Congratulations to John Boyne, whose moving book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has been chosen by Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia as his choice for the Premier League Reading Star’s Scheme. Manuel described The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas as a ”gripping” and “devastating” book that would appeal to all ages. This wonderful initiative works in conjunction with the National Literacy Trust to nominate one player from each of the teams in the Barclays Premier League to become a “Reading Champion”, with each one supporting a different book. Each team then chooses at least one library to adopt and donate free copies of all the recommended titles to. The footballers include Ricardo Carvalho from Chelsea, Edwin Van Der Sar from Manchester United and Jermaine Jenas from Tottenham Hotspur.
John is in excellent company, with John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach also nominated. You can read more about the scheme here.
Due to the phenomenal number of recent approaches from budding authors I need to have a little time to catch up! For the time being we will not be able to respond to unsolicited emails and would prefer it if you wrote to me c/o Ariella Feiner United Agents 130 Shaftesbury Avenue London W1D 5EU. For more detail on submissions please click here.
Robert Popper’s alter-ego Robin Cooper’s hilarious volume THE TIMEWASTER LETTERS is published in the US this week. To celebrate this event Robin Cooper has been making prank phone-calls to a number of establishments with bizarre requests. Oh deary me….listen here
We had a great night out at the Arthur C Clarke awards for the Best Science Fiction book of the year as part of an exclusive event in partnership with the opening of this year’s SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival. . Steven Hall’s The Raw Shark Texts was one of 6 shortlisted titles from about 60 read by the judging panel and Black Man by Richard Morgan scooped the pool. Steven is pictured (left) with his girlfriend Mel. Here are some more pictures
Patrick Neate and the Bookslam team (pictured) won a much coveted Sony Radio Award last week for Best Internet Programme for the Book Slam podcast. Download the seventh episode now. It features Richard Milward reading from ‘Apples’ [Faber], El Crisis and the South London soul of Jamie Woon.
It is great to see this project coming together in such a smart fashion. Val Hudson and her team at Headline are set to publish this Autumn and the early signs are that we will all have a massive bestseller on our hands. Sir Cliff Richard OBE is the biggest-selling artist of all time, selling over 250 million records around the world since he burst onto the music scene in 1958. But how has he kept his appeal all these years? In a world fuelled by drink, sex and drugs, he is perennially attractive without any of those things that keep other singers’ profiles high. Continue reading ”
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