A.F. Steadman's debut middle grade novel Skandar and the Unicorn Thief has been selected as the Waterstones Children's Book of the Year for 2022. Acquired by Simon and Schuster in a world record-breaking deal, this is the first in a planned five-book series and rights have been sold in more than 30 territories, plus a film deal has been struck with Sony. Skandar and the Unicorn Thief has had a phenomenal worldwide response, featuring in the top five in the New York Times bestseller list as well as the official UK Children's bestseller chart.
Waterstones said: "The bedrock is, of course, an absolutely genius concept: warrior unicorns hatched in a mysterious island school and bonded to a specific rider. But whilst the premise may have drawn booksellers in, it was A.F. Steadman’s propulsive, page-turning storytelling that led them to passionately recommend Skandar and the Unicorn Thief to children, parents and just about anybody else that set foot on their shopfloor.
"Hugely imaginative and epic in scope yet – crucially – rooted in credible characterisation with protagonists readers could take to their hearts, the story of Skandar Smith’s...
Poets Stephanie Sy-Quia and Nick Laird have been awarded Forward Poetry Prizes for works described by the judges as setting a "benchmark of excellence." Announced in a ceremony held in Manchester on Monday 28th November, the £10,000 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection went went to Stephanie Sy-Quia for Amnion (Granta Poetry) and the £1,000 prize for Best Single Poem went to Nick Laird for "Up Late."
Sy-Quia started writing Amnion when she was 15 and it has taken her nine years to complete. She said: “Amnion is my attempt to wrestle with the metrics for provenance and belonging. The early passages of the book are very precious to me, because they represent the oldest material: there are phrases in there which date from my teens, and I like to think that their continued inclusion in the text is a kind of loyalty to former selves.”
Nick Laird wrote his winning poem "Up Late " as an elegy to his father who died of Covid in March 2021. He said: “It has a weird real-time element to it that wouldn’t be there if I’d been able to be with my father, so it’s of the moment in that sense. It was the peculiar circumstances of the Covid pande...
The An Post Irish Book Awards has presented Anne Enright with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award. She joins a host of distinguished recipients such as Sebastian Barry and Colm Tóibín. Organisers said: “The writer has occupied a central position in the cultural life of Ireland for over three decades, with her literary career spanning seven novels, three short story collections, a memoir of motherhood and the 2007 Booker Prize for her fourth novel, The Gathering (Jonathan Cape). The author was also named the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction between 2015 – 2018.”
It continued: “As the 2022 Lifetime Achievement honouree, Anne Enright joins a host of other distinguished recipients such as Sebastian Barry, Colm Tóibín, Thomas Kinsella, Eavan Boland, John Montague, JP Donleavy, Paul Durcan, John Banville, Maeve Binchy, John McGahern, Edna O’Brien, William Trevor, Seamus Heaney and Jennifer Johnston.”
The winners of the 2022 HWA Crown Awards have been announced and Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman have won in the Non-Fiction category for their work on Metaphysical Animals (Chatto & Windus). Elizabeth Buchan, chair of the Non-Fiction Crown Award judges, commented: "Acutely observed, often wry, Metaphysical Animals is a sparkling group biography of Iris Murdoch and three fellow philosophers who deserve to be remembered just as well — Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot, and Elizabeth Anscombe. The authors give us the bonus of a thoroughly readable philosophy lesson as they explore the trials, tribulations, and breakthroughs of these remarkable women."
The HWA Crown Awards celebrate the best historical writing of the year, fiction and non-fiction, seeking books that stand out for their originality in research and perspective, their brilliant writing and their powerful narrative force. There are three awards categories: HWA Gold Crown, HWA Non-fiction Crown, and HWA Debut Crown.
Richard Overy has received the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History in recognition of his book, Blood and Ruins (Allen Lane), in which he recasts the way in which we view the origins and aftermath of the Second World War.
