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  • Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

    Posted Tuesday April 28th 2009
    by Nikesh Shukla

    A trip to a Crouch End charity shop resulted in three amazing finds this weekend. I found a long sought-after Sopranos box set, a book about the making of my favourite Bollywood film Sholay (only published in India), and the first two volumes of Scott Pilgrim’s adventures (Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life; Scott Pilgrim vs. the World). Intrigued by this Canada-bred manga promising kick-ass rollerblading ninjas, rock & roll, samurai swords, laughable attempts to seek gainful employment and slackers, I added it to my treasure haul. Crouch End charity shop I salute you.

    Scott Pilgrim’s story spans six madcap volumes, following his burgeoning romance with the enigmatic, effortlessly cool Ramona Flowers. He’s a 24-year-old Canadian, a slacker, hero, wannabe-rock star, living in Toronto and playing bass in the band Sex Bob-Omb. He falls in love with delivery girl Ramona Flowers, but must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to date her. Switching between slacker concerns such as rent, rock and hedonism and the cartoon violence of having to battle seven evil exes (charmingly presented as a computer game beat-em-up), the book is a hilarious and idiosyncratic take on the manga genre, both zeitgeist-y and charismatic, able to convey thick…

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  • Faber Firsts at the London Review Bookshop

    Posted Monday April 27th 2009
    by Rosa Anderson

    On the Thursday before Easter, four Booktrusters wended their way to the London Review Bookshop for a ‘Faber Firsts’ night – in this case, to hear Sarah Hall and Clare Wigfall discuss their publishing debuts. We’re huge fans of the two authors, both Booktrust prizewinners (Sarah’s novel The Carhullan Army was the John Llewellyn Rhys 2007 winner, and Clare’s short story 'The Numbers' won the BBC National Short Story Award 2008), so it was a real treat to hear them talk about and read from their work.

    Clare read her story – 'A Return Ticket to Epsom', from her collection The Loudest Sound and Nothing – with verve and feeling. She’s clearly much at ease with these now-mandatory performance requirements of an author event, and had the room captivated (not always a given, as anyone who’s attended several author readings will know!). If you get the chance to hear her read from her work, grab it.

    Clare’s somewhat nomadic life, reflected in her collection, where the stories roam the globe, made for an interesting contrast with Sarah, two out of whose three novels are set in the Cumbrian landscape she knows well. If you’ve ever read any…

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  • All over for another year

    Posted Friday April 24th 2009
    by James Smith

    Well, that's London Book Fair over and done with for another year.

    It was, as usual, a blend of the very useful, the sporadically surprising (nay, inspiring) and the almost inevitably exhausting. The publishing world may be holding its collective breath about the future, but the exhibitors and visitors scurrying around beneath Earls Court's arced ceiling – while the sun blazed down outside – seemed as intent on doing business as ever.

    Booktrust's seminars were well attended and much appreciated by their audiences. Our online writer in residence, Patrick Ness, kicked off proceedings at 9.30am on the first day of the fair by talking to his wonderful editor Denise Johnstone-Burt from Walker Books about their working relationship. In a funny and fascinating conversation, they discussed the inspiration for and ideas behind The Knife of Never Letting Go (and the other titles in the Chaos Walking series) and pulled back the curtain on the editorial process.

    Viv Bird, Booktrust's CEO, was one of the speakers at a seminar organised by Academia Rossica to explain how Russia's National Reading Development Programme hopes to turn around some truly frightening (il)literacy statistics.

    And in one of the most inspiring events of the fair…

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  • London Book Fair preview

    Posted Thursday April 16th 2009
    by James Smith

    Ah, London Book Fair.

    How quickly it comes around. How quickly one forgets the long days of artificial light; the oft-recycled air; the caffeine-induced mania; the migraine-inducing carpets from ExCeL ...

    Yet how one remembers the sheer buzz of the place; the bumping into friends and contacts ('oh, so you're X – it's so nice to finally put a face to the name!'); the giddy excitement of finding out what's going to be published in next 12 months; the publishers' parties and the rejuvenating power of a beer at the end of the day.

    Booktrust will have a strong presence at this year's fair. We will be on stand Y265 to tell you about our work and give out examples of our publications, all of which we produce to promote books and reading.

    In addition, we have organised, or will be involved in, a number of seminars.

    So come and find us. We want to introduce as many LBF visitors as possible to our work, and we want to say hello to our friends old and new.

    Read more about our seminars

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