The Booker-winning novelist is relaunching a series of neglected novels by black British writers. She explains why they deserve a new readership In today’s culture, it’s as though black British literary history began relatively recently, and new books are published without reference to or knowledge of what has gone before. This is not the case with white writers. Publishers, critics and readers will often understand where books sit within their literary contexts and cultural ecosystem. We can trace the literary lineage of Douglas Stuart’s Booker-winning Shuggie Bain back to the works of James Kelman and Irvine Welsh. Ghosts by Dolly Alderton is in conversation with Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones series and all the novels that were published in its wake, just as Ali Smith’s postmodern novels are descendants of Virginia Woolf’s modernist oeuvre. And we know that today’s historical novels have antecedents in their earlier counterparts.Our appreciation of literature is deepened when we understand the foundations from which each new generation creates literature anew, but because so much of the body of black British literature hasn’t been taught in schools or universities, or immortalised on television and film, or even been widely or seriously reviewed in the media and academia, it’s as if each new book is published out of a void. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-01-30 11:00:07 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 09/11/2011 - 12:51 Hodder & Stoughton is withdrawing the novel Assassin of Secrets by Q R Markham from sale, alongside its US publisher Little, Brown, after the announcement that the book contains "numerous plagiarised passages". read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Thu, 03/11/2011 - 15:00 Oneworld has acquired the third novel by The Book of Night Women author, Marlon James. Publisher Juliet Mabey acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in a strong five-figure pre-empt from agent Claire Roberts at Trident Media Group. Lined up for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 02/11/2011 - 13:15 Quercus has acquired two novels by Dorothy Koomson, who has moved from Sphere. Executive director David North bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Antony Harwood. Koomsons first novel for Quercus will be published in autumn... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 01/11/2011 - 15:42 Avon has become the latest publisher to acquire a book tying into the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. Editorial director Claire Bord bought world English rights to two novels by Gill Paul from Vivien Green at Shiel... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Yale University Press will be nosing around authors' bookshelves with the publication of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booked Up, the government-funded programme that gives a free book to Year 7 pupils, has found... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 27/10/2011 - 07:30 Ebury Press has signed Anne Berrys third novel The Adoption, a multi-generational story about adoption and identity, with the author moving from HarperCollins imprint Blue Door. Ebury editorial director for fiction Gillian... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new social reading app called Subtext today launches on the iPad with a selection of books laden with annotations from authors and researchers. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 25/10/2011 - 08:00 Penguin has pre-empted a novel set in contemporary San Francisco, with Penguin Press also to publish in the US following a 10-way auction there. Viking commissioning editor Will Hammond acquired UK and Commonwealth rights... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Mon, 24/10/2011 - 08:05 The Government emphasis on reading for pleasure could be behind an uplift in sales to school libraries, claims bookseller Marilyn Brocklehurst of the Norfolk Children's Book Centre. She said: "The pronouncements by the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 18/10/2011 - 09:56 The British Library is reinstating its link to Amazon on online catalogue records, after briefly removing the feature last week in response to criticism from leading booksellers. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Fri, 14/10/2011 - 09:27 read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Tue, 11/10/2011 - 07:50 "Grange Hill" writer Phil Redmond is to pen a memoir and novel for Random House imprint Cornerstone. M.d. Susan Sandon acquired world rights in the two books directly with Redmond, who is best known for creating three of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 06/10/2011 - 08:40 Jonathan Cape has acquired a second novel from the John Llewellyn-Rhys prize-winning author Evie Wyld. Senior editor Alex Bowler acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Wyld's All the Birds, Singing from Laetitia... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 30/09/2011 - 15:26 The British Museum Press is teaming up with Japanese star Hoshino Yukinobu to publish its first manga book, featuring the artists most famous character, Professor Munakata. Marketing and publicity executive Sarah Morgan... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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What better place to be the day after Amazon unveiled its $199 Kindle Fire tablet (plus three Kindle models starting at $79) than a conference on e-readers? Long scheduled for September 29 and 30 in San Francisco, Intertechs two-day eReaders 2011 conference offered an even better platform than... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-09-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In 1999 San Francisco authors/journalists Jane Ganahl and Jack Boulware mused over drinks about getting together a bunch of authors for a big reading. They tapped Phil Bronstein, the editor of the San Francisco Examiner, to foot the $300 bill for 25 authors to read in Golden Gate Park for what... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-09-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Wed, 28/09/2011 - 14:38 Titan has acquired award-winning fantasy author James P Blaylock's first steampunk novel in 20 years, The Aylesford Skull. Titan fiction editor Cath Trechman bought world rights via John Berlyne and John Parker at Zeno Agency for "a good five-figure... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 27/09/2011 - 15:05 Jonathan Cape has acquired the new novel by author Joe Stretch, with his previous two novels Friction and Wildlife published as Vintage Originals. Senior editor Beth Coates bought UK and Commonwealth rights to The Adult... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Mon, 26/09/2011 - 08:45 Zadie Smith, Jeanette Winterson, Blake Morrison and Mark Haddon are among the big names contributing to a Vintage essay collection described as a "mission statement about the paramount importance of reading to our quality of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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