We seek inspiration, consolation – and the unvarnished truth. And we know that all the best stories are trueCaroline Knox is director of the Boswell book festivalMy love affair with biography began aged nine, when my subscription book club sent me a compendium of “true life” adventure stories. It is a passion I have carried into adulthood: before moving to the great biographer and diarist James Boswell’s home county of Ayrshire and founding a festival in his name, I had enjoyed commissioning biography, memoir and travel writing – all genres at which Boswell excelled – as a senior editor at the renowned publisher John Murray. It was then still housed in the family’s London mansion in Albemarle Street, where one of the great lost memoirs in literature, Lord Byron’s, had been burnt in the drawing-room grate.Visiting Boswell’s burial place for the first time, in the churchyard in Auchinleck, a former mining village in Ayrshire, I was shocked to discover that Boswell’s literary legacy had also seemingly been laid to rest. His exquisite neoclassical mausoleum stood derelict, with not even a sign to mark his last resting place. I immediately determined to launch a book festival of biography.Caroline Knox is director of the Boswell Book festival. The Boswell book festival will take place at Dumfries House, Ayrshire, from 12 to 14 May 2023, with a children’s festival taking place at the same time Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-09 08:00:15 UTC ]
Michael Palin, Bill Bryson and William Dalrymple are just some of the names already nominated for the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An exploration of the landscape around a remote Cornish farmhouse, a study of the role of lemons in the Italian cultural landscape, and an account of life below deck on giant container ships are among the books shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year shortlist. Stanfords... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Guardian was Sarah’s window to the world outside when she was undergoing cancer treatmentLast year, on 17 July, I was a 33-year-old woman living and working in Leicester. I’d moved here from Birmingham 15 years earlier, to study at Leicester University, and then never left. I love it here,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Piatkus has acquired a book by Sareeta Domingo, who works as a senior editor at Hothouse Fiction. Anna Boatman, senior editor at Piatkus Fiction, bought world rights in The Nearness of You from Sara Keane at Keane Kataria Literary Agency. The Nearness of You is set in London and concerns a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Edinburgh International Book Festival will be a "global village" this summer with guests from 55 countries, its director has said. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2015-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scribner in the UK and Atria Books in the US, both part of the Simon & Schuster group, have acquired a new book by Swedish novelist and playwright, Jonas Hassen Khemiri. World English Language rights in the novel, titled Everything I Don’t Remember, were acquired by Rowan Cope, editorial... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Canongate will publish a new cookbook from Birmingham-born chef April Bloomfield featuring recipes using vegetables, titled A Girl and Her Greens. Jenny Lord, senior editor at Canongate, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Cullen Stanley at Janklow and Nesbit. Bloomfield is the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Music critic Jessica Hopper’s work has been anthologised in a new book – still a rare accolade in the macho world of rock writingThe first essay reprinted in Jessica Hopper’s new book, The First Collection Of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic, sees her in 2002, imagining “what a REAL... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan have signed a contract to continue their Richard & Judy Book Club, in association with W H Smith, until 2019. The celebrity couple help to select eight titles—mainly authored by new and emerging talent—three times a year: for Spring, Summer and Autumn Book... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Emma Healey’s début novel Elizabeth is Missing (Penguin) has been voted as the best title in Richard and Judy’s Spring 2015 Book Club. Readers voted for their favourite book from the book club’s eight Spring picks on the W H Smith website. The second most-voted-for title was The Miniaturist by... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Farmer and writer John Lewis-Stempel has won the Thwaites Wainwright Prize 2015 for Meadowland: the Private Life of an English Field (Black Swan). Worth £5,000, the annual book prize is awarded by publisher Frances Lincoln, in association with the National Trust, to highlight the best books in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Boston Book Festival is expanding with a free, day-long festival just for kids, Hubbub: Creative Commotion for Kids, at the close of the school year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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ITV daytime chat show Loose Women is today (March 24th) launching a new book club, with Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train (Doubleday) picked as the first title. The book club, called Loose Books, will see a different Loose Women panellist pick a book to read each month, which will be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sphere has acquired two novels by debut author Mark Hardie, who began writing full-time after losing his eyesight in 2002. Jade Chandler, senior editor for Sphere Fiction, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Burned and Broken and its sequel from Juliet Mahony and Sarah Lutyens at Lutyens... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For his next reading challenge pick, Zuckerberg announced a much-lauded pro-vaccination book.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has come out swinging in support of vaccination—and he wants his book club members to read all about it. Undaunted by the lukewarm reception to his first few picks,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2015-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jon Stewart announced plans Tuesday night to leave his perch on The Daily Show later this year. The shrieks and cries you heard coming from Manhattan and Brooklyn? That was the sound of publishing and media insiders realizing that their best avenue for jump-starting book sales and making... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2015-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Cynthia Bond's novel "Ruby" is set in Texas and tells a fierce and poetic tale of a worldly, beautiful black woman, Ruby Bell, and her struggle not to be destroyed by her home community of Liberty Township. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hodder non-fiction has promoted Briony Gowlett to senior editor. Gowlett, who was previously commissioning editor, has been at Hodder for a year, and bought books including Joey Essex’s Being Reem and most recently YouTuber Joe Sugg’s first book, a graphic novel. Hannah Black, publisher for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stanfords is relaunching the Dolman Travel Book of the Year prize, doubling its prize money, and creating a new award for travel writing. From 2015, the renamed Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year award will carry a prize fund of £5,000. The revamped awards will also include the Edward... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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