ACHUKA: January 2004 Archives

Black Is The New White

As ACHUKA followers know, I have long been an enthusiastic fan of Malorie Blackman and of Noughts And Crosses in particular, so it is gratifying in the extreme to see her getting the recognition and feature-length exposure she deserves.

This long interview-cum-review by Amanda Craig, accompanied in the print edition by a full-page photograph of Malorie Blackman, is highly recommended.

"Filled with love, sorrow, suffering and stinging satire on injustice, Noughts & Crosses is a remarkable novel, not least in tackling the subject of race with brilliant simplicity. Every page shocks; Knife Edge, the sequel, is no less impressive. The style is simple and direct, but the ramifications of what it describes are thought out in devastating detail. Children?s fiction has long been the repository of great satirical writing, but Blackman?s trilogy takes it into levels unseen since Orwell?s Nineteen Eighty-Four." AMANDA CRAIG

Snipping and marking up cuttings can be the worst kind of drudgery and I would much sooner have been at Graham Marks' launch party, but the act of scanning through saved papers from six weeks back inevitably throws up one or two pieces that were turned back and put aside but never actually read at the time.

One such piece was 'Bring back the talking heads' from The Times, December 20 2003, in which Philip Pullman, in the course of appraising the Big Read, came up with this suggestion: "Imagine this: every night for a year, say around the time that Newsnight finishes, there's a very short straight-to-camera piece - no longer than five minutes - in which a different person each day speaks about a book they love. No competition; no voting; no distracting visuals; no ranking in order; literary people and non-literary people, old books and new books, fiction, poetry... It would be the best thing on television."

Well, in these days when most families have digital camcorders, and Windows Movie Player is freely available to compress movies into web viewable format, this is an idea that ACHUKA could take up. Shall we say 3-minutes and 3-megabytes as our maximum length and filesize, in the first instance? Who's up for talking about their favourite book first? I'm not expecting an onslaught, but we'll see.

How It Works is I should be at Two Floors Bar enjoying the company of reviewing felloween and the lovely team at Bloomsbury as they celebrate the launch of Graham Marks' new novel How It Works.

But How It Actually Works is that I'm at the ACHUKA desk grappling with the challenge of converting the old Profiles information into a decently expandable database, catching up with cuttings and other general things I've fallen behind schedule with as a consequence of the weather, school meetings that take twice as long as anticipated (which was the principal reason for my not making tonight's event), domestic plumbing crises and other sundry annoyances which I normally try and rise blithely above.

So, although I won't be having a glass of wine till a good bit later, I'll say cheers in absento to Graham, author and Publishing News children's books correspondent. Thanks for a book steeped in reality, set in London, about a teenage boy with a convincingly contemporary handle on life.

None Of Us Is Normal - Times Feature: Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon, quoted explaining his lack of excitement due to his long wait for success, in Times feature. Perhaps his Whitbread triumph will have helped unjam the plumbing.

?It?s rather like needing a pee on a long coach journey,? he says cheerfully. ?If you get to the service station in time, it?s fantastic and you pee like a stallion. If the service station is slightly too far, the plumbing just jams. It?s like that for me: it?s hard to get excited because I?ve passed the service station.?

Greenwich Theatre

Melvin Burgess' novel Bloodtide has been adapted for the stage...:

"Pilot's world premiere production of Melvin Burgess' novel draws on the game playing culture of the 21st Century to tell a story steeped in Norse myths and legends, shape changing and cloning, violence and love..."

Tuesday 2 ? Saturday 6 March
Evenings at 8.00pm
Wednesday matinee at 2.30pm

Tickets: ?12 - ?18 (Concessions available)

For Box Office - see link

IHT: Leaps of faith in 'His Dark Materials'

Recommended

Long Philip Pullman feaure from the International Herald Tribune, which includes this:

'New Line's executives say they will probably insist that the books' repudiation of religion be softened in the film into more of a meditation on the corruption of power in general. Mark Ordesky, executive vice president and chief operating officer of New Line Productions, said that "the real issue is not religion, it's authority - that's what's really the driving issue here." ' ...

The Observer | UK News | Casualty staff crisis looms as GPs give up evening cover

'The final straw came two weeks ago, when managers asked me to man a casualty department at night,' said Dale, a 42-year-old mother of two. 'In the past I've been part of a co-operative and my nights on duty have been busy but not unmanageable. Working in casualty and seeing everyone who wasn't an emergency would be enormously pressurised. Why would I want to do this after a long day at work?'
Dale, who has written children's books and now intends to devote herself to it full-time, said: 'The goodwill that has held the NHS together for years is disappearing. I don't think the Government realises how many doctors like myself intend to leave. It's something they would rather not think about.'

