'Nobody in Tesco buys spy books by women': how female authors took on the genre

Publishing’s long established boys’ club in espionage fiction is having its cover blown by a new school led by Stella Rimington, Manda Scott and Charlotte PhilbyWhen Stella Rimington, the former director general of MI5 and spy author, wrote a new foreword last year to The Spy’s Bedside Book, Graham Greene and his brother Hugh’s 1957 anthology , she was glowingly complimentary. She had just one complaint. “After everything we have done for spying, there is, apart from the obligatory reference to Mata Hari, hardly anything in this book about women!” she wrote.The Greene brothers aren’t alone in their short sight. Wikipedia lists 127 notable writers of spy fiction, dead and living, and only seven of them are women. (Rimington is one of them.) Pick any list of the best spy novels, and it will usually be peopled only by male writers such as John le Carré, John Buchan, Rudyard Kipling, Erskine Childers, Joseph Conrad, Len Deighton, Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum.Publishing has become much more gender-blind – before it was: ‘Only blokes can write this’ Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2020-01-07 09:00:54 UTC ]
News tagged with: #male writers #rudyard kipling #joseph conrad #ian fleming #tom clancy #anthology

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Exclusive: YALLWest teen book festival announces 2016 lineup

YALLWest is coming, and if that doesn't mean anything to you, you're not a teen reader. Now in its second year, YALLWest is a book festival targeted at teens -- although it won't turn away grownups who like YA books, and younger readers are invited too. Set for Santa Monica April 30-May 1,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2016-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ya books #younger readers


The Subversive Women Who Self-Publish Novels Amid Jihadist War

Photographer Glenna Gordon captures the lives of remarkable women self-publishing romance novels and other stories in northern Nigeria. The post The Subversive Women Who Self-Publish Novels Amid Jihadist War appeared first on WIRED. Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2016-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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TV War and Peace puts Tolstoy's book on bestseller list for first time

Epic novel, whose length has long discouraged readers, has made it on to the Bookseller’s top 50 after the BBC’s acclaimed new adaptationBritain is racing to address the fact that only 4% of Britons have read War and Peace, with Leo Tolstoy’s doorstopping epic entering the UK’s book charts for... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2016-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bestseller list #nielsen bookscan #records began #total sales #combined sales


Meet Alison Overholt, ESPN The Magazine’s First Female Editor-in-Chief

Overholt chats with Folio: about her plans for the brand, the status of women's sports in America, and the new and changing ways in which sports and culture continue to intersect in the media. The post Meet Alison Overholt, ESPN The Magazine’s First Female Editor-in-Chief appeared first on Folio:. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2016-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Havana Book Fair 2016 and U.S. Publishing Mission to Cuba: All Our Coverage

A delegation of American publishers traveled to Cuba for the 2016 Havana Book Fair and to participate in the first ever U.S. Publishing Mission to Cuba, organized by Publishers Weekly and Combined Book Exhibit. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Startup of the week: Book In A Box

The concept behind Book In A Box - that aspiring authors can outsource the entire writing and publishing process - might be controversial, but then founder Max Tucker has made a bestselling publishing career out of profitable controversy. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of Emma Watson's first book club title soar

Sales of Gloria Steinem's On the Road have peaked after it was selected as the first read for Emma Watson's new feminist book club.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Pat Conroy has pancreatic cancer

Pat Conroy, 70, best-selling American author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, his publisher, Doubleday, announced on Tuesday. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2016-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Middle Grade neglect risks isolating generation of readers, author warns

Authors and critics are warning that Middle Grade children’s books, for readers aged eight to 12 years, are failing to get the attention they merit from the media and book prize organisers because of the dominance of Young Adult titles. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By the book: six ways to break into publishing

Contact publishers and editors directly and remember publishing is bigger than just editorial, says our expert panelIf you’re looking to get experience in the industry, start by applying to publishers directly. “I recommend approaching smaller independent publishers too. They tend to receive... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2016-02-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Classics to offer schools sets of 100 books at £1 per title

Publisher responds to challenge from the schools minister to provide schoolchildren with affordable access to great books From Solomon Northrup’s 19th-century memoir about his years in captivity, Twelve Years a Slave, to classic novels such as Gulliver’s Travels and Madame Bovary, schools... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2016-02-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #classic novels #madame bovary #broad spectrum #secondary school #great expectations #jane eyre


Scribble acquires Jennifer Higgie picture book

Miriam Rosenbloom, commissioning editor of Scribe’s children’s imprint Scribble, has acquired the world rights for Jennifer Higgie’s debut children’s picture book, There’s Not One. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Give female historians the credit we deserve | Letters

Flattered though I was to be praised by David Kynaston (Move over history boys, Review, 6 February), this piece misses the problem. Women do write history; the issue is why they are neglected. The academic profession needs to address this. Historians who want an academic job or promotion often... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2016-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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State-of-the-nation novel to Gallic Books

Gallic Books is to publish a "skilfully woven state-of-the-nation novel" by Antoine Laurain called French Rhapsody. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Big Book Metadata Overhaul

The Book Industry Study Group is looking to find a way to better drive book discoverability using metadata. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Deals: Week of February 15, 2015

Meg Gardiner signs with Dutton for six figures, HC announces a new Shel Silverstein book, and more in this week's notable book deals. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Time buys MySpace parent

Time Inc. is the latest old-media giant to add new-media has-been MySpace to its portfolio. The New York publishing company of Sports Illustrated, People, InStyle and Entertainment Weekly has acquired Viant Technology Inc., an Irvine, California, ad-tech company that owns MySpace. Time (NYSE:... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2016-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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James and Heneage among British Book Industry Awards judges

Authors Peter James and James Heneage, critic and author Amanda Craig and former Hachette deputy c.e.o. David Young will help judge this year’s British Book Industry Awards. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Eighth Harry Potter book set to be 'publishing event of year'

Chain booksellers in the UK have welcomed yesterday’s news that Little, Brown UK will publish the script of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter stage play in book form, although independents are less sure of how well the book will sell. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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PW Picks: Books of the Week, February 15, 2016

This week: Ethan Canin's wonderful, epic novel, plus the collected stories of Peter Straub. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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