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 ]
News tagged with: #casual vacancy #hilary mantel #jk rowling #publishing industry #potential readers #night watch

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Open Road to Publish Virginia Hamilton E-books

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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ASA drops W H Smith R&J book club ad complaint

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sphere makes Wicked acquisition

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Juliet Rogers to leave Murdoch Books

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Cairo Book Fair cancelled amid demonstrations in Egypt

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HMV begins store closure programme

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Random House buys book on BP oil crisis

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Googlization of Books

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E-books and More at Winter Institute 6

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Media Decoder: Hearst Makes Offer For Elle, Other Lagardère Titles

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[ The New York Times | 2011-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Claims E-book Sales Beat Paperbacks

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[ PC World | 2011-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Kindle Book Sales Soar

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[ PC World | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Richard and Judy launches kids books club

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Poet on winning Costa Book prize

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[ BBC News | 2011-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Media Decoder: TED Starts an E-Books Line

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[ The New York Times | 2011-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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