As her latest Jackson Brodie thriller comes out, the award-winning author discusses cosy crime, sniffy critics, and how she investigated her own family’s secretsKate Atkinson has an idea for a fun side-hustle: at some point in the future, when she’s done with the second world war, and with her jaded private eye, Jackson Brodie, she’ll bring to life the creative projects that have hitherto existed only as facets of her characters’ lives. She’ll take the fortune teller Madame Astarti from her third novel, Emotionally Weird, and put her at the centre of her own series of mysteries; she’ll conjure up a script for Green Acres, the rural soap opera that features in her two short-story collections, 2002’s Not the End of the World and last year’s Normal Rules Don’t Apply; she’ll craft episodes of the TV police procedural Collier, in which Brodie’s one-time girlfriend Julia played a pathologist. And finally, she’ll flesh out the breathtakingly hammy murder mystery that a cast of clapped-out actors perform at Burton Makepeace, the stately home that is the setting for her new Jackson Brodie novel, Death at the Sign of the Rook.Writing these scenes – teeming with aristocrats, actors, Russian countesses, clergymen and a “fastidious little Swiss detective” – were Atkinson’s treat, she tells me, as she constructed the novel during lockdown. “I would have done so much more of that,” she explains, as we sit sipping coffee in a studiedly antiquated hotel near her home in Edinburgh. “But I... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-08-10 08:00:37 UTC ]
Jason Rekulak has resigned as publisher of Quirk Books in order to "further pursue his writing career and other creative projects." Brett Cohen, the president of Quirk, has taken over as publisher, effective immediately. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-01-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A literary historical début, the redemptive tale of two sisters torn apart by the Second World War, breaks the long-held silence on the plight of Korea’s "comfort women". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The historian did important work on the Peterloo massacre and the suffragette movement, says Lindsey German, and deserves greater prominence than the failed memoir forger Clifford IrvingIt shows a somewhat strange priority that your main obituary on 27 December described the life of Clifford... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The literary editor and memoirist turns 100 this month, and what better way to celebrate than answering Guardian readers’ questions? She’ll be online on Monday 11 December from 2pm GMT 3.14pm GMT On 21 December 21, Diana Athill will be 100 years old. This is an achievement in itself, though... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hodder & Stoughton has acquired To War with the Walkers, a new social history of World War Two, following a five-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Egmont Publishing has signed a new deal between Michael Morpurgo and illustrator Barroux based on the "epic", true story of Morpurgo’s uncles during World War Two. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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His Dark Materials novelist says today’s steep price cuts devalue authors’ work and cheapen the experience of readingWith more than two months to go before Philip Pullman’s long-awaited new novel from the world of His Dark Materials is published, pre-orders have sent La Belle Sauvage flying up... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael Connelly has the #1 book in the country with series launch ‘The Late Show.’ Plus Joshua Green’s ‘The Devil’s Bargain’ looks at the relationship between Steve Bannon and Donald Trump, and ‘World War Z’ author Max Brooks writes the first official Minecraft novel. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Natalie Dye’s debut novel about the sinking of the Arandora Star ship during World War Two, killing 865 people, has been optioned for television. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Award-winning author and illustrator Lauren Child has been named as the next Waterstones Children’s Laureate, an honour she says she “wasn’t expecting”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Award-winning author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers is publishing a new book with HarperCollins at the end of this year and has signed a new two-book deal with the publisher for future publishing. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury Children’s is set to publish a new novel from Elizabeth Wein, telling the story of Julie Beaufort-Stuart, the main character from her novel Code Name Verity, before the Second World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tinder Press has acquired Letters from a Suitcase, a collection of letters spanning the "short but passionate love affair" and marriage between communist couple David and Mary Francis during the Second World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-08-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The winning book at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults has been criticised for endorsing New Zealand's participation in World War I and "glorifying" the killing of Germans. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2016-08-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Award-winning author, poet, and playwright Joyce Carol Thomas, whose works largely focused on family and the African-American experience, died on August 17. She was 79. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The History Press is to publish a book based on an original set of sketchbooks and diaries from a signaller in the First World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bestselling novelist Chris Cleave talks to Alice O'Keeffe about his new book which tackles the Second World War, Everyone Brave is Forgiven. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent publisher Alma Books has signed a middle-grade story about what happened to all the pets in World War Two by Miriam Halahmy. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Annotated version of Adolf Hitler’s opus, which ‘unmasks his false allegations, whitewashing and outright lies’, will debut at 20 on non-fiction chart after publishers received 15,000 orders A new critical edition of Mein Kampf is set to make its debut on German bestseller lists this weekend,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Adolf Hitler’s political manifesto Mein Kampf is to be published for the first time in Germany since the end of the Second World War, the BBC has reported. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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