Category Archives: Books

African writer ruined by row with Graham Greene finally gets chance to shine

Posted on by

Fifty years after being accused of plagiarism, book is reissued in a bid to rehabilitate gifted Malian author Yambo Ouologuem

In 1968 the books pages of the French newspaper Le Monde excitedly praised an uncompromising new novel, Bound to Violence, going on to salute its author as one of “the rare intellectuals of international stature presented to the world by Black Africa”.

The newspaper’s words, written in tribute to the young Malian writer Yambo Ouologuem, sound condescending today. Back then, however, the intended compliment was genuine and many European critics soon agreed: the publication of Ouologuem’s strange novel really did mark the arrival of a major new talent.

Continue reading...

‘I’ve had death threats’: Real Happy Valley writer vilified in tweets by police

Posted on by

Former Met PC Alice Vinten says online abuse worse since publication of book about women in force that inspired BBC drama

When Alice Vinten wrote The Real Happy Valley, she intended the book to be a celebration of women in the police force, the real-life accounts of those who served as inspiration for protagonist Sgt Catherine Cawood in Sally Wainwright’s acclaimed BBC drama. Vinten interviewed women officers across Yorkshire who told of their careers on the frontline of policing, as depicted by Sarah Lancashire in the series that was set in the Calder Valley around Halifax.

Instead, the book has prompted a campaign of abuse against Vinten, 42, a former Metropolitan police officer herself, on Twitter, now known as X, including what the author calls an orchestrated campaign of leaving bad reviews and even threats. Worse, she says, they’re from police.

Continue reading...

Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer killed in Gaza

Posted on by

Tributes pour in for one of the leaders of a young generation of writers in Gaza who chose to tell their stories in English

Tributes poured in for the Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer on Friday after friends said he was killed in a strike on Gaza.

Alareer was one of the leaders of a young generation of writers in Gaza who chose to write in English to tell their stories, with friends describing his defiance in the face of the Israeli army’s assault on the Gaza Strip.

Continue reading...

Arthur Conan Doyle secretly resented his Sherlock Holmes creation, says historian

Posted on by

Author blamed literary success of the fictional detective for his highbrow historical novels ‘lying unread’

Arthur Conan Doyle secretly hated his creation Sherlock Holmes and blamed the cerebral detective character for denying him recognition as the author of highbrow historical fiction, according to the historian Lucy Worsley.

Doyle was catapulted from “obscurity to worldwide fame” after his crime stories began appearing in a magazine in 1891, Worsley writes in the Radio Times. Eleven years later he was awarded a knighthood.

Continue reading...

Demand soars for Dutch first editions of book naming UK royals in race row

Posted on by

Copies of book about British monarchy changing hands on resale websites for up to €175

Dutch first editions of the book Endgame, which names two members of the British royal family alleged to have discussed the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s unborn baby, are selling online for many times above the original retail price of €22.99.

As parts of the British press reached fever pitch trying to find out whether the Dutch version had contained a mistranslation, or had failed to adopt final excisions or was running a strange publicity stunt, bids for a Dutch version on Marktplaats on Thursday reached €175 (£150).

Continue reading...

Free speech groups criticise German ban on Russian journalists’ book

Posted on by

Russian businessman claims book defamed him, while authors say aim is to destroy their reputation

A Russian businessman has successfully taken legal action to ban a book in Germany about the Kremlin and its spy agencies, in a case that freedom of speech groups have described as an alarming attack on public interest reporting.

Two London-based Russian journalists, Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, say they interviewed the businessman, Alexey Kozlov, for their 2019 book The Compatriots because of his family’s historical connections to Soviet intelligence. He has now won a court injunction against the book’s publisher.

Continue reading...

Missouri library will ban porn star book – after 20 people on waiting list read it

Posted on by

St Charles city-county system to remove Bang Like a Porn Star: Sex Tips from the Pros after critics claim it is too sexually explicit

A Missouri library system will ban a book that critics are calling too sexually explicit – but they are allowing the 20 people on the book’s waiting list to read it first.

A committee with the St Charles city-county library system in eastern Missouri has moved to ban the book Bang Like A Porn Star: Sex Tips from the Pros, but will allow everyone on the book’s waiting list before 21 November to read it first, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Continue reading...

Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha arrested by Israelis in Gaza, family says

Posted on by

The American Book award winner was said to be heading south for the Rafah crossing when he was picked up at a checkpoint

A celebrated Palestinian poet and author, Mosab Abu Toha, has been arrested by Israeli forces while trying to leave Gaza, according to his friends and family.

Abu Toha had been told by US officials that he and his family would be able to cross into Egypt, as one of his children is an American citizen. They were on the way from north to south Gaza, heading for the Rafah crossing point on Sunday, when he was arrested along with other Palestinian men at an Israeli military checkpoint.

Continue reading...

AS Byatt, author and critic, dies aged 87

Posted on by

The acclaimed author of novels including Possession and The Children’s Book, has died, her publisher has confirmed

The writer and critic AS Byatt, who explored family, myth and narrative in a career spanning six decades, has died aged 87. Her publisher Chatto & Windus confirmed that she died peacefully at home surrounded by close family.

Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, who wrote under the name AS Byatt, authored complex and critically acclaimed novels, including the Booker prize-winning Possession and her examination of artistic creation, The Children’s Book. Over her career, she won a swathe of literary awards, from the Booker to a Chevalier of France’s Order of Arts and Letters.

Continue reading...

