, records, men sitting in bars (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/110809-what-s-up-with-the-ears">but not ears</a>, for which he has shown a fascination). Delightfully, <a href="https://www.uniqlo.com/jp/en/contents/lifewear-magazine/haruki-murakami/">Murakami has given a lengthy interview to Uniqlo</a> about his own fashion choices. “I try to wear plain clothes, the simpler the better. Jeans and a T-shirt, with a sweatshirt or sweater. Since I don’t need to show up at an office, I could wear anything I like. But I always wind up wearing the same thing. I’m not sure I can say why that is,” he reveals, somewhat unrevealingly.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/mar/03/haruki-murakamis-new-t-shirt-line-proves-it-hes-no-recluse">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/harukimurakami">Haruki Murakami</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion">Fashion</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/uniqlo">Uniqlo</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/japan">Japan</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/asia-pacific">Asia Pacific</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle">Life and style</category> <pubDate>Wed, 03 Mar 2021 14:43:20 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/mar/03/haruki-murakamis-new-t-shirt-line-proves-it-hes-no-recluse</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fa2070064d7034f687de5cbd729a617455b0771a/796_267_3524_2114/master/3524.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=35f65358b94d38e56631faa0294a5774"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Ali Smith/Photograph by Ali Smith</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fa2070064d7034f687de5cbd729a617455b0771a/796_267_3524_2114/master/3524.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=b3ddb697bfd0b3e07223c7313737f334"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Ali Smith/Photograph by Ali Smith</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Alison Flood</dc:creator> <dc:date>2021-03-03T14:43:20Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Off with their heads! Why are Lewis Carroll misquotes so common online?</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/mar/01/off-with-their-heads-why-are-lewis-carroll-misquotes-so-common-online</link> <description><p>Following a recent similar Royal Mint slip-up, the Westminster Collection’s new 50p coins have sent Carroll experts down an internet rabbit hole to source false quotes </p><p>As Oscar Wilde famously never said, don’t trust Goodreads as a source for quotes. A month after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/08/war-of-the-words-hg-wells-coin-also-features-false-quote">the Royal Mint released a new £2 coin to celebrate HG Wells</a> with an inaccurate quotation (and a tripod with four legs), Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll is the latest to be immortalised in currency through words they never wrote.</p><p><a href="https://www.westminstercollection.com/p-531F/Alices-Adventures-in-Wonderland-BU-50p-Set.aspx?sn=Z">A collection of 50p coins</a> celebrating 150 years since the conclusion of Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tales has been released by the Westminster Collection, who described them as featuring the characters’ “best known quotes”. Unfortunately, eagle-eyed experts spotted that, though some of the lines feature on <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/259377-the-hurrier-i-go-the-behinder-i-get">Goodreads</a> and <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%E2%80%9CThe+hurrier+I+go,+the+behinder+I+get%E2%80%9D&amp;rlz=1C1JZAP_enGB836GB836&amp;sxsrf=ALeKk02w3Y24aeqH-tGkFMBxh5Lv04jvSQ:1613996861906&amp;source=lnms&amp;tbm=isch&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjJ8fzsvv3uAhWNOcAKHYxBCIUQ_AUoAXoECCUQAw&amp;biw=1600&amp;bih=757">numerous inspirational posters</a>, they were never penned by Carroll.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/mar/01/off-with-their-heads-why-are-lewis-carroll-misquotes-so-common-online">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/lewiscarroll">Lewis Carroll</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/business/currencies">Currencies</category> <pubDate>Mon, 01 Mar 2021 11:17:28 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/mar/01/off-with-their-heads-why-are-lewis-carroll-misquotes-so-common-online</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/adad9bf855a43a2c594ccf013a37e049149c9477/152_868_4016_2408/master/4016.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=de773d0704423121281a070f6a4d0311"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Print Collector/Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/adad9bf855a43a2c594ccf013a37e049149c9477/152_868_4016_2408/master/4016.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=5838984742f9181948b7914166d460f4"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Print Collector/Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Alison Flood</dc:creator> <dc:date>2021-03-01T11:17:28Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Call for new writers of colour as entries open for 4thWrite short story prize</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/feb/13/call-for-new-writers-of-colour-as-entries-open-for-4thwrite-short-story-prize</link> <description><p>The Guardian and publisher 4th Estate’s annual award for unpublished writers of colour offers £1,000 to the winner, and publication on theguardian.com<br></p><p>The Guardian and 4th Estate’s short story prize dedicated to writers of colour has been running for five years. And as Black Lives Matter protests and the subsequent boom in reading lists and publishers’ statements showed, more than ever, that UK publishing must do more to elevate and celebrate a more diverse range of voices in literature – every year, not just when it is in the news.