Category Archives: Books

Horror show: North American box office records lowest monthly total since 1997

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Halloween weekend failed to make numbers jump, adding up to the weakest monthly performance – other than during the pandemic – for three decades

Box office earnings in October have crashed to levels not seen since the late 1990s, with Halloween weekend becoming the worst of the year so far.

According to a report in Variety, cinema takings for October in North America totalled $425m (£323m), the lowest figure since October 1997, when it was $385m – not counting October 2020, when North American cinemas only took $63m as moviegoing was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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My Father’s Shadow looms over competition at British independent film awards

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Akinola Davies Jr’s Nigeria-set drama has 12 nominations, including best film and besr director

Nigeria-set drama My Father’s Shadow is the leading contender at this year’s British independent film awards (Bifas), after it scooped 12 nominations, including best British independent film, best director for Akinola Davies Jr, and best screenplay for Davies’s brother Wale. The film came out ahead of Pillion, adapted from Adam Mars-Jones’s coming-of-age relationship story, which got 10 nominations, and biopic I Swear, which got nine.

My Father’s Shadow, which stars Sope Dirisu and is Davies’s debut feature as a director, premiered at the Cannes film festival to admiring reviews. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw described it as “a transparently personal project and a coming-of-age film in its (traumatised) way, a moving account of how, just for one day, two young boys glimpse the real life and real history of their father who has been mostly absent for much of their lives”. The film is yet to be released in the UK, but has already come out in Nigeria.

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Big belly, wavy fur and a nose for trouble: we exclusively reveal the new-look Paddington

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It’s been the biggest secret in theatre: what will the marmalade-loving, hyper-polite Peruvian look like in Paddington the Musical? As the curtain rises, we speak to the new bear’s creator, a veteran of Star Wars and PG Tips ads

Paddington stands within touching distance. His fur flutters as he turns, his neat button nose sniffs the air, and his eyes soften with a smile. For years, design details of the bear for Paddington the Musical, directed by Luke Sheppard, have been kept top secret. Now here he is, in his blue duffel coat and red hat. A quiet theatrical marvel. “What we’re doing,” says producer Sonia Friedman, “has never been done before.”

Standing around 1.2 metres (just under 4ft) tall, the bear is beautifully round, all belly and sloping shoulders. He is not an exact replica of the Paddingtons we’ve seen in illustrations or movies, but something new. His shaggy, caramel fur has a gentle wave, and his white snout is dotted with a brown nose, ideal for sniffing out trouble. Around his neck sits a label, threaded through an old piece of string, asking for someone to look after him.

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UN expert urged to investigate Lebanon over alleged torture of Egyptian-Turkish poet

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Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi has been imprisoned in the UAE for almost a year for criticising Emirati, Egyptian and Saudi governments

The UN special rapporteur on torture is being urged to investigate Lebanon’s role in the treatment of the Egyptian-Turkish poet and activist Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi, a dissident who has been imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates for more than 10 months over a post he made on social media.

Legal counsel representing Qaradawi filed a complaint to the UN rapporteur on Thursday, asking it to examine the situation.

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Trump ally Stephen Miller at heart of FBI agent purge, new book reveals

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Miller urged firings of those who had investigated president to satisfy Trump’s desire for revenge, Injustice authors write

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, was the driving force behind a purge of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who had investigated Donald Trump, a new book reveals.

Miller trampled the independence of the FBI by demanding firings that would satisfy the US president’s desire for retribution, journalists Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis write in Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department.

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Wole Soyinka, Nigerian Nobel laureate and Trump critic, says US visa revoked

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Soyinka, 91, who recently compared US president to Idi Amin, says ‘I have no visa – I am banned’

The Trump administration has revoked the visa for Wole Soyinka, the acclaimed Nigerian Nobel prize-winning writer who has been critical of Trump since his first presidency, Soyinka revealed on Tuesday.

“I want to assure the consulate … that I’m very content with the revocation of my visa,” Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel prize for literature, told a news conference.

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Prince Andrew tried to hire ‘internet trolls’ to hassle Virginia Giuffre, book claims

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Andrew hid behind Balmoral’s ‘guarded gates’ to escape court papers, accuser says in memoir Nobody’s Girl

Prince Andrew’s team tried to hire “internet trolls to hassle” his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, while he hid behind the “well-guarded gates” of Balmoral Castle to avoid being served court papers, according to allegations in her posthumous memoir.

Giuffre wrote of the 2022 confidential settlement of her sexual abuse civil claim against the royal, widely rumoured to be $12m (£9m), that her lawyers “were going to ask for the moon” and her team had agreed it “had to be more than mere money”.

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BBC reporters cannot wear Black Lives Matter T-shirts in newsroom, says Tim Davie

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Director general says it is inappropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue ‘to be campaigning in that way’

BBC journalists cannot wear T-shirts in the newsroom supporting the anti-racist movement Black Lives Matter, the corporation’s director general Tim Davie has said.

Davie said the BBC stood against racism but it was “not appropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue to be campaigning in that way.

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‘We want our stories to be told’: NSW Labor pledges $3.2m to support writing and literature amid AI onslaught

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Stories Matter strategy responds to urgent pressures such as declining reading rates and growing impact of digital media on publishing, minister says

It is a sector that delivers $1.3bn annually to the New South Wales economy and supports up to 22,000 jobs, yet the average writer earns just $18,200 a year from their creative practice.

To counter this stark disparity, the NSW government is launching the state’s first ever writing and literature strategy, and has committed $3.2m to support and expand the sector.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says she is terrified her sons will ‘join manosphere’

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Nigerian-American author tells Cheltenham literature festival audience having boys made her ‘worry more’

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has said she is terrified that her young boys will “join the manosphere”.