ACHUKA assumes the Louise Dale referred to here is the author of:

The Keys of Rome

BBC Radio 4 - Open Country - 24 January 2004 - Alan Garner

'Richard Uridge meets author Alan Garner at his home near the Jodrell Bank Telescope and discovers that the medieval hall where he has lived for over 40 years is built on a site that has been occupied by people since the end of the last ice age. Garner says he finds his creativity in the house, tapping into an energy that he is only now beginning to understand.'

As I'm blogging this morning, I'm taking advantage of the BBC's splendid Listen Again feature to hear Alan Garner speaking about his love of the Cheshire landscape in this radio interview.

Not to be missed...
[Look for the Listen Again link in the left-hand panel, or use this direct link to the Real Player file...]

Thursbitch, Alan Garner's latest book

The Owl Service

Strandloper

BBC - Radio 4 - Woman's Hour - Favourite female character in children's fiction

Favourite female characters in children's fiction:

A 10 minute Listen-Again segment from today's Radio 4 Woman's Hour with Sarah Wilkie and Adele Geras discussing tomboy vs. 'sweet domesticated' characters.

Highly recommended

Independent: Enjoyment: MArk Haddon - This Year's Big Read

This full-length feature interview by John Walsh provides indispensable background on Haddon and his Whitbread finalist title.

Highly recommended.

Ananova - Rare Harry Potter book sells for ?1,468

Ananova:

Rare Harry Potter book sells for ?1,468

A draft copy of the first Harry Potter book in which the author's name was wrongly spelled has sold for ?1,468 at auction.

HarperCollins announced today that they will be 'global publishers' of Louise Rennison?s next two Georgia Nicolson novels, which will publish simultaneously in UK and USA. A substantial 6-figure deal was brokered by Rennison's agent, Clare Alexander of Gillon Aitken Associates.

Book 5 in the best-selling Georgia Nicholson series, And That?s When It Fell Off In My Hand will be published in hardback on 1st June 2004, with the paperback following in May 2005, to coincide with the hardback of Book 6.

The series launched in UK with Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging in 1999, followed by On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God (2000), Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas (2001) and Dancing In My Nuddy Pants (2002). Sales in UK for the series already top 350,000, with US sales of nearly a million.

Gillie Russell, Publishing Director of Fiction says, ?Louise Rennison is the original and best writer of her genre, reflecting the humour and angst of teenage life. HarperCollins US have been her publisher from the beginning and it makes sense to publish her globally. It is a fantastically exciting opportunity for us to take Louise to even greater heights.?

Clare Alexander says , ?Louise Rennison?s Georgia novels are now bestsellers in over 30 languages and her success in America has been phenomenal. We believe that the team at HarperCollins will be able to build on Louise?s terrific fan base in the UK and to take her to the next level internationally as well?

The UK launch will be supported by a huge publicity, marketing and sales campaign to build on the international success of the series and to further raise Louise?s profile.

Academics savage the return of Sambo

"WHAT are black and white and red all over? The faces of the Brooklyn publishers whose new version of the children?s story Little Black Sambo has plunged them into the middle of a racial storm..."

David Almond is the subject of the 'A Writer's Life' feature in today's Daily Telegraph (Books Section, p12). As is too often the case with the DT, there is no online link.

Hodder Children's Books have announced two major acquisitions: both debut novels. Louise Arnold is heralded as ?A major new talent for the future of our industry.? Hodder have signed her up to a two-book deal (the first is called The Invisible Friend), with UK and Commonwealth rights brokered by Kate Jones at ICM for a ?substantial sum?. US rights were then swiftly sold by Richard Abate at ICM New York to Emma Dryden at Margaret K. McElderry Books (a division of Simon & Schuster).
The Invisible Freind will be published next year. Publishing Director for Fiction and Picture Books, Anne McNeil, describes the story as "a ghost story with a difference, this is a fabulous first novel from a very talented young writer. The story has a truly timeless feel to it ? Louise, is a major new talent for the future of our industry. She suffers from mild dyslexia and her determination to write is immense.?