</p><p>Back with a new name, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/bame-short-story-prize">4thWrite short story prize</a> is open for entries for 2021, with all unpublished writers of colour invited to submit a short story of up to 6,000 words by 30 April. This year, the stories will be judged by Nelle Andrew, literary agent at Rachel Mills Literary; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/liv-little">Liv Little</a>, writer and founder of gal-dem; poet and playwright <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/22/inua-ellams-poet-playwright-cultural-impresario">Inua Ellams</a>; Aimée Felone, co-founder of the publisher Knights Of; Anna Kelly, the editorial director at 4th Estate; and Claire Armitstead, the Guardian’s associate culture editor.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/feb/13/call-for-new-writers-of-colour-as-entries-open-for-4thwrite-short-story-prize">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/bame-short-story-prize">4thWrite short story prize</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/awards-and-prizes">Awards and prizes</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/short-stories">Short stories</category> <pubDate>Sat, 13 Feb 2021 08:00:07 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/feb/13/call-for-new-writers-of-colour-as-entries-open-for-4thwrite-short-story-prize</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9e5f9f90ad4bc8b293da8d80c89fef0145d6c01f/0_0_5000_3000/master/5000.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=9e1928e4e0777ffe860958b384fb8fbc"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Composite: PR</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9e5f9f90ad4bc8b293da8d80c89fef0145d6c01f/0_0_5000_3000/master/5000.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=7def62d65bf30df4084c4eee7291b736"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Composite: PR</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Hibaq Farah</dc:creator> <dc:date>2021-02-13T08:00:07Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Redwall is coming to Netflix: where to start for kids (and adults)</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/feb/11/redwall-is-coming-to-netflix-where-to-start-for-kids-and-adults</link> <description><p>Brian Jacques’ tale of valiant mice and no-good rats introduced me to fantasy fiction. My daughters love it too, and here are some reasons why everyone should<br></p><p>If, like me, you are a fan of Brian Jacques, then the news that <a href="https://twitter.com/NXOnNetflix/status/1359492313081393153">Netflix is working on an adaptation of Redwall</a> will have you setting the abbey bells a-ringing in joy. Jacques’ bestselling stories of talking mice, squirrels and otters (the goodies) and rats, foxes and wildcats (the baddies) gave me so much happiness as a child. The first novel, 1986’s Redwall, was my introduction to fantasy: Matthias, a young orphan mouse, seeks a lost sword to see off an evil rat army led by Cluny the Scourge. (“Cluny was a God of War! Cluny was coming nearer!”) Heroism and sacrifice, comedy and evil – all of life is contained in Jacques’ anthropomorphic world.</p><p>After Redwall, Jacques told the story of how Redwall Abbey came to be, in the sequel Mossflower, as Martin the Warrior (another mouse, of course) arrives to save the creatures of the forest from the grip of the wildcats (Tsarmina Greeneyes is a particularly wonderful villain). Mattimeo continued the saga, following Matthias’s son as he is kidnapped by the slaver fox Slagar the Cruel (another excellent baddie; Jacques does villainous animals very well).</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/feb/11/redwall-is-coming-to-netflix-where-to-start-for-kids-and-adults">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksforchildrenandteenagers">Children and teenagers</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/media/netflix">Netflix</category> <pubDate>Thu, 11 Feb 2021 17:15:55 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/feb/11/redwall-is-coming-to-netflix-where-to-start-for-kids-and-adults</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b1ee9fc77d4d75b6c58aa595d7841e78beedc481/0_967_1729_1036/master/1729.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=8af6ed0041488d7104a94cb7cf8aca01"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Firebird</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b1ee9fc77d4d75b6c58aa595d7841e78beedc481/0_967_1729_1036/master/1729.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=1f05bbcd9cdd3236486f72f47093c707"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Firebird</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Alison Flood</dc:creator> <dc:date>2021-02-11T17:15:55Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>George Orwell is out of copyright. What happens now?