If you've missed our regular books news updates on EnCompass, here's a quick round-up of what's been goping on over the last month or so...
JK Rowling has been caught up in yet another plagiarism affair - and this time it's her who's under scrutiny. The estate of Adrian Jacobs is claiming that Rowling pinched substantial parts of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire from Jacobs' 1987 book The Adventures of Willy the Wizard.
The days of Catherine Cookson romances topping the most-borrowed charts in UK libraries are now over - probably forever. The books we're all clamouring for in our libraries nowadays, apparently, are by James Patterson, Nora Roberts and Danielle Steele.
In 'interesting new books on the horizon', Alexander McCall Smith is publishing another in his bestselling No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series - but you'll only be able to enjoy it if you can read Scots. The book will be available a whole year before its English version appears. And Salman Rushdie is apparently planning a book about his time living under the Ayatollah's fatwa after publishing The Satanic Verses. Neil Gaiman, meanwhile, has announced he's writing an episode of UK hit series Dr Who, which will air next year.
And in prizes, the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize has been won by The Great Hamster Massacre, by Katie Davis. The longlists for the Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title, the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, and the so-called 'lost Booker' prize (when the rules were changed in 1970) have been announced. A new prize for historical fiction, in honour of Sir Walter Scott, and a new prize for young writers, backed by Michael Morpurgo, have been launched.
Published 02/03/2010 | 
