A sinking ship of a drama that managed to be neither monstrous nor deep"Thar she blows!" said one of the crew as a whale came to the surface. The cetacean wasn't the only thing blowing heavily in The Whale (BBC1), a 90-minute dramatisation of the sinking of the Essex, a Nantucket whaler, by a sperm whale in the Pacific. This was the shipwreck that inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick; the BBC film was so laboured it only served to unintentionally remind me of Melville's genius.The Whale felt like a big-screen movie epic trapped inside a relatively small-budget TV programme; the vastness of the ocean, skies and the whales got hopelessly lost. Worse still, it was structurally flawed, unable to make up its mind whether it was a rite-of-passage story for the young Tom Nickerson on his first voyage, a clash of wills between the two leads – the smouldering First Mate Chase and the even more smouldering Captain Pollard – talking in pirate-speak or Orca Strikes Back. Inevitably, it fell between every stool.The biggest disappointment was the whale itself. The whale scenes had been filmed by the BBC's natural history unit and they looked like it. They were beautiful, precise and graceful and wouldn't have been out of place in a David Attenborough film. What there wasn't was any sense of the menace or personality that had captured Melville's imagination and was supposed to be present here.When the whale attacked the boat, it came from out of the blue rather than from the... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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There was no shortage of debates and discussions at last week's second annual Digital Book World, where about 1,300 members of the trade publishing industry turned out in New York to explore ways to navigate the digital transition. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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There have been a few popular books in recent years detailing Google's ascent in the digital world, notably Ken Auletta's Googled: The End of the World as We Know It and Jeff Jarvis's What Would Google Do. But there is another story, says author and media scholar Siva Vai-dhyanathan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The ebook sales milestone "has come even sooner than we expected," CEO Bezos says. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Puffin is to publish a new picture book by The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Eric Carle, his first in four years. The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse will be published in October 2011, in a global, simultaneous publication with Philomel, a Penguin Young Readers... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Online retailer reports sales of its digital ebooks has outstripped those of traditional paperbacks. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell A children's book written by Jo Nesbo is among the choices in Richard and Judys Childrens Book Club, which launched in W H Smith today [27th January]. The husband-and wife television presenting team are working alongside the charity Booktrust, to encourage more... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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TED, known for exclusive events and online videos of speeches by celebrities like Al Gore, Bono and Malcolm Gladwell, plans to publish its own short ebooks, beginning with three that went on sale Wednesday. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Penguin has been appointed the exclusive publisher for Sainsbury's Book Club, providing all titles in the promotion between July 2011 and July 2012. Authors set to feature in the club include Marian Keyes, Clive Cussler, Jeff Kinney and Rick Riordan, with exact... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Costa Book of the Year prize-winner, Jo Shapcott, explains her delight that poetry has been recognised by Costa two years running. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2011-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Anna Boiardi's family founded Chef Boyardee more than 70 years ago, spelling their name phonetically to help Americans pronounce it. Now, Boiardi teaches cooking classes and has written Delicious Memories, which Stewart, Tabori & Chang will publish in May. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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While all the big box stores carry books and all offer discounted bestsellers, Target competes most directly for those consumers who might otherwise make their purchases at bookstores. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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