</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/jan/01/george-orwell-is-out-of-copyright-what-happens-now</link> <description><p>Much of the author’s work may have fallen into public ownership in the UK, but there are more restrictions on its use remaining than you might expect, explains his biographer<br></p><p>George Orwell died at University College Hospital, London, on 21 January 1950 at the early age of 46. This means that unlike such long-lived contemporaries as Graham Greene (died 1991) or Anthony Powell (died 2000), the vast majority of his compendious output (21 volumes to date) is newly out of copyright as of 1 January. Naturally, publishers – who have an eye for this kind of opportunity – have long been at work to take advantage of the expiry date and the next few months are set to bring a glut of repackaged editions.</p><p>The Oxford University Press is producing World’s Classics versions of the major books and there are several bulky compendia about to hit the shelves – see, for example, the Flame Tree Press’s <a href="https://www.flametreepublishing.com/george-orwell-visions-of-dystopia-isbn-9781839644740.html">George Orwell: Visions of Dystopia</a>. I have to declare an interest myself, having spent much of the spring lockdown preparing annotated editions of Orwell’s six novels, to be issued at the rate of two a year before the appearance of my new Orwell biography (a successor to 2003’s Orwell: The Life) in 2023. As for the tide of non-print spin-offs, an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9idH7M4TeI">Animal Farm video game</a> hit cyberspace in mid-December.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/jan/01/george-orwell-is-out-of-copyright-what-happens-now">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/georgeorwell">George Orwell</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/publishing">Publishing</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <pubDate>Fri, 01 Jan 2021 11:00:08 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2021/jan/01/george-orwell-is-out-of-copyright-what-happens-now</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2da60d98bd4e33cde3ab3a5a1d7f621090dcb400/0_648_2008_1203/master/2008.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=ea3813f5fd782779b83b0f0801757019"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2da60d98bd4e33cde3ab3a5a1d7f621090dcb400/0_648_2008_1203/master/2008.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=b1fa3a3bb9e6a61135e5b3240fcf8f43"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>DJ Taylor</dc:creator> <dc:date>2021-01-01T11:00:08Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>The sexiest moments in literature that aren't sex scenes</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/dec/11/sexiest-moments-in-literature-that-aren-t-sex-scenes-bad-sex-in-fiction</link> <description><p>With the Bad sex in fiction award cancelled this year, we celebrate authors from Jeanette Winterson to Jane Austen who can charge the dryest scenes with sensuality<br></p><p>Writing about sex is notoriously difficult: it is irrefutable that anatomical details combined with straining prose will always produce absurdity. But with this year’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/08/bad-sex-award-cancelled-as-public-exposed-to-too-many-bad-things-in-2020">Bad sex in fiction award cancelled</a>, let’s make 2020 the year we celebrate the sexiest moments in literature – with absolutely no sex in them. The best authors use meaningful glances and heavy implications to do the work for them; the wisest know that less is more, more, more. Here are some simmering examples.</p><p><strong>In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje <br></strong>Patrick Lewis first meets the radio actress Clara Dickens in her dressing room. “When she spoke to him she had been bending to one side as she attached an earring, gazing into the hall mirror, dismissing him, their eyes catching in the reflection,” writes Ondaatje. Does Patrick fancy her, we wonder? “He was dazzled by her – her long white arms, the faint hair on the back of her neck – as if she without turning had fired a gun over her shoulder and mortally wounded him.” That would be a yes.</p><p>“<em>Then stay with me a little longer,” Madame Olenska said in a low tone, just touching his knee with her plumed fan. It was the lightest touch, but it thrilled him like a caress.</em></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/dec/11/sexiest-moments-in-literature-that-aren-t-sex-scenes-bad-sex-in-fiction">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/michael-ondaatje">Michael Ondaatje</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/charlottebronte">Charlotte Brontë</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/jamesbaldwin">James Baldwin</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/jeanettewinterson">Jeanette Winterson</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/edithwharton">Edith Wharton</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/janeausten">Jane Austen</category> <pubDate>Fri, 11 Dec 2020 12:04:12 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/dec/11/sexiest-moments-in-literature-that-aren-t-sex-scenes-bad-sex-in-fiction</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/48e2b657f9b11596fbd3310807506ba4494c4ffb/0_57_3091_1855/master/3091.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=ecbb9c4b7d4cd94f000c5a8154cfdd8e"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Allstar/COLUMBIA/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/48e2b657f9b11596fbd3310807506ba4494c4ffb/0_57_3091_1855/master/3091.