This excellent cradle-to-grave biography of a much loved novelist who goes in and out of fashion captures her alarming habits and tormented love affairsIn 1971 the author Barbara Pym was at her day job at the International African Institute when she noticed “Mr C” laboriously attacking his lunchtime sandwich with a knife and fork. Pym made a mental note of the detail before asking herself ruefully, “Oh why can’t I write about things like that any more – why is this kind of thing no longer acceptable?” Ten years earlier, Jonathan Cape had dumped her after her sixth book on the grounds that her brand of anthropological observation of English social manners was old lady-ish, dull and didn’t sell. As an extra humiliation, no other publishing house had been interested in picking up Miss Pym: books built on “the daily round of trivial things” could hardly compete with Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal or, if you were feeling fancy, Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Jonathan Cape had even published John Lennon (Pym liked the Beatles, but still). Clearly there was no place in contemporary literature for Mr C and his oddly formal way with a sandwich.There is nothing unusual about major minor novelists having a disappointing and disproportionate decline, followed by a posthumous flowering in reputation and sales. What’s unusual about Pym is that her phoenix moment came while she was still alive. In 1977 the Times Literary Supplement asked well-known... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-08 06:30:07 UTC ]
Israeli writer David Grossman's A Horse Walks Into a Bar, translated by Jessica Cohen and published by Jonathan Cape, has won this year's Man Booker International Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired a book exploring the human body through a blend of science and memoir, Organs: Alternative Lessons in Anatomy by writer and surgeon Gabriel Weston. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired The Hungover Games, a memoir by journalist Sophie Heawood about life as a single mother, following a "fierce" auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired debut novel The Altruists by 25-year-old Andrew Ridker. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a deal closed just before midnight on the second day of London Book Fair, Jonathan Cape has secured UK and Commonwealth rights to This is a Song by former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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March's cover design highlights include a sumptuous selection of illustration on dust jackets; a number of titles that pare designs back to striking typographical treatments, not embellished by visuals; a hat-trick of titles from both Pan Macmillan and Oneworld; and a magnificent football-themed... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Comic fairytale was written in the weeks since the November presidential election and aims to offer readers the ‘consolation of savage satire’In reply to Donald Trump’s election victory – and in lightning quick time – novelist Howard Jacobson has delivered a comic fairytale that the Man Booker... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Graham Greene CBE, most recently a director of Ed Victor Ltd and a "great cultural ambassador", has died. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House is to publish an "atmospheric debut" by alternative-folk artist Kerry Andrew entitled Swansong. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Novelist and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz is writing a new James Bond novel for "Ian Fleming’s original publisher", Vintage imprint Jonathan Cape. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Books from Jonathan Cape and Faber and Faber, as well as new African literature publisher Cassava Republic, are on the shortlist for this year’s Goldsmiths Prize, run by Goldsmiths University in association with the New Statesman. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired two books by American author Maggie Nelson, who has been revealed as one of this year's $625,000 MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant recipients. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has pre-empted the first book from theatre and film director Nicholas Hytner, former director of the National Theatre. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape's Man Booker Prize-longlisted titles All That Man Is by David Szalay and Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh have been shortlisted for the 2016 Gordon Burn Prize, alongside two titles from Faber and one each from Scribe and Canongate. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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To accompany forthcoming film of the same name, the book will recount the bestselling heroine’s ‘somewhat bumpy journey into motherhood’Bridget Jones is back: author Helen Fielding has reunited with her bumbling, much-loved creation yet again, with the latest instalment in her misadventures set... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Titles from Faber, No Exit Press, HarperCollins, Viking and Jonathan Cape have been shortlisted for this year’s John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has signed an award-winning debut American poet to its list, Ocean Vuong, tipped to be "an important new voice" after making "huge waves" in the US. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired two new novels from British-Australian novelist and major literary prize-winner Evie Wyld. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape is publishing BRIT(ish): Getting Under the Skin of Britain’s Race Problem by Afua Hirsch, social affairs editor for Sky News. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Buster Books, publisher of colouring books for ‘Brilliant Boys’ and ‘Gorgeous Girls’ to switch to ‘gender neutral’ titles in futureGirls will no longer be defined as “glamorous” and “gorgeous” while boys get to be “amazing” and “brilliant” at Buster Books, after the children’s publisher... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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