Speaking at Cheltenham literature festival on Saturday, the Nigerian-American author of works including Americanah told an audience that having two sons has made her “worry more” about men and boys.

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Jilly Cooper, author of Rivals and Riders, dies aged 88

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The author of 18 ‘bonkbuster’ novels including Riders, Rivals and Bella has died following a fall

Jilly Cooper has died at the age of 88, her agent has confirmed.

The author, whose 18 novels include Riders and Rivals, “defined culture, writing and conversation since she was first published over 50 years ago,” said her agent Felicity Blunt. “You wouldn’t expect books categorised as bonkbusters to have so emphatically stood the test of time but Jilly wrote with acuity and insight about all things – class, sex, marriage, rivalry, grief and fertility.”

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Sarah Hall and Charlie Porter among writers on ‘genre-defying’ Goldsmiths prize shortlist

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The £10,000 award, whose judges include Mark Haddon and Megan Nolan, recognises ‘mould-breaking’ fiction

Sarah Hall, Charlie Porter and Yrsa Daley-Ward are among the writers shortlisted for this year’s Goldsmiths prize.

The £10,000 award recognises fiction that “breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form”.

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Liverpool poet Brian Patten dies at 79

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His poetry often explored love and relationships and he wrote books for children including Gargling With Jelly

Brian Patten, who made his name in the 1960s as one of the most prominent Liverpool poets, has died, his agent has confirmed. He was 79.

His poetry often featured lyrical explorations of love and relationships and he also wrote books for children.

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NoViolet Bulawayo wins the Best of Caine award

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The Zimbabwean writer – who has been twice nominated for the Booker – won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2011, with her story Hitting Budapest

Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo has won the Best of Caine award, an honorary prize celebrating a story from past winners of the Caine Prize for African Writing, to mark its 25th anniversary. The prize was given for a short story praised by judges for its “powerful language, distinctive tone of voice, and bold, compelling storytelling”.

Hitting Budapest, which won the 2011 Caine prize, follows a group of six children who sneak from their shantytown, Paradise, into an affluent neighbourhood, Budapest, to steal guavas. First published in the Boston Review, it examines poverty, social and economic inequalities, and the dreams of children.

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New research may rewrite origins of the Book of Kells, says academic

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Exclusive: Author challenges assumption monks on Iona created manuscript, instead positing its origins are Pictish

The Book of Kells was likely to have been created 1,200 years ago in Pictish eastern Scotland, rather than on the island of Iona, according to research that challenges long-held assumptions about one of the world’s most famous medieval manuscripts.

The Book of Kells is an intricate, illuminated account of the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that was long thought to have been started in the late eighth century at the monastery on Iona before being taken in the 9th century to the monastery of Kells in County Meath, Ireland, after a Viking raid.

The Book of Kells by Victoria Whitworth (Bloomsbury Publishing, £35). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

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Swiss theatre director told to withdraw book alleging Austrian politician mocked Holocaust victims

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Court fines publisher after Milo Rau falsely claimed that far-right former chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache sang a song ridiculing the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis

A Swiss theatre director known for re-enacting landmark trials has been told by a judge in Vienna that his publisher must withdraw a book in which he alleged that a far-right Austrian politician sang a song mocking the victims of the Holocaust.

On Thursday, Vienna’s regional court fined independent German publishing house Verbrecher Verlag €1,500 (£1,300) for publishing a book in which Milo Rau alleged that Heinz-Christian Strache, the former leader of the Freedom party (FPÖ), once sang a song with the line: “We’ll manage the seventh million”, a reference to the approximately 6 million European Jews murdered at the hands of the Nazi regime.

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Sally Rooney unable to collect award over Palestine Action arrest threat

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The Normal People author can no longer safely enter the UK without potentially facing arrest, according to a statement read out by her publisher at the prize ceremony

Irish author Sally Rooney could not travel to collect a literary prize this week over concerns that she may be arrested if she enters the UK, given her support of banned group Palestine Action.

Rooney won the Sky Arts award for literature for her fourth novel, Intermezzo. At a ceremony on Tuesday, audiences were told that Rooney “couldn’t be here”, before her editor, Faber publisher Alex Bowler, collected the award on her behalf.

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Arthur Sze named as new US poet laureate

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Library of Congress, which has been under fire from Trump administration, appoints author and translator, 74

At a time when its leadership is in question and its mission challenged, the Library of Congress has named a new US poet laureate: the much-honored author and translator Arthur Sze.

The library announced on Monday that the 74-year-old Sze had been appointed to a one-year term, starting this fall. The author of 12 poetry collections and recipient last year of a lifetime achievement award from the library, he succeeds Ada Limón, who had served for three years. Previous laureates also include Joy Harjo, Louise Glück and Billy Collins.

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Six great reads: rebels in Nazi Germany, how creativity works and Europe’s biggest pornography conference

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Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the past seven days

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Australian War Memorial defers military history prize after judging panel awards it to book on Ben Roberts-Smith

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Exclusive: Governing council ‘retrospectively’ decides the Les Carlyon literary award should go only to first-time authors, ruling out Chris Masters’ book

The Australian War Memorial has effectively overruled a decision by its appointed judges to award a military history literary prize to a book about the alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.

War memorial sources and documents seen by Guardian Australia show that an external judging panel chose Chris Masters’ book Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes as the 2024 winner of the Les Carlyon literary award for military history, after a panel comprising memorial employees had included it in a shortlist of six from 59 entries.

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