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=a921d04cfa9ce2143d2188e011e63ed7"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Allstar/COLUMBIA/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Sam Jordison</dc:creator> <dc:date>2020-12-11T12:04:12Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Has Donald Trump already landed a $100m book and TV deal?</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/11/has-donald-trump-already-landed-a-100m-book-and-tv-deal</link> <description><p>While books about the outgoing US president have been bestsellers for the last four years, Trump might be a step too far for some publishers</p><p>Fact-checkers are quaking in their boots amid reports that Donald Trump could be being “courted for a new tome on his time in the White House”. The Murdoch-owned tabloid <a href="https://pagesix.com/2020/11/10/donald-trump-could-land-100m-book-deal-for-presidential-tome/">the New York Post quoted</a> a “source familiar with the president” on Tuesday, who claimed that Trump was “being bombarded with book and TV deals that could be worth a staggering $100m”.</p><p>To put that in context: Barack and Michelle Obama’s joint deal with Penguin Random House after they left the White House <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/01/barack-michelle-obama-book-deals-penguin-random-house">was reported to have been for more than $60m</a> (£43.3m), then a record sum. Bill Clinton’s 2004 memoir netted him $15m, while George W Bush earned around $10m for his 2010 book Decision Points.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/11/has-donald-trump-already-landed-a-100m-book-and-tv-deal">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump">Donald Trump</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-news">US news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/publishing">Publishing</category> <pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2020 14:24:45 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/11/has-donald-trump-already-landed-a-100m-book-and-tv-deal</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e5283ddea212fdcf4f812a6281121744e60ce434/0_205_3840_2304/master/3840.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c14d3e73ebd12d7f7fba4b00a2f7e9a4"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e5283ddea212fdcf4f812a6281121744e60ce434/0_205_3840_2304/master/3840.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=05bb11ea9844d29bff6f3ed593b414e4"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Alison Flood</dc:creator> <dc:date>2020-11-11T14:24:45Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Stacey Abrams: Georgia's political heroine … and romance author</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/09/stacey-abrams-georgia-political-heroine-and-romance-author-selena-montgomery</link> <description><p>Writing under the name Selena Montgomery, Abrams has penned eight romantic thrillers, often while also fighting for voters’ rights</p><p>Stacey Abrams is the former Georgia state house minority leader, whose fierce fight for Georgians’ right to vote has been credited for potentially handing the state to the Democrats for the first time in 28 years. But Abrams has another identity: the novelist Selena Montgomery, a romance and thriller writer who has sold more than 100,000 copies of her eight novels.</p><p>Abrams wrote her first novel during her third year at Yale Law School, inspired after reading her ex-boyfriend’s PhD dissertation in chemical physics. She had wanted to write a spy novel: “For me, for other young black girls, I wanted to write books that showed them to be as adventurous and attractive as any white woman,” she wrote in her memoir Minority Leader. But after being told repeatedly by editors that women don’t read spy novels, and that men don’t read spy novels by women, she made her spies fall in love. Rules of Engagement, her debut, was published in 2001, and sees temperatures flare as covert operative Raleigh partners with the handsome Adam Grayson to infiltrate a terrorist group that has stolen deadly environmental technology.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/09/stacey-abrams-georgia-political-heroine-and-romance-author-selena-montgomery">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/romance">Romance books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/stacey-abrams">Stacey Abrams</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-news">US news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-elections-2020">US elections 2020</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-politics">US politics</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/fiction">Fiction</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/thrillers">Thrillers</category> <pubDate>Mon, 09 Nov 2020 16:14:02 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/09/stacey-abrams-georgia-political-heroine-and-romance-author-selena-montgomery</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/79e347ad2456aff59e48f8e829bc80c382da2660/0_68_2048_1228/master/2048.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=87eeeee09090abc5852d5a2bc923fed9"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Kevin Lowery/Biden/ZUMA Wire/Rex/Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/79e347ad2456aff59e48f8e829bc80c382da2660/0_68_2048_1228/master/2048.