Newsletter: October 2005

Greetings from Manchester. Thanks for all the book reviews which you've mailed in over the last few weeks - those titles which received a five star rating will be added to our review chart which you can find on the home page. Meanwhile, here's some of the news that's been the talk of the UK's book world recently:

The shortlist for the 2005 Man Booker Prize, probably the UK's most prestigious fiction award, was announced last month. The Sea, by John Banville; Arthur & George by Julian Barnes; A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry; Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro; The Accidental by Ali Smith; and On Beauty by Zadie Smith will contest the prize. There was some surprise that neither Ian McEwan nor Salman Rushdie made it through from the longlist, but Julian Barnes, followed by Kazuo Ishiguro and Zadie Smith, seem to be the booksellers' favourites at the moment. The overall winner, who will take away £50,000 and a guaranteed huge increase in sales, will be announced at a televised ceremony in London on 10th October. We'll put details of the winner up on EnCompass as soon as we can!

Also this month the fate of two bookselling chains has been in the news a lot. The HMV group, which owns Waterstones, plans to takeover rival chain Ottakars. Some readers and authors are worried because Ottakars has a reputation for allowing individual shops to maintain their autonomy (for instance by displaying books that they think would appeal to their local customers), whereas Waterstones makes blanket decisions from its head office which individual branches are obliged to follow. Author Tracy Chevalier recently wrote about her fears for the 'Wottakars' move (read her article), and Alan Giles of HMV hit back defending the potential takeover (read his article). The Office of Fair Trading will make a decision on the legality of the takeover soon.

Don't forget to let me know if you have a topic you'd like to discuss on our talk boards. At the moment I'm soliciting your views on books which describe places so well it makes you want to visit them yourself - but can the reality ever live up to the fiction?

Best wishes,

Susan

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