Evidence that both women experienced stress and anxiety, with Elizabeth traumatised by mother’s death and issue of marriage
Elizabeth I was heavily influenced by her mother Anne Boleyn, despite the fact that the latter died when the Tudor queen was less than three years old, according to the historian and author Tracy Borman.
As well as being influenced by feminist ideas that were ahead of their time, Borman said there was evidence they both experienced stress and anxiety.
Continue reading...Strand Magazine will publish Blackmail, a tale of a blind Korean war veteran, found by New York editor Andrew Gulli
A New York editor and literary detective is celebrating the discovery and release of an unpublished short story by James M Cain, one of the greats of American noir, a “poet of the tabloid murder” whose works made famous on film include The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce.
“For all the work that you do,” said Andrew Gulli, editor-in-chief of the Strand Magazine, “like 2% of the time you hit the jackpot. I just feel so good. It’s worth it.”
Continue reading...Roald Dahl Story Company announces new shows, including a large-scale circus and a reading of The Magic Finger
A slate of Roald Dahl adaptations has been announced, including a family musical based on The Enormous Crocodile, a reading of The Magic Finger and a large-scale circus show featuring many of the author’s most famous characters.
The three shows will join the new musical The Witches, co-produced by the National Theatre and readying for its debut in November, while a further four creations have been commissioned by the theatre division of the Roald Dahl Story Company and are under development.
Continue reading...The celebrated author of Money and London Fields, whose works defined the 80s literary scene, died of oesophageal cancer on Friday at his home in Florida
Martin Amis, the influential author of era-defining novels including Money and London Fields, and the memoir Experience, has died at the age of 73 at his home at Lake Worth in Florida . His wife Isabel Fonseca said that the cause was cancer of the oesophagus.
Amis was among the celebrated group of novelists including Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes, whose works defined the British literary scene in the 1980s.
Continue reading...British poet who wrote lyrics for Sunshine of Your Love, White Room and many more also had acclaimed solo career
Pete Brown, a cult figure in British poetry, rock, psychedelia and rhythm and blues who wrote lyrics for many of Cream’s classic songs, has died aged 82. He had been living with what he recently described as “various forms of cancer” for a number of years.
The family of his long-term late collaborator Jack Bruce wrote on social media: “We are extremely saddened to learn of the death of Jack’s long term friend and writing partner Pete Brown who passed away last night. We extend our sincere condolences to Pete’s wife Sheridan and Pete’s children as well as all his family and friends. Love from the Bruce family.”
Continue reading...A surprise speaker at the Pen America gala, the author said ‘if it had not been for these people, I most certainly would not be standing here’
Salman Rushdie has made his first public appearance since he was stabbed and lost sight in one eye after being attacked at a literary event, joking that it was “nice to be back – as opposed to not being back, which was also an option”.
Rushdie was a surprise attendee at the Pen America gala on Thursday night in New York. The author was greeted with a standing ovation according to the New York Times. After his remarks about being back, he said he was “pretty glad the dice rolled this way”.
Continue reading...Agent for bestselling Australian children’s author says she has ‘nothing to say’ about the ban and Duval county ‘is not important’
Bestselling Australian author Mem Fox has become the latest victim of ultra-conservative Florida governor Ron DeSantis, with the writer’s 1988 children’s book Guess What? being banned in the Jacksonville county of Duval.
The book, about a witch called Daisy O’Grady, appears to have fallen foul of Florida’s parental rights in education bill, widely referred to as the “don’t say gay” law, championed by DeSantis, the Republican widely considered to be Donald Trump’s closest rival for the 2024 presidential race.
Continue reading...Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS will be out on 9 July, ending feverish speculation that the previously untitled book was a Taylor Swift memoir
The guessing game began this week when a mysteriously untitled book, scheduled for publication in July and known only as “4C Untitled Flatiron Nonfiction Summer 2023”, appeared. It quickly became a bestseller when Taylor Swift fans began feverishly speculating that it was her surprise memoir.
But the mystery has been solved, with publishing house Flatiron Books bringing forward their announcement by a month to reveal the book is actually by another musical powerhouse: the K-pop boyband BTS.
Continue reading...Harare high court quashes suspended sentence and fine handed down to Booker-longlisted writer last year
Zimbabwean author and activist Tsitsi Dangarembga has had her conviction for inciting violence by staging a peaceful protest overturned.
The critically acclaimed writer was given a six-month suspended sentence and fined 70,000 Zimbabwean dollars (£170) in September 2022 for staging a protest calling for political reform. During the 2020 protest, alongside fellow activist Julie Barnes, Dangarembga held a placard inscribed: “We want better. Reform our institutions.”
Continue reading...Author says paparazzi and reporters began to follow him in his car and snoop around his home
Prince Harry’s ghostwriter has said he bonded with his subject over the “callousness” of paparazzi and media after the “frenzied mob” around the book Spare led to photographers and journalists invading his own privacy.
In a first-person piece for the New Yorker, JR Moehringer, the celebrated ghostwriter behind Spare said he agreed to write Harry’s memoir because he “just liked the dude” and had recently lost his own mother.
Continue reading...Sex scene in Bruno Le Maire’s book provokes ridicule and anger among opposition politicians
An explicit sex scene in a newly published novel by the French economy minister has left the government facing fresh accusations it is not listening to the concerns of the country just as it tries to contain anger over the unpopular rise in the pension age.