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c6d72c6f67b3ef49d137e3b5f52c8183"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Kevin Lowery/Biden/ZUMA Wire/Rex/Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Alison Flood</dc:creator> <dc:date>2020-11-09T16:14:02Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Joe Biden's love for Seamus Heaney is evidence of a soul you can trust | Jonathan Jones</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/09/joe-biden-love-for-seamus-heaney-poetry</link> <description><p>The president-elect has often quoted Heaney’s poetry, with his reading of The Cure at Troy going viral after his election victory</p><p>I didn’t fall for Joe Biden until I learned that he loves the poetry of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/seamusheaney">Seamus Heaney</a>. Anyone who responds to the steady, humane voice of Heaney has the timbre of soul you can trust. It’s not like a politician rattling off a quotation from Shelley or St Francis of Assisi. You can’t pretend to love Heaney, for he’s too subtle for that; a slow-speaking country man giving up his secrets gradually, like a farmer revealing the land’s hidden knowledge – and its graves.</p><p>Heaney, born in rural Northern Ireland in 1939, lived through the Troubles and defied them with poems of generous compassion. His peace process in language anticipated – and helped bring about – the political peace process of the 90s. He is a truly great, adventurous writer who proves the devil does not have all the best tunes.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/09/joe-biden-love-for-seamus-heaney-poetry">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/poetry">Poetry</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/seamusheaney">Seamus Heaney</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/joebiden">Joe Biden</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-politics">US politics</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-news">US news</category> <pubDate>Mon, 09 Nov 2020 14:24:56 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/09/joe-biden-love-for-seamus-heaney-poetry</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/83bd945b383db49045b7dae70e0963fab5902f78/0_135_3500_2100/master/3500.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=eba34a71d5982fc9b985ebccabafbc9b"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Rick Wilking/Reuters</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/83bd945b383db49045b7dae70e0963fab5902f78/0_135_3500_2100/master/3500.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=5bef71516f07a2cef0983f69fdcc62c2"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Rick Wilking/Reuters</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Jonathan Jones</dc:creator> <dc:date>2020-11-09T14:24:56Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Bookshops are a precious shelter from the storms of life</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/05/bookshops-are-a-precious-shelter-from-the-storms-of-life</link> <description><p>Whether you’re a child discovering new worlds of adventure or Faye Dunaway losing herself in the philosophy section, they are a sanctuary for all<br></p><p>It was blowing a gale when I took Lemn Sissay on to my bookshop roof to talk about open-air poetry readings. Gulls on the wing struggled stationary in the wind and even the cathedral peregrines were nowhere to be seen. When we came back down to the warm, bright bookshop it was like coming below decks on a sailing ship. Lemn said he would return to Canterbury one day for a rooftop reading and wrote a poem, which is still on the wall by our poetry section. I found myself with a line from Bob Dylan’s Shelter from the Storm in my head: “Try imagining a place where it’s always safe and warm.”</p><p>Bookshops have been in a perfect storm of online competition, business rates and parking charges for a while, but they will always survive. Even the tornado of the pandemic won’t defeat them. It has, however, made me appreciate my job all the more – I’ve been bookselling on the shop floor for 36 years – and the customers, from the tearful first few on the day we reopened after lockdown to the joyful children getting back on the rocking horses or gazing at the fish, seem to feel the same way.</p><p><a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/the-bookseller-s-tale-9780241408810.html">The Bookseller’s Tale by Martin Latham</a> is published by Particular Books (£16.99).</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/05/bookshops-are-a-precious-shelter-from-the-storms-of-life">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksellers">Booksellers</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <pubDate>Thu, 05 Nov 2020 14:00:30 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/05/bookshops-are-a-precious-shelter-from-the-storms-of-life</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d9c297e8528a71a7034fcc2bf5c7e9c411ac43d0/0_169_4500_2700/master/4500.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=d5a448473076d211b57ebffb81c56cec"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Francisco Seco/AP</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d9c297e8528a71a7034fcc2bf5c7e9c411ac43d0/0_169_4500_2700/master/4500.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f8156dcced790012d1def7c603e55e28"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Francisco Seco/AP</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Martin Latham</dc:creator> <dc:date>2020-11-05T14:00:30Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Stuart Dybek: bungee jumping through the trapdoors of time</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/05/stuart-dybek-bungee-jumping-through-the-trapdoors-of-time</link> <description><p>Unaccountably little-known outside the US, his stories take the reader from a carefully observed midwest into a past that is very much alive<br></p><p>Like Steven Millhauser, Deborah Eisenberg and Edward P Jones, Stuart Dybek is one of a relatively small group of American writers with considerable domestic reputations who, for reasons I don’t understand, are largely unread in the UK. This is particularly baffling in Dybek’s case given that recent literary trends, especially the permeable boundary between fiction and autobiography and an essayistic approach to storytelling, are areas he has been exploring with great style and skill for decades.