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Books Features

A Week in Books: Crime writer awards have darker side

Published: 09 December 2005

Suitably enough, an aura of mystery surrounds the sponsorship deal just struck by the Crime Writers' Association with the Duncan Lawrie private bank. From next year, the "Duncan Lawrie Dagger", worth £20,000, will be awarded to the year's best crime novel - in the English language, that is, as the CWA chose to exclude translations after several foreign crime authors (this year, the Icelander Arnaldur Indridason) won the Gold Dagger that the new prize replaces.

Cover Stories: Da Vinci spin-offs; Ottakar's

Published: 09 December 2005

With the film of The Da Vinci Code due in May - though that could change if Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent succeed with a plagiarism action, in the High Court soon - 2006 looks set to unleash a torrent of titles on Leonardo and his Last Supper. But one US title takes the biscuit. The Diet Code by Stephen Lanzalotta, due from Warner Wellness, will offer "weight-loss secrets from Da Vinci". Meanwhile, Transworld plays down speculation that Dan Brown's new book, The Solomon Key, will appear next autumn. To think that the health and wealth of so much of the book trade is conditioned by the actions of a reclusive ex-teacher.

News analysis: The publishing industry

Published: 04 December 2005

Will store wars and slashed prices spell disaster for readers and writers?

Can today's big-name authors connect with teenagers?

Published: 04 December 2005

Is Andy McNab able to grab boy readers by the scruff of the neck? Can Helen Dunmore work her magic on a younger age-group? Brandon Robshaw samples today's big-name authors to see if they satisfy his inner teenage boy (and girl)

C S Lewis: The author examined

Published: 04 December 2005

Take one Christian apologist. Add a trip to the zoo. Result: one of the 20th century's most resonant myths for children. As the new Disney version of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' opens, Murrough O'Brien examines the complicated character of C S Lewis

Cover Stories: William Hague; Penguin departures; W H Smith

Published: 02 December 2005

William Hague, tipped by some for a return to a Cameron-led Tory front bench, can still watch next week's Tory leadership finale with a detached eye. Following the success of his biography of William Pitt the Younger, he has now signed for a second book. His subject is William Wilberforce, whose campaign to abolish the slave trade achieved success in parliament in 1807. Like Hague, Wilberforce represented a Yorkshire constituency. Richard Johnson of HarperPress is again the publisher.

The Independent's contributors select the works that they most enjoyed and admired this year

Published: 02 December 2005

Diana Evans

Comic book highlights Ruskinian views

Published: 29 November 2005

The Victorian art critic John Ruskin denounced the excesses of capitalism in his essay collection 'Unto This Last'. Kevin Jackson explains why he and the cartoonist Hunt Emerson have turned this message into a comic book

Denton Welch: Dreams of cheap lipstick and Turkish Delight

Published: 27 November 2005

Severely injured in a car accident, quiet and introspective by nature, the painter and author Denton Welch didn't have a very broad canvas to work on. But it's what he did with his limitations that counts, says Ian Irvine

A Week in Books: Bin Laden has been released

Published: 25 November 2005

Osama bin Laden, held captive in Southampton Docks, has now been released. A few weeks ago, the radical publisher Verso sent out advance copies of Messages to the World: the statements of Osama bin Laden. This is a complete translation (by James Howarth) with a commentary (by the US Arabist Bruce Lawrence) of the polemics via print, fax and video that the world's most wanted has issued at intervals since 1994. A few reviews, aghast at Bin Laden's bloodthirsty zeal but oddly deferential to his learning and dignity, began to appear. Then the bulk of the books, printed in the US, were detained by the port health authority.

Cover Stories: Ottakar's; The Book People; Hachette

Published: 25 November 2005

There is a growing body of opinion that the HMV/Waterstone's bid for the Ottakar's bookshop chain will after all be referred to the Competition Commission. Now the Forum of Private Business, which represents 25,000 small and medium-sized businesses, has weighed in, urging the Office of Fair Trading to refer it. Nick Goulding, its CEO, said the predatory move is "grossly unfair and must be stopped," and that "Failure to act will drive many high street bookshops out of business, reducing the choice of books available to consumers." The OFT decision is now due on 2 December. With luck, the news then will mean a happy Christmas for real booksellers.

Men of letters are put to the test

Published: 25 November 2005

Boyd, Paulin, James, Hitchens: men of letters have been busy collecting their journalism. D J Taylor wonders who will care

Cover Stories: Marguerite Patten; Lucy Eyre; classic stories of evolution

Published: 18 November 2005

Gordon and Nigella and Gary and Jamie long ago eclipsed Delia, who these days spends much of her time cheering on her beloved Canaries from the directors' box at Norwich. All of them owe a debt to a woman who was cooking up a storm long before they were born: Marguerite Patten, who celebrated her 90th birthday last week and, with it, a back-catalogue of about 170 cookery books. Her 1960 opus, Cookery in Colour, was a culinary milestone and has sold two million copies. Still working, Patten admires Oliver's stand on school dinners and thinks Ramsay's food "delicious". She gives nul points for his language, however. Let's hope someone baked her a large birthday cake.

