Older generations argue that young people’s insistence on equality in all things – including books – threatens to stifle free speech. But is that always true?I wouldn’t normally air my dirty literary linen in public, but here goes. When I finished writing my novel Putney, about a 13-year-old girl who has a “love affair” in the 1970s with an older man and realises decades later that it was actually abuse, my previous editor at Jonathan Cape chose not to publish it. The reasons emerged this year when he was interviewed in the Spectator. “If Lolita was offered to me today,” Dan Franklin said, “I’d never be able to get it past the acquisition team – a committee of 30-year-olds, who’d say: ‘If you publish this book we will all resign.’” He pointed to #MeToo and social media as fundamental factors: “You can organise outrage at the drop of a hat.”Fortunately, Bloomsbury’s acquisition team – overwhelmingly female and mixed aged – were brave enough to take on Putney, which was described in the Observer as “a Lolita for the era of #MeToo”. Whether there was any truth in his words or not, Franklin’s position reveals how much fear now exists in publishing. Related: Putney by Sofka Zinovieff review – a Lolita for the age of #MeToo ‘It’s only about not being an arsehole,’ my daughter said. ‘That’s not so difficult’ Related: Nabokov's Lolita: the latest thing millennials have apparently ruined Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-07-10 10:03:01 UTC ]
Jonathan Cape has acquired two new books by Katie Kitamura, including her "taut and electrifying" novel Intimacies, about an interpreter pulled into "explosive political fires". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-08 20:29:15 UTC ]
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Nick and Charlie, the lead characters in graphic novel series Heartstopper, first appeared in Alice Oseman’s début Young Adult novel Solitaire. The pair were fairly minor characters, but almost as soon as she finished writing the book, she knew she wanted to expand on their story. “They have... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-05 10:51:49 UTC ]
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Publishers say there has long been demand for titles on women’s empowerment, but #MeToo and other social justice movements have created a sense of urgency around these books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-01-29 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Four years and a day ago, I boarded a bus with what felt like half of my journalism school class and traveled to Washington, DC, for the inauguration of Donald Trump and the Women’s March the day after. I’d arranged to cover the events for Pacifica radio and ended up writing a short dispatch for... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-01-20 13:36:57 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has won a 10-publisher auction for Fire Rush, the “phenomenal” debut novel by Jacqueline Crooks. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-09 10:11:08 UTC ]
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Vintage imprint Jonathan Cape will publish Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett, author of Pond (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2015). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-30 16:16:38 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has triumphed in a nine-publisher auction for a “fly-on-the-padded-wall” debut from junior psychiatrist and comedy writer Benji Waterhouse. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-19 11:03:07 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has snapped up an “exquisite” memoir about the challenges facing gay men today from acclaimed poet and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year shortlistee Seán Hewitt. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-03 07:03:12 UTC ]
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Booker prize founder and publisher of some of the greats of 20th-century fictionTom Maschler, publisher and managing director of Jonathan Cape and the architect of the Booker prize for fiction, has died aged 87. A glamorous, perma-tanned figure with aquiline features and unruly hair, who dressed... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-10-16 17:49:02 UTC ]
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Prize-winning writer Kapka Kassabova is moving to Jonathan Cape in a two-book deal, with first title, Elixir, exploring the human hunger for healing and a search for a cure. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-24 14:09:10 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired Swedish musician Neneh Cherry’s memoir, A Thousand Threads, in a 14-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 11:56:22 UTC ]
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William Collins has landed an '"extraordinary” memoir by Indian writer and commentator Ramachandra Guha, detailing his love affair with cricket. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-05 02:04:46 UTC ]
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Vintage imprint Jonathan Cape will publish Sapiens: A Graphic History, a "radical reworking" in graphic novel style of Yuval Noah Harari's bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-02 08:54:07 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has signed a “radical” in-depth exploration of the global water crisis by South African journalist Rosa Lyster. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-26 02:54:26 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has scooped an “exceptional” debut novel from journalist and former Waterstones bookseller Jo Hamya. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-21 17:27:41 UTC ]
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Publishing, including books, newspapers and magazines, could see a £7bn fall in revenue and 51,000 jobs axed due to Covid-19's effect on bookshop closures and print sales, a report claims. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-17 06:06:17 UTC ]
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The author threatened to ditch his British publisher, and likened him to a vicar, after his ‘Anglo-Saxon’ expressions were cleaned upThe hard-drinking, hot-tempered American writer Ernest Hemingway was furious when he discovered that the language for the English edition of his latest book had... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-03-29 07:05:47 UTC ]
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The surge at Amazon for such items as household staples and health and medical goods has resulted in extended shipping times for other products, including books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-03-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has pre-empted a “ground-breaking” study of global crises by political economist Jerome Roos, one of the most talked about titles ahead of the London Book Fair. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-27 02:08:45 UTC ]
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