In 1926, with the General Strike looming and the right warning of a Bolshevik revolution, the BBC found itself in a dreadful dilemma. Writer Jack Thorne on why he turned this into ‘a love letter to people in authority’Jack Thorne is a furiously busy scriptwriter and, although he’s celebrated for bringing Harry Potter to the stage and His Dark Materials to the screen, he loves a chewy subject. In recent years, he’s tackled child abuse, the plight of care homes in the pandemic, and a Grenfell-like catastrophe that devastates a community. At the moment, his play The Motive and the Cue, about the famously rocky process of putting together John Gielgud’s production of Hamlet starring Richard Burton, is at the National Theatre in London.He will soon have another play on in the city. When we meet, Thorne – tall, gangly, scrappily bearded, wearing a T-shirt with a printed design that instantly calls to mind the armoured bear in His Dark Materials – is on a break from watching a run-through of his newest work, When Winston Went to War With the Wireless. It stages an early crisis for the BBC that shaped its future and set the tone for the way it handles political pressure to this day. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-06-05 07:00:22 UTC ]
JK Rowling and Bill Bryson top the charts, while film tie-ins give Paula Hawkins and Jojo Moyes a second bite of the cherry – but this unpredictable year has also seen a welcome revival of humorous writingIt was a year when the No 1 book was a play script. When hyper-prolific James Patterson,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-12-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child helped lift sales in the children’s/YA category 31.1% in July over the same month in 2015, according to figures released by the Association of American Publishers as part of its StatShot program. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The bestselling books over the holidays at the e-tailer were 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down,' 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,' and a children's backlist book. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The July publication of 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' helped raise sales in the children's/young adult segment 31.1% in July over a year ago. July sales of adult books fell. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts 1 and 2' was Amazon's best-selling book of 2016 and was also the year's "most wished for" and "most gifted" book at the e-tailer. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sarah Perry's novel The Essex Serpent is named Waterstones Book of the Year ahead of a Beatrix Potter manuscript and a Harry Potter playscript. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2016-12-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Warner Bros. has signed a deal to buy the gamer-focused YouTube network Machinima in order to expand the movie and TV studio’s digital video business, the company said Thursday. Burbank-based Warner Bros., the studio behind film franchises like Harry Potter and DC Entertainment, was already a... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2016-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The release of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child playscript, published by Little, Brown, has helped Hachette UK to grow its sales by 30.1% in the third quarter, according to results issued by its parent company Lagardere. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A children’s book about the National Theatre has been announced as the overall winner of the School Library Association (SLA)’s Information Book Award 2016. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent is the only novel on the six-book shortlist, up against JK Rowling’s play script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and a long-lost Beatrix Potter storySarah Perry’s novel The Essex Serpent might have missed out on the big literary prizes this year, but her... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Harry Potter script and a Beatrix Potter story are among the titles up for Waterstones Book of the Year 2016. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2016-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Chicken House m.d. Barry Cunningham, the man who acquired the manuscript for J K Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the late 1990s, is selling his unique edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard at Sotheby’s. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A one-off edition of a Harry Potter spin-off book, handwritten by JK Rowling, is being sold by its owner. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2016-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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On Saturday teenagers take over libraries in the West Midlands for A Place Free of Judgement with artists Blast Theory. Author Tony White talks about working on this love song to libraries. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dull Margaret, a darkly humorous tale illustrated by the artist DIX, is tipped to be a hot property at the Frankfurt book fairThe actor Jim Broadbent is making his first foray into fiction with a graphic novel inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 16th-century painting of a “strong, intense... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-10-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has given US-based Scholastic Corp a huge boost, as the company has today posted a first quarter revenue increase of 48%. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' helped add almost $70 million to Scholastic’s trade division in the quarter ended August 31, and drove a 104% jump in revenue in the company’s children’s book publishing and distribution group. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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J K Rowling and Jack Thorne’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Little, Brown) has held on to the number one spot for a sixth week—by the tips of its fingers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Little, Brown) has racked up five weeks as the Official UK Top 50 number one—but the gap is closing. According to Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market, the playscript sold 36,485 copies for £455,824, just 7,503 units above runner-up The Girl on the Train... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-07 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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