</p><p>Dybek has described one of art’s primary functions as being “to defy time … to preserve the past not by storing it in a museum but by making it come alive in the present”. His fiction is obsessed with recollection, and the descriptions that persistently recur in it – of the Polish and Latino neighbourhoods of Chicago, the Illinois lake country, tenement apartments and rattling L trains – do so with memory’s uncannily vivid focus, mapping a relatively confined but intensely described territory.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/05/stuart-dybek-bungee-jumping-through-the-trapdoors-of-time">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/short-stories">Short stories</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/fiction">Fiction</category> <pubDate>Thu, 05 Nov 2020 12:01:32 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/05/stuart-dybek-bungee-jumping-through-the-trapdoors-of-time</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/51b97cd033c019c279c4b5b6df7edc43dfb7ac3d/0_222_2668_1601/master/2668.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=367f5e55cffbc00be01a73c5e90fce08"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Mark Bialek/PR</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/51b97cd033c019c279c4b5b6df7edc43dfb7ac3d/0_222_2668_1601/master/2668.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=2517d13dd0a3d5174ffd28555eb397ef"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Mark Bialek/PR</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Chris Power</dc:creator> <dc:date>2020-11-05T12:01:32Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Bookshop.org is what the publishing world has been waiting for</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/05/bookshoporg-is-what-the-publishing-world-has-been-waiting-for</link> <description><p>Following its success in the US, the ethical platform Bookshop.org has arrived in the UK, marking an exciting new chapter for independent stores online</p><p>In publishing we often talk about things that we are “excited” and “delighted” about, so much that sometimes I think the words have lost their meanings. However, when readers, publishers and independent bookshops shared their delight about the new books retail platform, <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/">Bookshop.org</a>, launched on Monday, it was the result of some of the most exciting news we’ve had in publishing for aeons.</p><p>Following its success in the US, Bookshop.org has arrived in the UK and promises something we have all been asking for – an ethical and transparent platform for buying books that amplifies the uniqueness of independent bookshops, with reading lists curated by humans rather than algorithms.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/05/bookshoporg-is-what-the-publishing-world-has-been-waiting-for">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/publishing">Publishing</category> <pubDate>Thu, 05 Nov 2020 08:00:40 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/05/bookshoporg-is-what-the-publishing-world-has-been-waiting-for</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/135ed532295f159444abf30586ba5b25b1a30032/0_301_6016_3608/master/6016.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=a2bb1a1e5b927b6013fa51359a6bb5c0"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Alan Wilson/Alamy Stock Photo</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/135ed532295f159444abf30586ba5b25b1a30032/0_301_6016_3608/master/6016.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=cbe9c0ed0f49d6f0d7e63a7e1e1399be"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Alan Wilson/Alamy Stock Photo</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Sharmaine Lovegrove</dc:creator> <dc:date>2020-11-05T08:00:40Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>NaNoWriMo: how to make best use of the annual writing month</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/02/nanowrimo-how-to-make-best-use-of-the-annual-writing-month</link> <description><p>Novelist David Barnett talks to some of the famous names who got started by joining the nationwide creative drive – and offers his hints for success<br></p><p>If everyone has a book in them, then November is the month that many of those books are conceived. <a href="https://nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a>, or National Novel Writing Month, comes of age this year with its 21st birthday, and the concept remains as simple as it was in 1999: over 30 days, write at least 50,000 words of your novel.</p><p>Almost 368,000 novels have been completed by participants. There are no prizes or league tables, just the satisfaction of taking part – and the potential creation of something publishable.