British Book awards balance art and selling power to decide best writer in 30 years

Novelists rub shoulders with presidents, chefs, comedians and thriller megastars on longlist to define the title with the biggest impact on the book worldIt could be almost the setup for a joke, but a former president, a Booker winner and an erotic fiction superstar have walked on to the British Book awards’ longlist, and one of them could be crowned the best writer of the past three decades.Barack Obama, Hilary Mantel and EL James are three of the bestselling writers on an eclectic list drawn up to celebrate the awards’ 30th anniversary.A Year in Provence, Peter Mayle (Penguin) | 1990Delia Smith’s Christmas (BBC Books) | 1991Wild Swans, Jung Chang (William Collins) | 1992The Art Book (Phaidon) | 1995Longitude, Dava Sobel (Fourth Estate) | 1997Northern Lights, Philip Pullman (Scholastic) | 1997Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling (Bloomsbury) | 1998Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding (Picador) | 1998Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernières (Vintage) | 1998The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson and Nick Sharratt (Doubleday) | 2000White Teeth, Zadie Smith (Penguin) | 2001Sahara, Michael Palin (Weidenfeld Nicholson) | 2003Brick Lane, Monica Ali (Transworld) | 2004The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark Haddon (David Fickling) | 2004The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (Picador) | 2004The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (Transworld) | 2005The Gruffalo’s Child, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Macmillan) | 2005The Sound of Laughter, Peter Kay... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2020-02-14 06:01:23 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "British Book awards balance art and selling power to decide best writer in 30 years"


Amazon Charts: Walliams Slimes into the top spot

David Walliams' Slime (HarperCollins Children's) has ended the reign of Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light (Fourth Estate) in the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction number one spot, as Mrs Hinch's The Little Book of Lists (Michael Joseph) sweeps into the Most-Sold: Non-Fiction top spot. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-08 01:38:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Mrs Hinch dust-busts into the top spot, with Nielsen data still incomplete

Mrs Hinch's The Little Book of Lists (Michael Joseph) has swept straight into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, ending the four-week reign of Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light (Fourth Estate) at the top. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-07 17:08:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Literature on Lockdown: #CultureConnectsUs

For many, staying indoors is an unsettling experience. It’s been heartening to see the imaginative leaps being taken by many organisations and artists to help us through – sitting-room gigs, free theatre streams, virtual tours of museums and archives and galleries – but given the limitless... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2020-04-06 11:36:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Amazon Charts: Mantel's reign continues as Kay boomerangs back

Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light (Fourth Estate) has held the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction number one, as Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt bounces back up into the Most-Sold: Non-Fiction top spot. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-02 03:13:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Italian Quarantine, by Baret Magarian

Cultural Cross Sections Baret Magarian Photos by Pierpaolo Florio A novelist living in quarantine in Florence looks back at Italy’s cultural history and then forward, considering whether something positive might rise from the ruins that the virus will... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-03-23 21:14:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Mantel maintains top spot as print market hangs on

Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light (Fourth Estate) has held the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a third week running, selling 30,280 copies through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-23 20:03:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Novelists Ignite A Mighty Blaze in Response to Extinguished Book Tours

Two novelists have partnered to build A Mighty Blaze, a initiative to promote other authors and their new books on social media. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-03-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


British Book Awards 2020: Books of the Year shortlists revealed

The eight shortlists for the British Book Awards have been revealed with heavyweights Margaret Atwood, Bernardine Evaristo, Philip Pullman and David Walliams all in the running for the Book of the Year accolades.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-20 00:59:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this


PRH and Pan Mac lead British Book Awards trade shortlists

Penguin Random House and Pan Macmillan lead the pack among the shortlists for the trade categories of the British Book Awards 2020. Penguin Random House has 17 nominations and Pan Macmillan has 12. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-19 16:38:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this


British Book Awards: Ceremony Postponed, Some Winners Announced

The British Book Awards, while announcing a coronavirus postponement, name some winners and shortlistees in two categories. The post British Book Awards: Ceremony Postponed, Some Winners Announced appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-03-19 16:31:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Without Places to Gather, Debut Novelists Reimagine Book Promotion

First-time novelists with books out or coming soon talk about their changes of plans and how they’re spending these unusual days. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-03-18 20:00:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Rowling, Smith and Oliver make British Book Awards '30 from 30' shortlist

JK Rowling, Zadie Smith and Jamie Oliver have made the shortlist for the British Book Awards "30 from 30" trophy that will crown one book the “best” of the past three decades. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-18 13:31:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this


British Book Awards Small Press winners revealed

The nine winners of the regional and country round of the British Book Awards Small Press of the Year accolade have been revealed. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-18 11:49:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Mirror and the Light shatters 100,000 mark

Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light (Fourth Estate) has claimed the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a second week running.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-17 11:08:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Digital Bestseller Lists: Marian holds the Keyes to the top

Eight new titles have flocked into the Bookstat E-Book top 10 for the week ending 7th March, with Daisy Pearce’s The Silence in the number one spot. Of course, Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light also broke into the chart, hitting fourth place with an estimated 20,114 units sold. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-13 05:16:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Pandemics in the Pages of ‘The Stand,’ ‘Severance’ and More

For centuries, novelists and fiction writers have imagined what plagues and virus outbreaks could look like, and many readers are seeking these books out amid concerns about the coronavirus. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-03-12 09:00:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this


10 Great Works of Historical Fiction to Ease Your Thomas Cromwell Withdrawal

It’s been a day since the publication of The Mirror and the Light—the final installment of Hilary Mantel’s celebrated trilogy about Tudor England, starring the enigmatic Thomas Cromwell—so you’ve already blazed through it, right? Well, whether you have already or you’re about to, once you’ve... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-11 08:55:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Amazon Charts: Mantel maintains Most-Sold number one

Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light (Fourth Estate) has held the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction top spot for a second week, the same week the eagerly awaited title sold 95,141 copies across all print editions through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-10 16:43:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this


‘The Mirror and the Light’ is a masterful finale to Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy

Mantel’s first two installments, “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies,” both won the Booker Prize. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-03-10 15:47:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Mirror and the Light thunders into number one

Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light (Fourth Estate) has gone straight into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot in its first three days on sale, selling 95,141 copies for £1.55m across all editions. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-09 23:55:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this