TV books programmes: if nobody watches them, make better ones

The novelist Robert Harris was right to call the BBC’s lack of a books show a ‘disgrace’. There’s plenty the corporation could do to make a popular literary programme on TVWith injury, there is always a little insult. When a BBC spokesperson, responding to Robert Harris’s complaints at the Costa book of the year ceremony about the absence of a dedicated book show on its television channels, pointed out that the corporation was responsible for introducing readers to books by way of adaptations such as Wolf Hall and The Casual Vacancy, one might feel that Harris’s comments – in which he called the absence of a BBC TV books show an ‘absolute disgrace’ – had been somewhat misunderstood.While Hilary Mantel and JK Rowling, their publishers, agents and the book industry doubtless benefit from book adaptations, the BBC’s motive in putting them on is not altruistic. It does not broadcast these adaptations to benefit poor, garret-bound writers, nor because it thinks the publishing industry is struggling to connect with potential readers, nor because it worries that amid the hubbub of rapid-fire entertainment opportunities, the novel is becoming marginalised. It does it because the best novels - whether classic or contemporary, comic or tragic, philosophical or political or romantic - are masterpieces of narrative and entertainment. The BBC is in the debt of writers of such novels as Parade’s End, Mapp and Lucia, South Riding, Death Comes to Pemberley and The Night Watch for... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Guardian | 2014-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Fast Company | 2014-07-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon cuts delays on JK Rowling novel after consumer pressure

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[ The Guardian | 2014-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Casual Vacancy' TV cast will include Michael Gambon, Rory Kinnear

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Crains New York | 2014-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon tells customers to shop elsewhere in Hachette row

Row between world's largest distributor of books and publisher over ebook royalties shows no sign of being resolvedAmazon has advised readers to buy from other retailers after breaking its silence over a high-profile dispute with the publisher Hachette, which has drawn in the British authors Ian... Continue reading at The Guardian

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Authors sign up to Hacked Off declaration

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Reports of a second JK Rowling series has fans on alert

Reports from the UK suggest that JK Rowling has committed to a seven-book series, although her American publisher says the story is 'without foundation.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reports of a second JK Rowling series has fans on alert (+video)

Reports from the UK suggest that JK Rowling has committed to a seven-book series, although her American publisher says the story is 'without foundation.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

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