She published her first book in her 40s and became the biggest selling author of the past decade in any genre – The Gruffalo alone has sold 13m copies. How did this former busker make it so big?The room where the children’s author Julia Donaldson writes – the heart of her vast picture book empire – is down a winding staircase, in the cellar of her grand white house in Steyning, West Sussex. Her desk looks out on the street at knee height. “I’m thinking of writing a book about legs,” Donaldson said, as she showed me around the house this summer. Children from the nearby school often wave in at her as they pass. Donaldson is well known in Steyning, due to her frequent signings at the local bookshop. She and her husband, Malcolm, a retired paediatrician, recently bought the local post office to save it from closure. But elsewhere she can walk the pavement without being recognised. “I got a letter the other day for Jacqueline Wilson,” Donaldson told me. “It said: ‘You’re my favourite author!’”If you are not someone who spends much time with young children, you may only be dimly aware of Donaldson’s work – although you will probably be familiar with her most famous creation, the Gruffalo. If you have children, however, you will know her as a cultural juggernaut whose influence among children is perhaps only surpassed by the works of Disney and CBeebies. Donaldson, who is 72, has written more than 210 books: chiefly picture books, but also poetry, plays, a 60-part phonics... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-12-17 06:00:31 UTC ]
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John Murray Press will publish Sally J Morgan's debut Toto Among the Murderers on its J M Originals list this October. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-02 18:06:05 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster is to publish Let Us Dream from Pope Francis in December. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-02 17:32:34 UTC ]
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Your closet is asking you to add these reading t-shirts to it and up your book lover status. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-09-02 10:33:00 UTC ]
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What was the first novel? Why was it written? What need did it fill? Who wrote it? And most importantly, can you still read it today? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-09-02 10:32:00 UTC ]
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#first novel
In this 10-page excerpt from 'Blade Runner 2019: Off World Vol. 2' by Michael Green, Mike Johnson, and Andres Guinaldo, the graphic novel sequel to Ridley Scott’s acclaimed 1982 dystopian sci-fi film, Blade Runner Ash Ashina has been tracked down by another ruthless Blade Runner looking for a... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-09-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Congratulations to Ethan Hawke, star of my favorite film (Gattaca) and arguably the most bookish man in Hollywood, who has, with today’s inclusion in the (web) pages of the New York Times Book Review, completed his Literary World Bingo Card! What is the Literary World Bingo Card you ask? Well,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-01 18:45:05 UTC ]
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In terms of technology, we were lucky to be well set up for remote working: our company had already made sure we were equipped with the things we needed to work from home, so when it was announced that the office was closing, I was able to carry on and keep things moving. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-31 12:07:37 UTC ]
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Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow, August 29th, is Independent Bookstore Day. This year, the festivities will be both online and in-person at 600+ local bookstores around the country, starting tonight with a conversation between Mary Norris and Ann Goldstein about Elena Ferrante’s The Lying... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-28 17:01:59 UTC ]
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Bolinda has scooped a “laugh out loud” romantic comedy by debut author Aly Mennuti, featuring a literary agent based partly on the author's own, Simon Trewin. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-25 02:20:12 UTC ]
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These 41 essays tell another type of nature story, one that asks readers to see the natural world as something other than a reflection of themselves. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-08-24 14:25:16 UTC ]
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Icon Books is set to publish Dr Joe Mulhall’s The Global Far Right: Its Rise and Our Future next year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-20 22:57:23 UTC ]
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#icon books
Some of the world's largest brands are spending more on programmatic advertising, just as the practice is set to become much harder. Members of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) are directing 41% of their digital media budgets to programmatic channels, up from 16% in 2016. Exact figures... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2020-08-20 15:32:30 UTC ]
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Alice Wong’s work as an activist, podcaster, writer, qualitative researcher, and editor is on full display in her new anthology Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century. Her new anthology is an extension of the projects she’s become known when it comes to always... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-19 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The novel, about a family that gives up modern conveniences to live in the woods, is a brutal, beguiling fairy tale about humanity. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-08-17 16:10:42 UTC ]
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#diane cook
Hundreds of titles will flood the market because of Covid. It’s bad news for minority authors, says former Booker prize judgeOver the summer, novelist and screenwriter David Nicholls has been something of a hero. With a humorous nod to the less glamorous aspects of publishing life – hastily... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-08-16 07:29:05 UTC ]
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“I don’t know what it means!” Andy Warhol bleats, in John Giorno’s Great Demon Kings: A Memoir of Poetry, Sex, Art, Death, and Enlightenment (out now from Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Warhol’s ditzy refrain is a mantra for the perpetually bemused, at once tragicomic and tongue-in-cheek. He says... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-14 08:48:26 UTC ]
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Create the magical world of your dreams with this quiz and find a fantastic YA book about immigrants. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-08-06 10:33:00 UTC ]
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When I started writing my current novel, Paris Never Leaves You, I had no idea the protagonist, a young widow struggling to survive in Occupied Paris, would end up working in a New York publishing house. I knew she would get to America, but I assumed she would enter the fashion or beauty... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-31 08:48:22 UTC ]
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Hachette UK has been selected as one of the Times Top 50 Employers for Women 2020, while its Gender Balance Network has won Employee Network Group of the Year (Private Sector) at the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion (ENEI) Awards 2020. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-29 15:13:59 UTC ]
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Richard Barrios’s new book delves into the history of the film adaptation that did boffo business and won multiple Oscars. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-07-29 13:56:23 UTC ]
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