An Honorary Research Professor at the University of Exeter, Richard Overy describes the Second World War as the "great imperial war" – a violent end to almost a century of global imperial expansion. "I wanted to write something about the Second World War that was different from other books. For a long time I’ve begun to think that we’re asking the wrong questions," he says. The book focuses on "the last stage of European style imperialism, waged by Japan first, then Italy and Germany." The three states sought to establish colonial empires on a scale with those of Great Britain and France, Richard Overy adds. "As historians we need to be frank about what happens in warfare, not gloss over the reality."
David Baddiel's best-selling polemic Jews Don't Count has been turned into a documentary for Channel 4, airing at 9pm on Monday 21st November. The programme will see David talk candidly about the volume and frequency of anti-Semitic abuse he has experienced on social media and express the alienation he’s felt – as many Jews have – at the lack of support on the subject from what he considers to be his default political home. Including prominent Jewish figures and those who have experienced anti-Semitism themselves – David will ultimately seek to investigate why identity politics seems to have failed this one particular identity and why Jews really should count.
David Baddiel said: "I’m very excited to be given the chance to present my polemic about Jews not counting - not counting in the identity politics conversation, not counting as a real minority who experience real racism - on TV... My critique is aimed mainly at progressives, at those people who care about minorities and racism - those people who consider themselves on the right side of history - and I think of a lot of those people as Channel 4 viewers. So let me thank Channel 4 in advanc...
Katherine Rundell has won the £50,000 Baillie Gifford prize for non-fiction for her book about the poet John Donne, described by the judges as a "glorious celebration" of his work and life. Katherine Rundell, who is best known for her children’s books, has said Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne took her 10 years and three drafts to write. It showcases the myriad lives of Donne, who, as well as being a renowned poet was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, an MP, a priest, and the dean of St Paul’s Cathedral during his life. The author said in her acceptance speech that she would splitting the prize money between refugee charities and charities that combat the climate crisis.
"Super-Infinite, Katherine Rundell’s glorious celebration of the life and work of the poet John Donne is our unanimous winner of the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction," said Chair of Judges Caroline Sanderson. "Exquisitely rendered, its passion, playfulness and sparkling prose seduced all of us. Rundell makes an irresistible case for Donne’s work to be widely read 400 years later, for all the electric joy and love it expresses. And in so doing, she gives us a...
The judges of the 2023 DRF Writers Award will be the 2021 Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah (Chair), along with award-winning novelist, Claire Adam, and the renowned writer and journalist, Annalena McAfee. They will announce the shortlist of three in October 2023 and the Award will be presented in London later that month.
The DRF Writers Award gives £10,000 to a previously unpublished writer whose submission of 15,000-20,000 words demonstrates talent. The submitted work can be fiction, non-fiction, children’s or short stories. The applicant must be a citizen of the British Commonwealth or Eire.
Details of the Award are as follows:
£10,000 will be presented to a first-time writer whose submission demonstrates outstanding literary talent and who needs financial support to complete their work:
Submissions should take the form of 15,000-20,000 words of a work in progress, fiction or non-fiction, which is not under option or contract.
Applicants may not be under contract to any publisher for any work or title in any language.
Applications are open to writers who have not previously published a full-length ...
It is with deep regret that RCW announces the unexpected death of author Marcus Sedgwick.
Marcus Sedgwick was a prizewinning and beloved author of over 40 extraordinary books for adults and young adults, of novels for younger people, of non-fiction and academic essays. His books were shortlisted for over thirty awards, including the Carnegie Medal (five times), the Edgar Allan Poe Award (twice) and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize (four times). He is also the most noted author in the history of the Printz Award, with one win and two honor books. He won the Branford Boase award for his debut novel, Floodland, and the Booktrust Teenage Prize for My Swordhandis Singing.
Marcus was born and raised in a small village in East Kent in the south-east of England and lived most recently in the south of France.
His family and close friends request privacy at this very sad and difficult time.
After months of reading, bookselling, votes and debate, Foyles present the Foyles Books of the Year 2022 shortlists featuring Julia Armfield, Seán Hewitt and Katherine Rundell. Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under The Sea (Picador), is shortlisted for the Fiction Book of the Year Award; Seán Hewitt, author of All Down Darkness Wide (Jonathan Cape), is shortlisted for the Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award; and Katherine Rundell, author of The Golden Mole illustrated by Talya Baldwin (Faber & Faber), is shortlisted for the Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award.