The toe-curling sexual descriptions in the novel, Fugue Américaine, written by the economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, have angered opposition politicians and inspired anti-government slogans and graffiti at street demonstrations as the government struggles to contain the political crisis over Emmanuel Macron raising the minimum pension age to 64.
Continue reading...Colombian author’s En Agosto Now Vemos (We’ll See Each Other in August) had been just a rumour but now fans will get to read it
Rumours had long circulated that an entire literary masterpiece, never seen by the public, could still be lying in a dusty safe held by the late author’s family or under lock and key at his archive at the University of Texas.
On Friday Penguin Random House confirmed that an unpublished Gabriel García Márquez novel – titled En Agosto Nos Vemos, (We’ll See Each Other in August) – not only exists, but will be on shelves across Latin America in 2024.
Continue reading...The 1599 author on the difference between historians and novelists, looking at Shakespeare differently and hitchhiking to the Edinburgh festival to immerse himself in the bard’s work
• James Shapiro wins Baillie Gifford anniversary prize with ‘extraordinary’ Shakespeare biography 1599
Serendipity dictated that the American writer and academic James Shapiro received the Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction’s Winner of Winners award, given to celebrate its 25th year, at a ceremony in Edinburgh. In his teens and early 20s, Shapiro tells me as we talk over Zoom the morning after his victory, he would often hitchhike from London to the Edinburgh festival as part of his immersion in the plays of Shakespeare. This period in his life sowed the ground for his acclaimed book, 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, first published in 2006. He was, he explains, recovering from the “awful experience” of studying the playwright in middle school; every summer for several years, he would save up enough money to come to the UK on a Freddie Laker plane, “where you could fly from New York to London for $100 round trip and sleep in church basements and for 50p see spectacular productions”.
In London, Stratford and Edinburgh, he’d see 25 plays in as many days, “and they’re all tattooed inside my skull to this day. The greatest one I saw was Richard Eyre’s Hamlet at the Royal Court in 1980 or so. Richard wrote me a note this morning, and it was so moving to me because that’s where it came from, seeing productions like his.”
Continue reading...What Kids Are Reading report found communities on sites such as TikTok helped stimulate interest in reading
The number of books read by children increased by almost a quarter last year, according to a report, as BookTok and other social media trends stimulated interest in reading for young people.
The 2023 What Kids Are Reading report, which surveyed children in the UK and Ireland, found that pupils read 27,265,657 books in the 2021-2022 academic year, 24% more than the 2020-2021 academic year.
Continue reading...Éditions la Fabrique says foreign rights manager Ernest Moret was held for several hours and asked ‘disturbing questions’ about his political opinions
The French publishing house whose employee was arrested on terror charges on his way to London book fair has said it is “chilling” that he was asked by British detectives about the authors published by his company.
Ernest Moret was approached by two plainclothes officers at St Pancras station on Monday evening, after arriving by train from Paris. He was arrested, after six hours of questioning, for alleged obstruction in refusing to disclose the passcodes to his phone and computer.
Continue reading...After murdering her friend’s mother as a teenager, as dramatised in film Heavenly Creatures, she turned to writing period thrillers
A British crime writer who helped bludgeon her friend’s mother to death as a teenager and was the inspiration for Peter Jackson’s film Heavenly Creatures has died in Los Angeles, her publisher announced Wednesday. She was 84.
Anne Perry, a prolific author whose period thrillers have sold over 25m copies worldwide, was 15 years old when she and her friend Pauline Parker murdered Pauline’s mother in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1954. Honora Mary Parker died after being hit with a brick about 20 times, in a killing that shocked and captivated the country.
Continue reading...While many Potterheads celebrated reports of HBO Max show, some feel it would be tainted by JK Rowling’s stance on gender
At Platform 9 3/4 in King’s Cross station, Harry Potter devotees from around the world gathered to take their picture in front of one of the book’s most celebrated locations.
Fans of all ages were enthused by a particular story that took the internet by storm this week – that a long-rumoured Potter TV series could be in the works after reports that a deal was imminent between HBO Max and JK Rowling.
Continue reading...Opponents say memoir The Courage to be Free, published in February, violates law governor signed last year
Democrats in Florida are attempting to use a state law that censors books in public schools against the governor who signed it, Ron DeSantis, by asking schools to review or ban the Republican governor’s own book, The Courage to be Free.
“The very trap he set for others is the one that he set for himself,” Fentrice Driskell, the Democratic minority leader in the Florida state house, told the Daily Beast.
Continue reading...Novelist compares UK to Hungary in Radio Times interview, while Ken Bruce criticises handling of Radio 2 exit
The BBC is “under threat, politically,” the novelist Ian McEwan has said, as he compared sections of the Conservative party to the populist right in Hungary.
The author of Amsterdam, On Chesil Beach and Atonement recently collaborated with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for an evening of words and music at the Barbican. The event came as the BBC’s classical music performing groups faced “catastrophic” cuts, and the corporation’s high-profile presenters including Gary Lineker clashed with the government over its policies.
Continue reading...Founded by two translators – one American, one British – the Salt initiative will provide mentorships, funding and a south Asia-focused literary translation school
A new project to help bring the “extraordinarily rich” literature of south Asia to English-speaking countries will launch this summer, it has been announced.
The cross-continental South Asian Literature in Translation (Salt) project has been set up by the University of Chicago, in partnership with the American Literary Translators Association, English PEN, Words Without Borders and the British Council. The multi-year project will try to “strengthen each part of the publishing chain across the English-speaking world”, the University of Chicago has said.
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