Marjorie Taylor Greene claims Democrats failed to defend House from Capitol rioters

Posted on by

Extremist Republican says in book ‘not one Democrat was willing to stay to defend the chamber’ but claim rejected as ‘patently false’

In a new book, the extremist Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene claims no Democrats stayed in the House chamber on January 6 to help defend it against rioters sent by Donald Trump to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election win – a claim one Democrat who did stay labeled “patently false”.

Greene’s book, MTG, will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.

Continue reading...

Campaigners save Bradford birthplace of Brontë sisters

Posted on by

Crowdfunding and significant donation from Nigel West – who has a family connection to Charlotte’s husband – secure property, with plans to transform it into a cultural and education centre

Campaigners have saved the birthplace of the Brontë sisters and are now fundraising to turn the building into a cultural and education centre – helped by a man with a link to the literary family.

Nigel West, who traces a family connection to Charlotte Brontë’s husband, made a “significant donation” to the crowdfunding appeal, which aims to transform 72-74 Market Street in Thornton, Bradford, into a tourist destination.

Continue reading...

‘Success stories’: Historic England adds several sites to risk register but removes 203

Posted on by

Hotel that inspired Charles Dickens added to Heritage at Risk Register alongside Gunpowder Plot house

Charles Dickens described it as an enormous, labyrinthine tavern that was “known far and wide” and famous for its stone statue of an animal “distantly resembling an insane cart-horse”.

He was a regular guest at the Great White Horse Hotel in Ipswich, Suffolk, and was so captivated by the place that it helped inspire him to write his first novel, The Pickwick Papers.

Continue reading...

Benjamin Myers wins 2023 Goldsmiths prize for ‘vital’ novel Cuddy

Posted on by

Award for mould-breaking fiction goes to multi-genre work – ‘part poetry, part electricity’ – retelling the story of Durham Cathedral

Benjamin Myers has won the 2023 Goldsmiths prize for Cuddy, a novel that combines poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts in retelling the story of the eponymous Anglo-Saxon saint Cuthbert and his connection to Durham Cathedral.

Cuddy “is a book of remarkable range, virtuosity and creative daring”, said judging chair Tom Lee, lecturer in creative writing at Goldsmiths. “A millennia-spanning epic told in a multitude of perfectly realised voices, this visionary story of St Cuthbert and the cathedral built in his honour echoes through the ages.”

Continue reading...

Researcher uncovers a new body of work believed to be by Louisa May Alcott

Posted on by

Academic suggests seven short stories, five poems and one non-fiction work were written by the Little Women author under the name EH Gould

A researcher has uncovered a trove of stories and poems he believes to have been written under a pseudonym by Little Women author Louisa May Alcott.

In late 2021, American academic Max Chapnick read about a story, The Phantom, while working on his PhD. The story is known to be Alcott’s – it features in the lists the writer made of her works – but had not yet been found.

Continue reading...

Jean-Baptiste Andrea wins Prix Goncourt for novel set in fascist Italy

Posted on by

Award is usually seen as elitist but former screenwriter’s Veiller sur elle has strong sales and is a ‘popular’ read

Jean-Baptiste Andrea has won France’s most prestigious literary award, the Prix Goncourt, for a bestselling saga of the tumultuous life of a sculptor set against the backdrop of the rise of fascism in Italy.

Andrea, who turned to novel-writing after a long career as a screenwriter, has described Veiller sur elle as an expansive story of love, friendship and revenge. The novel stood out for a literary prize that has often been seen as elitist, as it already had strong sales and had been defined by some critics as a “popular” read.

Continue reading...

Metro Memory and Tim Marshall put cartography back on the map

Posted on by

London tube game is a surprise hit and three geography books by Marshall are bestsellers

In a world where we get from A to B by following the shortest route on our phones or satnavs, are cartographers mapping their way back into our national psyche?

Rather than ignoring what’s around us, we appear to be increasingly fascinated with locations and their significance, whether it’s through a viral tube map game, YouTube videos or books about geopolitics.

Continue reading...

Hunt on for book containing Wilkie Collins’s criticism of friend Dickens

Posted on by

Collins’s notes on his collaborator’s ‘weakest book’ and ‘astonishingly bad’ work were sold at auction in 1890

Charles Dickens may be lauded by many as the greatest Victorian novelist, but one close friend did not demur from fierce criticism after the writer’s death.

Wilkie Collins, the author of The Woman in White, collaborated on drama and fiction with Dickens and the two enjoyed a long, close friendship until Dickens’s death in 1870.

Continue reading...

Rachel Reeves admits mistakes after being accused of plagiarism in new book

Posted on by

Shadow chancellor says she holds her ‘hands up’ in response to FT piece on seemingly copied passages in work on female economists

Rachel Reeves has said she holds her hands up and acknowledges making mistakes in her new book about female economists after she faced allegations of plagiarism.

The shadow chancellor admitted on Thursday that some sentences in her book, The Women Who Made Modern Economics, were “not properly referenced in the bibliography”.

Continue reading...

Mario Vargas Llosa says latest novel will be his last

Posted on by

Nobel prize-winning Peruvian author still plans to write an essay on Sartre that ‘will be the last thing I write’

Peru’s best-known living writer, the Nobel prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, has announced that his seven-decade literary career is coming to an end and that his latest novel will be his last.

In a postscript to the new book, Le dedico mi silencio (I Give You My Silence), the 87-year-old novelist writes: “I think I’ve finished this book. I’d now like to write an essay on [Jean-Paul] Sartre, who was my teacher as a young man. It will be the last thing I write.”

Continue reading...