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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Should I keep the first edition or the fine dust jacket? Deciding what books should stay or go is more art than science. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-07-29 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Before the stay-at-home orders came down in Baltimore, the last thing I did in person was participate in a panel conversation about—ironically—“art and the apocalypse.” In retrospect, we should have cancelled, but the threat in Maryland still felt surreal; those were the days when it seemed like... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-07-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Leaders will need to be resilient, open-minded, and creative. Poetry can show them the way. “I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2020-07-28 03:00:09 UTC ]
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There are 22 libraries in the world with a whopping 15 million items catalogued. Here are ten of the world's biggest - with a few facts and some pictures. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-07-27 10:30:43 UTC ]
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Sci-fi preconceptions are challenged by little-known marvels from James Tiptree Jr, Angélica Gorodischer and othersThe border between science fiction and mainstream literature is more permeable than booksellers or publishers would have us think. Double Booker prize-winner Margaret Atwood’s... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-07-27 06:00:46 UTC ]
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Netflix's German science fiction series stuck the landing in its third and final season. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2020-07-24 16:00:00 UTC ]
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David Walliams and Tony Ross' The World's Worst Parents (HarperCollins) has topped the UK Official Top 50 for a third week running, selling 32,013 copies. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-21 02:42:45 UTC ]
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Elliott developed his London listings and culture magazine into a ‘global media empire’Tony Elliott, the founder of the events listings magazine Time Out, has died after a long illness, the magazine has said.The 73-year-old set up the magazine in London in 1968 and grew it into a major... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-07-17 18:46:36 UTC ]
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The 40th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were announced today on Twitter. The prizes are given in 12 categories, and titles from Penguin Random House took home six. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-07-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Gill Lewis has been shortlisted for a fifth time in the Little Rebels Award's eight-year history for The Closest Thing to Flying (OUP). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-14 03:33:09 UTC ]
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The new memoir takes you inside a dysfunctional American family—and into Donald Trump’s mind. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2020-07-09 19:25:33 UTC ]
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Armchair detectives, get ready for a voyage around the world. You don't need to pack a bag--just pick up these audiobook mysteries and get sleuthing. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-07-07 10:31:58 UTC ]
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H. G. Wells helped pioneer science fiction with his 1898 book The War of the Worlds. Many iterations later, it still scares and fascinates us. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2020-07-06 19:54:21 UTC ]
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David Walliams and Tony Ross' The World's Worst Parents (HarperCollins) has rocketed into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 74,328 copies in its first three days on sale. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-06 19:39:47 UTC ]
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Novelist H.G. Carrillo, like many authors before him, assumed a fabricated identity. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-07-06 15:23:46 UTC ]
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John Murray imprint Two Roads will publish My Garden World by Monty Don in September. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-03 03:21:39 UTC ]
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Niamh Campbell has been awarded the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award for her "original and touching" piece "Love Many". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-02 16:30:36 UTC ]
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John Hersey’s article titled simply “Hiroshima,” which comprised the entire feature space in the August 31, 1946, issue of The New Yorker, has been called by many the greatest, or at least the most important, journalistic achievement of the past century. Its life was extended when it was soon... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-02 08:48:53 UTC ]
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Souvenir Press will publish The Listening Path: The Creative Art of Attention by Julia Cameron, a sequel to her book The Artist's Way which was first published in the 1990s. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-01 02:13:59 UTC ]
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Today’s publishers are working to survive in a new reality where media consumption is up, but revenues are down. Let’s examine three ways publishers can thrive — not just survive — and prepare for success in the next normal. Continue reading at Publishing Executive
[ Publishing Executive | 2020-06-30 20:16:23 UTC ]
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