Find out what's new on our websites, where we've been, what's on our minds and the things we're doing.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 > Last ›
-
After the Celebrations, Still a Small Amount of Work
Posted Wednesday February 17th 2010
by Nikesh ShuklaI’ve finally found a publisher for my debut novel. Exciting, exhilarating, amazing news. I’ve been telling everyone and anyone, crow-barring it into conversations at any opportunity. It’s amazing- especially given the gloomy predictions for the book trade making it tougher for first-time novelists. It’s been a long slog of sending, waiting, not hassling, prompting, networking, smiling and growing a thick skin. One of the great things I’ve learnt throughout the process is how to be pragmatic about my work and sell it to people who will ultimately be looking at the book and wondering how they in turn can sell it. Another is how to take criticisms of the book, not personally but constructively. If you get beyond a standard template and receive a personal response from an agent or editor, it’s because they liked something in it. They may even include what was good about it, they might include what may need work. This is a good thing. This is a road forward.
In the spirit of celebration coupled with pragmatism, I thought it might be interesting to aspiring writers and writers getting ready to submit their own work to get a behind-the-scenes look at the process from…
-
The Big Read
Posted Monday February 15th 2010
by Nikesh ShuklaThe charity IF is organising the Big Read- an attempt to break a Guinness World Record for 'the most children reading with an adult' (Guinness Book of Records official title). This will be done with Tower Hamlets Council, the London Muslim Centre (LMC), the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) and Muslim Aid. We are all eligible to participate too!
The current record stands at 3,032 achieved by The Kindergarten Starters School at Global Village in Dubai, UAE, on 12 November 2008.
In a 12-hour period up to 5,000 children are needed to listen to Roald Dahl’s timeless classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. To qualify for the record a child has to listen to an adult read for half an hour.
Schools, teachers, parents, pupils, celebrities and councillors will gather on 4 March 2010, World Book Day, to participate in this record breaking attempt which simultaneously aims to promote the importance of reading and literacy amongst children and create the largest shared reading experience in the World.
So, the details if you're interested in getting involved are as follows-
Date: Thursday 4 March 2010
Time: 9am-9pm
Venue: London Muslim Centre, Whitechapel Rd, London, E1 1JX
There is a £2…
-
Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2010
Posted Friday February 12th 2010
by Rebecca WilkieTo Waterstone’s Piccadilly for the presentation of the 2010 Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize. The nine shortlisted titles, which were voted for by booksellers across the country, ranged from a medieval fantasy mystery called The Crowfield Curse, to Desperate Measures, the story of teenage runaway siblings.
However, the award went to Katie Davies for her book for younger readers, The Great Hamster Massacre. Katie received the prize from Children’s Laureate, Anthony Browne, as previous winners Sally Nicholls and Michelle Harrison (as well as Katie’s comedian husband, Alan Davies) watched on.
The Great Hamster Massacre is a touching, very funny and occasionally rather bloody tale of a brother and sister whose pet hamsters are mysteriously slaughtered one day, prompting the pair to stage an investigation amongst their friends and neighbours. There are enough humorous asides in the text to amuse grown-up readers and the quirky black and white line illustrations from Hannah Shaw really add to its appeal for readers aged from six-to-nine-years-old.
It’s great to see a book for this sometimes overlooked age- group win a national prize. It can be tricky finding suitable titles in the six- to- nine-years-old category and the great success in recent years…
-
Tube Tales
Posted Thursday February 11th 2010
by Nikesh ShuklaCommuting in London is fraught and over-crowded and boring at the best of times. It’s also the place where I get 90% of my reading done. It heartens me to see people reading a variety of materials from books to magazines to miscellaneous things on e-readers. Occasionally I see someone watching a film or TV episode on their iPod and feel a bit sad, thinking ‘Read! Now’s the perfect time!’
Recently, I’ve had two very separate reading-related encounters on trains that I thought were worth writing about for their bizarreness.
One
I was standing on the train, reading Gemma Weekes’ debut novel Love Me, when at Euston, suddenly masses of people piled on. They pushed and shoved, trying desperately to move millimetres further into the carriage. There was nowhere to go. Pressing into me was an annoyed woman in her thirties, grimacing at being squashed in the busiest hour of the busiest day on the busiest network of trains in the country. I was in the middle of a tense section of the book and wanted to keep reading. I lifted the book close to my face, so close that my glasses were redundant and I carried on reading. This…
-
Kate Tempest's Broken Herd- is this the future of the printed book?
Posted Tuesday February 2nd 2010
by Nikesh ShuklaThis isn't a book review of the supremely talented poet Kate Tempest's new CD/book Broken Herd. It's a celebration. A celebration with a suggestion that what Kate Tempest and independent record shop, Pure Groove have done is perhaps the future for books. They've brought back the desirable collectable limited edition book.
Firstly, who is Kate Tempest? She's the name to drop when it comes to spoken word at the moment. Her band, The Sound of Rum, has recently signed to Sunday Best, she has graced stages from Glastonbury to Latitude to Battersea Arts Centre and the Big Chill. For someone so young, she comes highly respected and highly recommended. She is loud, quiet, jagged and emotional. She will break your heart, with stories of lost living and yearning love, with tirades against everything from fakery to flippancy. She is the poet's poet, a wordsmith steeped in Wordsworth and Shakespeare as much as she is in MF DOOM and Gza and other rappers. We hope to interview her in coming weeks so we'll get her to tell you more about what she does.
In the meantime, she has, along with Pure Groove, created 300 limited boxsets containing recordings…
