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Newsletter: March 2010

 

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
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Other recent Newsletters:
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 * February 2010 *  *
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 *  *  February 2010  *
Happy New Year! Things generally start fairly slowly in January, but a handful of literary awards give the book world something to get excited about. One of the biggest is...
 * January 2010 *  *
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 *  *  January 2010  *
Happy New Year! Here's to loads of great reading in 2010 - new discoveries and renewed pleasures alike. Before we launch into the literary delights of 2010 though, here's a...
 * December 2009 *  *
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 *  *  December 2009  *
It's our last newsletter of the year, and a mixed bag of collapse, chaos, winners, would-be winners, tall stories and short stories it is too. Read on for all the...
 * November 2009 *  *
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 *  *  November 2009  *
This last month has been chock-full of prize-talk. We'll start with the who's-in-the-running-for-what lists, and then wrap up with a few who's-won-whats... The books shortlisted for this year's Guardian First...
 * October 2009 *  *
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 *  *  October 2009  *
It's been a month of shortlists, hitlists, hotlists and likely lists. And a few winners. First and foremost (at least in terms of media coverage), the shortlist for this year's...
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