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/02/nanowrimo-how-to-make-best-use-of-the-annual-writing-month">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/creative-writing">Creative writing</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <pubDate>Mon, 02 Nov 2020 07:00:44 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/02/nanowrimo-how-to-make-best-use-of-the-annual-writing-month</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8d851555cd8d467012b6e27fde816a6bfa957169/0_258_7360_4417/master/7360.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=7a975f5d2cb44ca653db3c5c86a6249f"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Thomas LENNE/Alamy Stock Photo</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8d851555cd8d467012b6e27fde816a6bfa957169/0_258_7360_4417/master/7360.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=89baaf8ff4b9175b4976d6945e7e64b0"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Thomas LENNE/Alamy Stock Photo</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>David Barnett</dc:creator> <dc:date>2020-11-02T07:00:44Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>The end of A Brief History of Seven Killings – and our reading group</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/oct/27/marlon-james-resonant-ending-a-brief-history-of-seven-killings</link> <description><p>After 700 gruelling pages, Marlon James finishes on a note of uncertain hope that leaves the reader wondering<br></p><p>The final line of Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings is: “–Kimmy?” It may not be “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”, or “He loved Big Brother”. But in the context of everything that has gone before in this 700-page novel, it is a resonant ending.</p><p>The word “Kimmy” tells us that one of the novel’s lead characters and narrative voices, Nina Burgess, has made a phone call home and tried to reconnect with her sister. After all the chaos and fear; after fleeing Jamaica; after years of precarious living under assumed identities; after catastrophically falling out with her family: Nina finally picks up the receiver and speaks to her sibling. Maybe. Because, we’re left with that question mark. We don’t actually know that it’s Kimmy who answers, let alone how the rest of the conversation goes. James leaves us wondering – which is a fine way to go out.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/oct/27/marlon-james-resonant-ending-a-brief-history-of-seven-killings">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/marlon-james">Marlon James</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/fiction">Fiction</category> <pubDate>Tue, 27 Oct 2020 13:57:10 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/oct/27/marlon-james-resonant-ending-a-brief-history-of-seven-killings</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1a484c9ff107f8631c74e2302fa6b5b728e4bed0/0_100_3000_1800/master/3000.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=b760a37e1fc74839441fbb712d07644d"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Tribune Content Agency LLC/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Stock Photo</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1a484c9ff107f8631c74e2302fa6b5b728e4bed0/0_100_3000_1800/master/3000.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=4531da3bd76fe1b6f4327e4ff4541ba6"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Tribune Content Agency LLC/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Stock Photo</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Sam Jordison</dc:creator> <dc:date>2020-10-27T13:57:10Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Have you been using the pandemic to catch up on long classic novels?</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/oct/27/have-you-been-using-the-pandemic-to-catch-up-on-long-classic-novels</link> <description><p>Sales of War and Peace, Don Quixote and Middlemarch are booming. The appeal of a seriously long read has never been more alluring<br></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/27/what-literary-classics-have-you-read-during-lockdown-coronavirus">Tell us: what literary classics have you read during lockdown? </a></li></ul><p>What have people been doing to pass all these extra hours at home? Burying ourselves in ultra-long novels such as War and Peace and Don Quixote, apparently. At the start of lockdown No 1, all the way back in March, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/25/book-sales-surge-self-isolating-readers-bucket-list-novels">we reported that readers were starting to stock up on longer novels and classic fiction</a>. More than seven months on, Penguin Random House says that sales of its edition of War and Peace – which runs to 1,440 pages – have boomed by 69% in the UK so far this year: according to book sales monitor Nielsen BookScan, they’ve gone from 3,700 copies sold in 2019 to 6,300 in 2020 so far.</p><p>The publisher has also seen an uplift in sales of Don Quixote (1,056 pages, up 53%) Anna Karenina (865 pages, up 52%), Middlemarch (880 pages, up 40%) and Crime and Punishment (720 pages, up 35%).</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/oct/27/have-you-been-using-the-pandemic-to-catch-up-on-long-classic-novels">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/fiction">Fiction</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/leonikolaevichtolstoy">Leo Tolstoy</category> <pubDate>Tue, 27 Oct 2020 13:27:52 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/oct/27/have-you-been-using-the-pandemic-to-catch-up-on-long-classic-novels</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/42bf4b5532f9c75f7a96ab8b6c1c7100204a84dc/0_1825_2032_1219/master/2032.