A Week in Books: Crime fiction is not fantasy

Published: 18 November 2005

Traditionally, crime fiction offered a frisson over the Horlicks and the chance to gasp at glimpses of a cosy world thrown into confusion by a corpse. The bloodstains in the boudoir, the dagger in the dining-room - these were symbols of safety subverted, a safety that would, on the perpetrator's imprisonment, return. All that has changed, of course. Carl Hiaasen's Florida, Michael Dibdin's Rome and John Harvey's Sheffield all offer vivid depictions of the underbelly of cities they know and love.

A novel way to shop

Published: 16 November 2005

Never know what books to give? A new personal buying service promises to speak volumes for you. Sean O'Grady puts it to the test

Why sexual intercourse will only make you a 'gazingstock'

Published: 13 November 2005

Ever since Lynne Truss had a surprise Christmas hit with a witty guide to punctuation, publishers have been looking for the next quirky bestseller. John Morrish takes a look at some recent titles devoted to word usage, grammar and idiom, but concludes that nothing holds a candle to the great Dr Johnson

Sights to make the heart sigh

Published: 13 November 2005

Few of those who faced the horrors of the First World War survive. But their tales - and an astonishing find from the archives - will change the way we think about life in the trenches, says Mark Bostridge

Boyd Tonkin: A force that will attract the most poetry-phobic fan

Published: 11 November 2005

World-class divas of popular song tend to limit their banter with the audience to the odd husky aside assuring us that it's such a privilege to be back in Basingstoke again. So to find a superstar who not only chats wittily during a long, glorious set but assumes a deep knowledge of Portuguese Modernist poetry rather takes a punter's breath away. At her Barbican gig last week, Mariza sang a setting of a poem by Lisbon's early 20th-century master of melancolia, Fernando Pessoa. "I think you know him very well," the sumptuously talented queen of modern fado drawled. You flatter us, Mariza, although a performance of such grace and force ought to drive the most poetry-phobic fan out to buy the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Pessoa's Selected Poetry.

CS Lewis: The literary lion of Narnia

Published: 11 November 2005

His magical children's classic is about to hit the big screen, but behind the fantasy lies a real-life tale of loss, quest and salvation

Cover Stories: Skulduggery at the Crime Writers' Association; a coup for Maia Press; publishing legend Michael Korda

Published: 11 November 2005

Bad blood and behind-the-scenes skulduggery at (where else?) the Crime Writers' Association. This week, Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridason won the coveted Gold Dagger for Silence of the Grave (Harvill): one of a splendid shortlist that featured four novels in translation. Cue a sinister backlash from the Anglomaniac tendency of the crime-fiction world. First, Selina Walker, the crime chief at Transworld, rushed into print with a murderous attack on the foreigner-friendly list - a real stab in the back, given that three titles came from another Random House imprint, Harvill. Now the insular mob are plotting to ban translations entirely from the annual Daggers.

Boyd Tonkin: Fogeydom creeps up on us all sooner or later

Published: 04 November 2005

A couple of years ago, the BBC began to screen a series of short programmes packed (or so I thought) with peerless nuggets of wisdom and insight. Much-loved luminaries from the world of music, literature, sport and broadcasting would deliver incisive critiques of society and culture. Imagine my distress, then, when I discovered that the title of this strand was Grumpy Old Men.

Gunpowder and God

Published: 04 November 2005

Four centuries after the ultimate terror plot, Loraine Fletcher explores an enduring fascination

Cover Stories: Ottakar's; supporting independents; "hot" books; Patricia Cornwell

Published: 04 November 2005

The HMV group, owner of Waterstone's, this week bought more shares in Ottakar's and announced that it had extended its offer period for a further 18 days, thus allowing the Office of Fair Trading to make a decision on the proposed deal. However, City sources are growing increasingly confident that the offer will be referred to the takeover panel and, were that to happen, bookselling would be thrown into turmoil for nine months or so. It's possible that, if a referral were to be made, HMV might choose to let its offer lapse. Alternatively, it could press ahead with the purchase with the risk of being forced to sell off a significant number of stores. The OFT has been furnished with all manner of evidence on Waterstone's market position - including, it is rumoured, a tape of controversial chief buyer Scott Pack talking to a publisher.

What a load of bull!

Published: 03 November 2005

There's a strange smell in the air. At work, at home, in the media, in politics - the modern world is full of it. But don't despair: now you can cut through the crap with Nick Webb's 'Dictionary of Bullshit'. Hold your nose and dive in

Anthony Burgess: My wife's trauma - which version do you want?

Published: 30 October 2005

The novelist and polymath Anthony Burgess was a man of unearthly powers and prodigious output. He was also, it seems, a bit of a fabulist. Has his latest biographer managed to get a grip on this slippery subject? D J Taylor gives his verdict
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