Newsletter: September 2008

August is traditionally a fairly quiet month in the literary world, with most readers off on holiday with their clutch of three for two offers, or piles of earnest Always Meant to Get Round To reading. However, there have been a couple of talking points over the last few weeks here in the UK...

Firstly, the controversial subject of introducing age banding on children's books has been a hot topic of debate in the media. Many high profile authors have responded firmly against the proposals, including some 800 who have signed up to a petition on the No to Age Banding website. Some 95% of reprints and new books are due to start carrying age guide logos from this autumn. Children's books were also in the headlines when publishers Random House revealed that they are to reprint amended versions of My Sister Jodie by former Children's Laureate Jacqueline Wilson following complaints from parents about the book's offensive language.

Secondly, Sir Salman Rushdie (above) has set the record straight over inaccuracies in Ron Evans' book about protecting the author while under the Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa. Rushdie won an apology from Evans and his ghostwriter Douglas Thompson after they admitted eleven counts of falsehood, but turned down the damages he might have been awarded. The Guardian said: 'Written by a former police officer who claimed to have protected Rushdie during the fatwa years, the Sunday newspaper serialisation made a number of hurtful claims. Apparently, Rushdie was such a pain that officers locked him in a room so they could go to the pub; he was trying to profit from the fatwa; he was unhygienic; taxpayers footed the bill for his safe houses; his nickname was "Scruffy". The work even claimed his third wife, Elizabeth West, had only married him for his money.'

In other news, Rosemary Hill won the UK's oldest literary award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, for her first book, God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain (below). She described the prize, worth £10,000, as like winning 'fairy gold'.

The shortlisted titles in the running for this year's prestigious Forward Poetry Prizes were announced. In contention for the best collection are: The Lost Leader by Mick Imlah, Pure Lizard by Sujata Bhatt, Nigh-No-Place by Jen Hadfield, Lip by Catherine Smith, Another Country by Jane Griffiths, and Crocodiles and Obelisks by Jamie McKendrick. Meanwhile the Best First Collection shortlist highlights the following emerging talents: Los Alamos Mon Amour by Simon Barraclough, Fear of Thunder by Andrew Forster, Public Dream by Frances Leviston, The Night Trotsky Came to Stay by Allison McVety, Hidden River by Stephanie Norgate, and Sunday at the Skin Laundrette by Katherine Simmonds. The winners of these, along with the best single poem award will be announced on 8th October.

Susan Tranter

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