The winners will be announced in December. Foyles said: "In these eighteen books you'll encounter love, monsters, deep time and visual beauty; you'll laugh, squirm, shed a tear and gaze in awe. There were countless great books published this year and we can't shortlist them all, but each of these eighteen books gives the reader something invaluable—be it knowledge, emotion, a perspective on the world or a pushing of literary boundaries."
James Robertson among shortlistees for Scotland’s National Book Awards 2022. He is nominated in the fiction category for his novel News of the Dead (Hamish Hamilton), a novel revolving around a legend of a miracle-performing hermit and set in the rugged mountains of Scotland in three different time periods, which won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction earlier this year.
Scotland’s National Book Awards, co-ordinated by the Saltire Society, recognise work across six literary categories, including Fiction, Non-Fiction, Research, History, Poetry and First Book. Winners receive a cash prize of £2,000 each, and go on to be considered for the top prize of Saltire Scottish Book of the Year, receiving a further £4,000.
Heartstopperby Alice Oseman (Hachette Children’s) has won the Readers’ Choice prize at the 2022 Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, with the writer also winning the Breakthrough Author award. Heartstopper is a series about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of it's protagonists' Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us. The books have sold over one million print copies, and the hit Netflix adaptation released in April 2022 has received more than 52 million views to date.
On winning the awards, Oseman said: "Thank you to everyone who’s been involved in the journey of Heartstopper over the years. It’s been such an amazing year for Heartstopper, so this award really means a lot."
The awards were presented on 8th November by a panel of booksellers, and they are the only prizes featuring shortlists curated by booksellers, with the winners chosen by readers.
Ian Rankin’s Rebus detective novels are to be reimagined for Nordic streamer Viaplay, the group’s debut UK drama commission and the first Rebus TV adaptation for nearly 15 years.Eleventh Hour Films is producing and 71 scribe Gregory Burke is writing. Cast will be unveiled shortly and filming will start next year, with Viaplay planning for a returning series. Ian Rankin, Gregory Burke, Jill Green, Paula Cuddy, Eve Gutierrez, Isabelle Hultén and Tomas Axelsson are also executive producers.
The bestselling Inspector Rebus books have sold 30 million copies and been translated into 36 languages, with fan bases in the U.K., US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Turkey and Finland. Four series of "Rebus" were produced for ITV, with the last one airing in 2007. There have also been radio and stage adaptations.
Ian Rankin said: "I’m hugely excited at the thought of Rebus returning to our screens and it’s a privilege to have Gregory Burke write the scripts. I’ve been a fan since ‘Gagarin Way’ and know that he understands the world of Rebus and the compelling central character. I’m chuffed to bits that Viaplay and Eleventh Hour are inv...
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences have announced nominations for the first-ever Children’s and Family Emmy Awards, to be presented Dec. 10 and 11 at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles. These awards mark the first stand-alone expansion of the Emmys since 1979. Heartstopper is nominated for nine Emmys, including the awards for Writing for a Young Teen Program, Young Teen Program, Casting for a Live Action Program, Makeup and Hairstyling. Actors Kit Connor and Joe Locke are both nominated for Lead Performance, Yasmin Finney and William Gao for Supporting Performance, and Olivia Coleman for Guest Performance.
Heartstopper has been a critical and audience hit since launching on the platform on April 22, reaching Netflix’s Top Ten list in 54 countries. Sales of Alice Oseman's works have also increased exponentially since the premiere of the adaptation on Netflix, propelling the first volume in the original graphic novel series to number one on the official UK Children's bestseller charts and volumes two, three and four into the top ten as well, and Heartstopper Vol1 and Loveless into the top ten on the New York Ti...
Sally Green's adaptation of The Bastard Son and The Devil Himself, originally published as Half Bad (Penguin), has debuted in the Top 10 in TV in 19 countries on Netflix, with a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. An eight-parter created by Joe Barton, who previously wrote Giri/Haji and The Lazarus Project, The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself is about a teenager at the centre of a war within the European witch community, and is based on a trilogy of bestselling young adult novels by Sally Green. A darkly humorous, romantic, roller-coaster ride of a young adult show - it’s a story about the indomitable will to survive and defy the odds.
