'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

Other Publishing stories related to: ''Nobody in Tesco buys spy books by women': how female authors took on the genre'


Sage buys Learning Matters

Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 02/08/2011 - 15:11 Academic and professional publisher Sage has bought Learning Matters, the independent education publisher founded in 1999. The sale, for an undisclosed sum, was announced jointly by Learning Matters founder and managing... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #announced jointly #ziyad marar #learning matters


Rasmussen new Macmillan Children's Books m.d.

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 01/08/2011 - 15:54 Macmillan Children's Books has appointed current Carlton Publishing m.d. Belinda Rasmussen to the role of publisher. She will report directly to Pan Macmillan m.d. Anthony Forbes Watson, and will join the Pan Macmillan... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #macmillan children #report directly #pan macmillan #start date #publishing programme #ebook list


Book clubs in America: Why do we love them so much?

A casual observer of the book-club scene could be fooled into thinking that this summer was a hard one for the nation's leisure readers. Late in spring, Oprah's club shuttered, stranding publishers in what promises to be a long shoal of short print runs and offering the rest of us one literary... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2011-07-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #buyout offer #reading groups #good chance


Rupert Murdoch's Disaster Is Already an E-Book

Vanity Fair gets a compilation into the Kindle and Nook stores: Twenty previously published stories for $4, heavy on the Michael Wolff. Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2011-07-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #rupert murdoch #vanity fair #nook stores #michael wolff


World Book Night confirms US launch

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 28/07/2011 - 15:19 World Book Night will launch in the US in 2012, with the States confirmed as the event's first international partner. HarperCollins vice president of independent retailing Carl Lennertz has been appointed as chief... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #international partner #1st september #million books


Waterstone's managers await buying change

Written By: Lisa Campbell and Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 29/07/2011 - 09:25 Store managers at Waterstone’s have been reacting with mixed feelings and some confusion to James Daunt’s plans to reintroduce centralised buying into the chain bookseller, as they await more details about the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #lisa campbell #mixed feelings #chain bookseller


Harper Lee tops World Book Night pick

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 27/07/2011 - 15:15 Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is the most popular title among the public to be given away as part of World Book Night 2012. The organisation launched a public vote last month asking people to vote for the titles they... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #public vote #popular title #organisation launched #jane austen #markus zusak


Society of Authors short story petition gains 5,000 signatures

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 27/07/2011 - 07:20 The Society of Authors' petition against the cuts to BBC Radio 4's short story programming has now amassed over 5,000 signatures. SoA general secretary Nicola Solomon and assistant general secretary Jo McCrum will present... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #central london #ali smith #jackie kay


Harper Lee tops World Book Night picks

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 27/07/2011 - 15:15 Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird has been voted the most popular title to be given away as part of World Book Night 2012. The organisation launched a public vote last month asking people to vote for the titles they... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #public vote #popular title #organisation launched #jane austen #markus zusak


Google Books Bows to New Apple App Store Rules

The Google Books iOS app is now in line with Apple's newly enforced rules that ban links bypassing Apple's own in-app purchase mechanism, which means Apple can retain its 30 percent cut. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2011-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Telegraph ordered to pay damages over book review

Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Tue, 26/07/2011 - 17:11 Telegraph Media Group has been ordered to pay £65,000 in damages after losing a high court case for libel and malicious falsehood over a Lynn Barber book review published in the Telegraph. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pay damages #book review


Amazon and Barnes & Noble Pull 'Buy' Links from Apps

In the latest development in Apple’s contentious relationship with booksellers, the country’s two biggest ebook retailers—Amazon and Barnes & Noble—have stopped selling their wares directly to customers through their Apple apps, reports the Wall Street Journal. Canadian bookseller Kobo did... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2011-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #latest development #past weekend #digital titles #nook ebooks


Summersdale buys An Apple a Day

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 25/07/2011 - 15:44 Summersdale has bought world rights to a book about anorexia by Emma Woolf, the writer of the Sunday Times column An Apple a Day. Commissioning editor Jennifer Barclay bought the rights from Sarah Such of Sarah Such Literary... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #literary agency


Foyles continues kids book giveaway

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 25/07/2011 - 08:46 Foyles continues its free book giveaway today (25th July), offering five titles free to children and teen readers. The five Foyles London stores have been giving away the titles free over this weekend and today, the first... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #teen readers


Chatto buys phone-hacking exposé

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 22/07/2011 - 11:03 Chatto & Windus has signed a book by the Guardian journalist who revealed the News of the World hacked the mobile phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. Senior editor Poppy Hampson bought UK & Commonwealth rights to... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #guardian journalist #mobile phone #powerful man #nick davies


Books-A-Million in last-minute Borders bid

Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Fri, 22/07/2011 - 09:32 Books-A-Million has bid for up to 35 US Borders stores in a last-minute offer to try and save part of the 40-year-old bookselling chain. The chain, which also runs stores under the names Books & Co., Bookland and Joe... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bookselling chain #borders stores #bloomberg reports


Murdoch Books signs Olivia Newton-John cookbook

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 21/07/2011 - 09:00 Murdoch Books has bought a healthy living cookbook from "Grease" star Olivia Newton-John. Managing director Christine Jones bought US, UK, Australian and New Zealand rights from Louise Georgeson. LivWise will be published in... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #zealand rights #absolutely delighted


John Blake signs Murdoch book

Written By: Neill Denny Publication Date: Thu, 21/07/2011 - 08:45 John Blake has signed a book by a journalist-turned-lawyer on the Rupert Murdoch story, for publication next February. Called The Rise and Fall of the Murdoch Empire the book will be written by John Lisners, who worked for... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #decade ago


Three Golden Rules for book reviewing: What are they?

Possibly the most famous book review, ever, was written by the young Irish wit and polemicist John Wilson Croker. Croker is still remembered, though obscurely, as a founder of modern political conservatism. What's more, according to some sources, John Wilson Croker invented the very term... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2011-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book reviewing


Daunt reintroduces centralised buying at Waterstone's

Written By: Graeme Neill and Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 21/07/2011 - 15:58 Waterstone's is reintroducing central buying for both new books and replenishment but m.d. James Daunt insisted store staff would be able to order the books they want, when they want. Managing director James... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #graeme neill #brought forward #story set #print version #friday morning