Newsletter: July 2005

This month I had one of those urges to read a classic novel. I don't know why, but every now and then I feel I ought to tackle something a bit... well, heavy and historical. So I went to the bookshelf and hovered for a moment between Stendhal's Scarlet and Black and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, two titles which certainly meet those criteria, and which I've been meaning to read for ages. Alas though, the sheer size of Anna Karenina once again ensured its prompt return to the bookshelf. Fine, I thought, I'll take the Stendhal. I'm ready and willing to submit to 500+ pages of I-don't-know-what. Unfortunately though, I have a rather bad habit of flicking through books to see how long they are - which of course requires turning to the last page. Whilst innocently scanning to see if the text at the foot of page 511 of the Penguin Classics edition was indeed the last line of the book, I couldn't help but read it. '...she gave her children a last embrace, and died.' Great. I've now got to work through 510 pages knowing full well what happens in the end. Perhaps it's not too late to start Anna Karenina instead...

Anyway, less of my foolish reading habits. Here's a quick round-up of book news from the UK.

At the beginning of the month it was announced that US-born novelist Lionel Shriver had won the £30,000 Orange Prize for Fiction with her novel We Need to Talk About Kevin, published by UK independent press Serpent's Tail. The tale of the mother who discovers her son is a teenage psychopath is the seventh novel by Shriver, who divides her time between London and New York.

One of the biggest names in UK publishing, Caroline Michel, was poached from Harper Collins by the literary agency William Morris. She'll now work on behalf of authors including Alice Munro, Kathy Reichs and Anita Shreve.

Another publisher, Penguin, celebrated its 70th birthday this month, and at a party the company's new chief executive announced that the biggest Penguin seller of all time is none other than Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And it's bound to sell a few more copies too, with the Johnny Depp movie version coming out in the next few weeks...

And finally, a man has appeared in court accused of plotting to sell two stolen copies of the forthcoming Harry Potter book to a reporter from The Sun newspaper. Such is the excitement surrounding each new title in the series that author J.K. Rowling has taken out an injunction to prevent details of the book being revealed before its publication. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is due to appear on 16th July.

Best wishes,

Susan

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