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=312455d9d9be574bdb4d8740d44c1345"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/42bf4b5532f9c75f7a96ab8b6c1c7100204a84dc/0_1825_2032_1219/master/2032.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=be73ea01d3578f4d4000fc3f3a54fbaa"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Alison Flood</dc:creator> <dc:date>2020-10-27T13:27:52Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>Tips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week?</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/oct/26/tips-links-and-suggestions-what-are-you-reading-this-week</link> <description><p>Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them<br></p><ul><li>Are you on Instagram? Then you can be featured here by tagging your books-related posts with <strong>#GuardianBooks</strong></li><li>Scroll down for our favourite literary links</li><li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/series/tips-links-and-suggestions-books">Read more Tips, links and suggestions blogs</a></li></ul> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/oct/26/tips-links-and-suggestions-what-are-you-reading-this-week">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/fiction">Fiction</category> <pubDate>Mon, 26 Oct 2020 15:00:23 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/oct/26/tips-links-and-suggestions-what-are-you-reading-this-week</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/37962961e209e11ad92dc14328d26339725d96a8/0_340_1080_648/master/1080.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=a0ece4be13a20e0057e439dbd7ade285"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: @sarahs89reads/Instagram</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/37962961e209e11ad92dc14328d26339725d96a8/0_340_1080_648/master/1080.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=8c23ec5c84d825f3b25b1779919437b1"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: @sarahs89reads/Instagram</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Guardian readers and Sam Jordison</dc:creator> <dc:date>2020-10-26T15:00:23Z</dc:date> </item> <item> <title>A Brief History of Seven Killings: unwieldy, occasionally tedious – and magnificent</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/oct/20/a-brief-history-of-seven-killings-unwieldy-magnificent-bob-marley-marlon-james</link> <description><p>A book about Bob Marley, told by everyone but Bob Marley – in the vein of Gay Talese or James Ellroy, Marlon James’s Booker winner brings in a dozen competing voices</p><p>Marlon James says that when he was writing A Brief History of Seven Killings, he wanted it to be “a novel that would be driven only by voice”. The book may tell the story of the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in 1976, but it’s the people around the star who dominate the narrative.</p><p>As <a href="https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-marlon-james-20141005-story.html">Carolyn Kellogg wrote in the LA Times</a>: “There are patois-speaking street thugs, CIA operatives, Jamaican gang leaders, a magazine writer, a displeased ghost, an American hitman, and a woman who slept with the singer just that once.” And that’s just the start. There are almost a dozen competing voices all offering different viewpoints, opinions, and motivations, all speaking in varying forms of English, from US governmental formality to Jamaican poetry and slang.</p><p>“He was doing that thing, that thing old people do, when they know too much or maybe they’re finally past the age where you just figured the whole world out. You figure out shit between people and why we’re all so base and vile and disgusting and how we’re just fucking beasts really, and it’s a wisdom people get at a certain age.”</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/oct/20/a-brief-history-of-seven-killings-unwieldy-magnificent-bob-marley-marlon-james">Continue reading...</a></description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/marlon-james">Marlon James</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/fiction">Fiction</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/books">Books</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture">Culture</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/music/bobmarley">Bob Marley</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/jamaica">Jamaica</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/books/jamesellroy">James Ellroy</category> <pubDate>Tue, 20 Oct 2020 14:02:38 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/oct/20/a-brief-history-of-seven-killings-unwieldy-magnificent-bob-marley-marlon-james</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/83f691d2c5a703be9d6d89dc30ad64718eb1a669/78_152_5592_3356/master/5592.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f9242012002073f5d6dc1aa40bc79492"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Mike McGregor/The Observer</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/83f691d2c5a703be9d6d89dc30ad64718eb1a669/78_152_5592_3356/master/5592.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f568ddd28b13a3ffac828486b92c973c"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Mike McGregor/The Observer</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Sam Jordison</dc:creator> <dc:date>2020-10-20T14:02:38Z</dc:date> </item> </channel></rss> If you would like to create a banner that links to this page (i.e. this validation result), do the following:
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