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 will publish an autobiographical novel by Martin Amis later this year, with the book described as his "most intimate and epic work to date". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-14 00:11:42 UTC ]
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Two Australian online book retailers have suspended sales of Ronan Farrow’s investigation into #MeToo, following legal threats from one of the book’s subjects. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-18 08:21:31 UTC ]
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Who needs secret government sources when you have Donald Trump? Yesterday, a reporter on the White House driveway asked Trump what he hoped Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, would do after Trump asked him to investigate the Bidens. “I would think that if they were honest about it,... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2019-10-04 11:58:13 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has pre-empted Lyndsey Stonebridge's "bold reexamination of the life and ideas" of German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-04 05:39:34 UTC ]
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Man Booker-winning author Anne Enright’s next novel, Actress, about sexual power and celebrity, will be published by Jonathan Cape in February 2020. Jonathan Cape publisher Robin Robertson acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada from Peter Straus of Rogers, Coleridge & White... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-27 08:38:57 UTC ]
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Irish writer Megan Nolan's debut novel has just sold to Jonathan Cape in a pre-empt. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-26 16:21:35 UTC ]
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Dan Franklin, associate publisher at Jonathan Cape, is due to retire after 26 years at the Vintage imprint. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-16 09:22:10 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has scooped UK and Commonwealth rights to Frances Leviston’s story collection The Voice in My Ear. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-09 21:28:41 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape will publish a book by author Ben Rawlence about what trees can "tell us about the future of our planet”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-20 08:10:32 UTC ]
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Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 10% tariff on an extra $300bn of Chinese goods, including books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-02 07:48:35 UTC ]
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Just over a month after President Trump suspended planned tariffs on a range of consumer products coming from China, including books, he has vowed to impose a new tariff that would affect the same group of goods. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Serpent’s Tail has acquired a novella, This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill, about the “unravelling of the life of a male publisher undone by allegations of sexual impropriety and harassment” which was first published in the New Yorker earlier this month. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-25 18:04:04 UTC ]
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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... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-07-10 10:03:01 UTC ]
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Ana Fletcher, senior editor at Jonathan Cape, has bought two books from Man Booker-shortlisted author Daisy Johnson. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-08 09:17:38 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape will publish "a far-reaching and wonderfully entertaining investigation" into animal rights by award-winning Financial Times journalist Henry Mance following a six-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-18 00:53:19 UTC ]
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Following the #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements, religion and spirituality publishers are addressing issues related to masculinity in new titles geared toward men. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-06-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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First Second Books, Macmillan’s graphic novel imprint, is launching World Citizen Comics, a line of nonfiction graphic works focused on civic involvement and media literacy, including books for children and teens. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape will publish Salman Rushdie’s new Don Quixote-inspired novel, Quichotte, in August. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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People keep saying that it would never get past the censorious new generation, rather forgetting its arduous struggle to be printed in the 1950sIf millennials are currently aged between the ages of 22 and 36, I am one, albeit somewhere in the upper echelons – and I am also a publisher. And so I... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape's Dan Franklin has said he wouldn't be able to publish Vladimir Nabokov's controversial classic Lolita - about a man's obsession with a 12-year-old girl - were he to be offered it today, because of the #MeToo phenomenon and changing attitudes among a younger generation. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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