The cast is led by Jay Lycurgo (Titans, The Batman, I May Destroy You), Nadia Parkes (Domina, Starstruck) and Emilien Vekemans (Transferts) and joined by an exciting mixture of new and familiar faces, including: Isobel Jesper Jones, Paul Ready (Motherland, The Terror), David Gyasi (Carnival Row, Troy: Fall of a City), Kerry Fox (Conversations with Friends, Last Tango in Halifax), Liz White (Unforgotten, Brexit: The Uncivil War), Karen...
The painstaking work to expose Harvey Weinstein comes to the big screen in the first trailer for She Said, the film adaptation of the book by New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.
The duo, who won a Pulitzer prize (along with The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow) for their 2017 investigation into the sexual predation by the formerly untouchable film producer, helped ignite the #MeToo movement and several subsequent investigations into abuses of power. Their book She Said is published by Penguin Press in the US and Bloomsbury in the UK.
The film, from Unothordox director Maria Schrader and adapted for the screen by Ida and Colette writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz, depicts the months-long investigation by Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan), who together broke one of the most important stories in a generation. It tells a story that helped propel the #MeToo movement, shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood and altered American culture forever.
John Preston, the author of the book behind Golden Globe-winning BBC/AMC series A Very English Scandal, has been commissioned to pen a BBC drama about a British politician who faked his own death. Stonehouse, named after John Stonehouse who staged his death on a Miami beach in 1974, is a three-part series co-produced by UK indies Clearwood Films and Snowed-In Productions, with Banijay Rights handling international distribution. Clearwood founder Ellie Wood (Decline And Fall) and Ruth Kenley-Letts (Mrs Wilson) are executive producing, marking Preston’s second collaboration with Wood after they teamed on The Dig for Netflix, a feature starring Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James and Johnny Flynn.
John Preston said: "There has never been a more bizarre true-life story than that of John Stonehouse, who miraculously came back to life a month after his own 'death.' I am thrilled to have the chance to dramatise a case which has fascinated me for as long as I can remember."
Seán Hewitt has been awarded the 2022 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature at a ceremony in Trinity College Dublin for latest book, All Down Darkness Wide. The €10,000 prize, awarded annually since 1976 and administered by the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre for Creative Writing, celebrates an outstanding body of work by an emerging Irish writer under 40 years of age.
"In poetry and prose, Seán Hewitt’s work is visionary and gemlike," said prize jury member Dr Rita Sakr of Maynooth University: "His language is graceful and dazzling as it communicates distinct yet also multifaceted forms of longing, grief and liberating self-reflection, most powerfully captured in figurations of the vulnerability that humans and the natural environment experience together and alone."
Seán Hewitt's memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, was published earlier this year by Jonathan Cape and in the US by Penguin Press. He is Teaching Fellow in Twentieth-Century British & Irish Literature in Trinity’s School of English and a poetry critic for The Irish Times.
Alice Oseman, Katherine Rundell and A.F. Steadman are among the authors shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year. Alice Oseman is shortlisted in contention with their graphic novel Heartstopper Volume 1 (Hodder Children’s Books); Waterstones said the book represents "the vibrant, flourishing genre of illustration and stories that are particularly loved by teenagers and young adults." Katherine Rundell, former winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, is shortlisted for her adult non-fiction book The Golden Mole (Faber), which "highlights the extraordinary abilities and stories associated with a range of remarkable creatures in all too real danger of dying out," and includes "breathtaking illustrations" by Talya Baldwin. Meanwhile, A.F. Steadman is shortlisted for her debut middle grade adventure book Skandar and the Unicorn Thief (Simon & Schuster Children’s), hailed for its "perfectly crafted, truly immersive world, steeped in fantastical settings, elemental magic and a captivating mystery."
The winner will be announced on 1st December and will receive the full and committed backing of Waterstones shops and booksellers acros...