The other acquisition is also a debut novel, from Canadian illustrator Gillian Johnson. Already published in Australia, Thora "is a witty, enchanting adventure story about a young girl who is half human, and half mermaid."
In addition to UK rights for Thora, Anne McNeil has acquired UK rights for two further books featuring Thora from Philippa Milnes-Smith at LAW. Johnson is is married to author and critic Nicholas Shakespeare.

theBookseller.com - Wayland restructures school sale

Non-fiction publisher Hodder Wayland has made its entire schools sales team of 15 redundant... ...

BBC NEWS | England | Oxfordshire | Tolkien estate wins net ruling

The estate of JRR Tolkien has won a cyber-squatting case against a company that had registered the Oxford author's name as a web address.

BBC - BBC TWO - Listings

Those of you in the UK might want to set your videos for this:

Lemony Snicket: Profile
Fri 16 Jan, 12:35 am - 1:05 am 30mins

BBC FOUR On BBC TWO

News

Philip Pullman makes list of Top 50 Sages:

"A survey to find the wisest person in Britain has been launched by Saga Magazine, the country's highest circulation journal, as a backlash against more superficial measures of celebrity..."

I'll Put A Sell On You

Mysti: Teenage Fairytale, Episode 1
[Episode 2 publishes February, #3 April]

Sunday Times Magazine feature about 'Mysti':

"You may not have heard of Mysti yet, but you soon will, because there's a ?350,000 marketing and publicity campaign under way to make sure of it. It's directed at your tweenage daughters, from your 10-year-old, who still wonders if fairies are real, to your 14-year-old, who knows they're not but secretly wishes they were..."

This Is Not My Nose by Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen writes an article in today's Sunday Telegraph about his hypothyroid condition, ahead of publication of a book of poems on the subject.

No online link available.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Arts | The curious tale of author Haddon

The curious tale of author Haddon: a profile of Mark Haddon by BBC Online

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Author of the month: Jeanne Willis

[Guardian] Author of the month: Jeanne Willis
by
Dina Rabinovitch

Christopher Paolini, author of Eragon, will be talking to Simon Mayo tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon on Radio Five Live...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-245-951996,00.html

Times theatre reviewer, Benedict Nigthingale, distinctly underwhelmed by the stage version of His Dark Materials:

"... I increasingly felt that Pullman the would-be Shelley or Blake was actually Pullman the paranoid purveyor of muddled mumbo jumbo. ..."

I may well miss theatre reviews, so I would be grateful if people could point them out to me.

BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | Hero poll countdown goes on

"Catherine Zeta Jones and Roald Dahl are just two on a list of 100 personalities nominated in an online poll to find the ultimate Welsh hero... ..."

Entertainment: Needed: A healthy fare; Jan 11, 2004. The Week

"...while foreign authors, such as Enid Blyton and J.K. Rowling, wean children away from TV, few Indian authors hold such appeal. But Alka Shankar of the National Book Trust says that there is no dearth of good Indian writers. "With a little hype they could recreate the popularity of Harry Potter." ...

She Speaks 3-Year-Old

Highly Recommended:
Long New York Times profile of Anne Wood, Teletubbies producer.

Telegraph | News | Daemons leap into limelight as Pullman's dark fantasy takes life on stage

"Every one of the 126 performances in the National's 1,110-seat Olivier auditorium, is sold out until the end of the run on March 20, apart from 30 tickets available each day on the day... ..."

Telegraph | Arts | Viewfinder: Quentin Blake

Review of Blake exhibition...

'Quentin Blake: Fifty Years of Illustration' is at the Gilbert Collection, Somerset House, London WC2 (0870 906 3765) until March 28.

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | AS Byatt on the lure of the fairy tale

"Stories of sleeping princesses, ice palaces and witches in woods may be supplanted by storytelling, real and fantastic, on the web. But, argues AS Byatt, the lure of the fairy tale is as strong as ever..."

The Wallander mystery - www.smh.com.au

A profile of Henning Mankell, author of Playing With Fire, whose latest Wallander mystery is The Return Of The Dancing Master

ManchesterOnline - Entertainment - Film and TV

In a report from Manchester Online, previewing the Channel 4 televisation of The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson, screened last night (New Year's Eve), we learn that it was Ann Widdecombe's least favourite read while judging the Whitbread Award.

'Tory MP Ann Widdecombe showed just why she is not a bestselling children's writer when asked to choose her least favourite book. "I had to read this while judging the Whitbread prize.

"It is a children's book about a drunken mother and her two children by different fathers. I thought these themes should not be promoted for children and I disliked it intensely on those grounds." ... ...'