Tommy Robinson’s book went to No 1 on Amazon. This is what I learned from the reviews | Zoe Williams

The far-right activist’s Manifesto briefly topped the website’s chart. It is gone now, but the comments make for worrying readingIt’s always tempting to self-soothe when the far right is on the march. Tommy Robinson’s new book, Manifesto: Free Speech, Real Democracy, Peaceful Disobedience, briefly topped Amazon’s bestseller chart last week – above Boris Johnson’s memoir, but also above Richard Osman, the fastest-selling hardback fiction author in British history, and Sally Rooney. Oh well, I thought. Maybe the book itself is not that bad? Maybe he’s turned over a new leaf?It is that bad: I will not read it, because I will not buy it, because the day I put £24.99 or any fraction thereof into the pocket of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is the day I’ve parted company with the material world. But here’s how it is described in the blurb: “For decades the political class have openly planned to replace the indigenous people of Europe and in Manifesto we focus on how they are doing this in the UK.”Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2024-10-15 10:00:56 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Tommy Robinson’s book went to No 1 on Amazon. This is what I learned from the reviews | Zoe Williams"


Hardback sales spike across summer

Since bookshops began reopening in the UK on 15th June, hardback sales have soared against the same period in 2019. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-17 11:10:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Amazon Charts: Midnight Sun dawns at the top

Stephenie Meyer's Midnight Sun (Atom) rose 11 places to top the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction chart, as the Twilight reboot sold 62,460 copies in hardback to claim the UK Official Top 50 number one through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-12 02:23:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this


An author bought his own book to get higher on bestseller lists. Is that fair?

Author Mark Dawson has attracted criticism after bulk buying his own book gave him a high chart position. But that isn’t breaking any rulesFor any author, being able to describe yourself as a bona fide bestseller is key to conferring your career with a certain gravitas – and will often bring you... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-07-20 15:59:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this


HC to publish Piers Morgan's 'clarion call' on free speech

HarperCollins has acquired world all language rights to Wake Up: Why the ‘Liberal’ War on Free Speech is Even More Dangerous than Covid-19 by broadcaster and journalist Piers Morgan. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-15 12:44:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Up at Oxford

“Surely some revelation is at hand.” ¤ A MEMOIR BY the journalist and sportswriter Simon Kuper appeared in the Financial Times in late July last year. It was about Kuper’s time at Oxford from the late 1980s onward, when he overlapped with Boris Johnson and Rory Stewart at Balliol College. Young... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-07-02 13:00:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Dean Baquet, Marty Baron, and protecting the institution

Last Tuesday, Wesley Lowery wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which he wrapped the urgent media-industry conversations about diversity and coverage of race around our flawed prevailing definition of “objectivity”—a concept shaped, in large part, by white editors and reporters with the eye... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-06-29 12:20:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this


"Let’s clarify what free speech is and is not": An open letter to the industry from Pride in Publishing

Being a book publisher comes with a set of tough moral responsibilities. You provide livelihoods for authors and booksellers, your hiring decisions can greatly influence how UK culture is shaped, and you’re also a company with a duty of care towards your staff. Sometimes these duties come into... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-23 03:23:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Libraries to reopen on 4th July as lockdown eases

Libraries in England will be able to reopen from 4th July as the country's lockdown measures continue to ease, Boris Johnson has announced. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-22 22:02:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Black British authors top UK book charts in wake of BLM protests

Bernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge take No 1 slots in wake of anti-racist demonstrations, as Waterstones staff ask chain to support causeBernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge have become the first black British women to top the UK’s fiction and nonfiction paperback charts, in a week where... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-06-10 13:46:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Normal People boomerangs back to charts top spot

Sally Rooney's Normal People (Faber) has bounced back to the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a second week across lockdown. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-01 21:09:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Amazon Charts: Wicks and Rooney score a hat-trick

For a third week running, Joe Wicks' Wean in 15 (Bluebird) and Sally Rooney's Normal People (Faber) have topped the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold categories for the week ending 17th May. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-19 23:05:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Digital Bestseller Lists: Normal People leads the way

For the week ending 9th May, Sally Rooney’s Normal People punted into the Bookstat e-book number one, climbing one place to leapfrog Andrew Mayne’s The Girl Beneath the Sea. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-16 12:06:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Sally Rooney's Normal People tops UK book charts as readers fall for TV version

Costa award-winning love story of Connell and Marianne takes top slot from David Walliams’ bestselling children’s book SlimeSally Rooney’s Normal People has flown to the top of the UK’s book charts more than two years after it was published, thanks to the release of the TV adaptation starring... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-05-13 15:44:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Amazon Charts: Rooney scores a blinder

Sally Rooney's Normal People (Faber) has soared six places up the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction chart to score the number one. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-05 17:09:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Virago acquires historian Virginia Nicholson's Undressing Women

Virago has acquired Undressing Women from historian Virginia Nicholson, exploring 100 years of women's lives in British history through fashion and beauty. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-04 00:00:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Lesley Manville to read Richard Osman audiobook

“Mum” and “Phantom Thread” star Lesley Manville will narrate the audiobook of Richard Osman's forthcoming novel, The Thursday Murder Club. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-01 14:43:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this


No-prorogation justice Lady Hale to publish memoir and guide to the law

Judge famous for ruling against Boris Johnson will recount how ‘a little girl from North Yorkshire became the most senior judge in the UK’ Lady Hale, who presided over the momentous decision to rule Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament unlawful, is set to write her memoirs, of how “a little... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-04-23 14:06:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Booksellers call for clarity from Johnson as coronavirus hits business

Booksellers have called for clarity from Boris Johnson’s government as measures to tackle the coronavirus outbreak hit the high street.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-17 08:20:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Film rights for Osman debut novel bought by Amblin in 14-way auction

Film rights to Richard Osman’s debut novel, The Thursday Murder Club (Viking), have been snapped up by Amblin Partners in a 14-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-05 16:08:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Who should star in the upcoming BBC adaptation of Conversations With Friends?

Sally Rooney’s takeover of the world continues apace today with the announcement that the Irish literary phenom’s debut novel Conversations With Friends will be adapted into a twelve-part series for the BBC. Like the upcoming BBC/Hulu adaptation of Rooney’s 2019 juggernaut Normal People, which... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-25 18:39:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this