Le Carré Turns Down Booker

Photo by  nuttakit via freedigitalphotos.net

The Man Booker International Prize finalist list was announced today and the prestigious award has already been plunged into controversy.

Finalist John le Carré , best known for his spy and espionage books including The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, has asked to be withdrawn from consideration for the bi annual award.

In a statement released earlier today, le Carré said, ‘I am enormously flattered to be named as a finalist for the  2011 Man Booker International prize. However, I do not compete for literary prizes and have therefore asked for my name to be withdrawn.’

Awarded every two years since its creation in 2005 to a living author whose work is readily available in the English language, the winner, chosen at the discretion of the judging panel, receives a £60,000 prize.

Chair of this year’s judging panel, Rick Gekoski, has politely declined his request.

‘John le Carré's name will, of course, remain on the list.’ He said. ‘We are disappointed that he wants to withdraw from further consideration because we are great admirers of his work.’

The winner of the prize will be announced at the Sydney Writer’s Festival on the 18^th of May with the ceremony being held in London this June.

Man Booker International Finalist List 2011

•   Wang Ani
•  Juan Goytisolo
•  James Kelman
•  John le Carré
•  Amin Maalouf
•  David Malouf
•  Daci Maraini
•  Rohinton Mistry 
• Philip Pullman
• Marilynne Robinson  
• Philip Roth  
• Su Tong
• Anne Tyler

Reading Resolution: Update

Some of the neglected books I'll be reading this year

A quarter of the way into 2011 and I’m pleased to say I’ve kept my resolution not to buy any new books until I’ve read all of the books I currently own. It hasn’t been easy. Temptation reared its head recently when I was handed a Smith’s gift card and told to spend it (it went on magazines in the end) and then there was the moment when I saw a beautiful hard copy of Angela Carter's‘Wayward Girls and Wicked Women’ when a mischievous little voice in my head said, “Buy it! No one will know...” .  Still, I’ve resisted so far and have been making my way through my bookshelves.

So far, it’s been pretty painless: I’ve had my pick of unopened books with a greater potential to delight than those I’ve previously started and cast aside for various reasons.  I’ll have to change that soon enough though and delve into one of those rejected books to prevent a big block of tedium once I’ve run out of crisp, new ones to read.

My progress has been slower than I’d like. I used to get a lot of reading done on my daily train commute but since that has been reduced this year, I’ve noticed just how much that extra hour and a bit contributed to my reading time. Still, I haven’t been doing too badly this year.

I’ve already made my way through Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising Sequence (five books in all) Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales, Stephen Fry’s latest autobiography The Fry Chronicles, Love in the Time of Cholera and The Great Gatsby. I’ve started to sink my teeth into Ovid’s Metamorphoses which I’ve wanted to read for ages but only just managed to get a copy of.

Love in the Time of Cholera was a bit like walking through treacle in places. It has a very slow pace which captures the lingering passage of days that one of the main characters, Florentino Ariza, attempts to fill as he waits a lifetime for the opportunity to re-declare his adoration to the love of his life, Fermina Daza. It took me a good few weeks to slog through the slower parts of the novel (wonderfully rich and detailed as they were) which has put me slightly behind on my resolution. 

I adored the Angela Carter book and the long awaited sequal to Fry's Moab is My Washpot. The eponoymous volume of  The Dark Is Rising Sequence was a childhood favourite, first encountered in school. I'm quite surprised I never got around to reading the other four books at the time, but even reading as an adult, they was still plenty to enjoy about this fanatsy.

I’ve got a fair few books to get through yet, (hopefully a little bit quicker than my progress so far- there are so many books I want to buy) so the experiment continues.

Orange Prize Longlist Announced

The longlist for The Orange Prize for fiction was announced this week.

Open only to female authors writing in the English language, the award is now in its 16^th year.

This year’s panel, chaired by Historian and Broadcaster Bettany Hughes, have chosen twenty titles which will be reduced to a shortlist of six in April before the winner is announced on June the 8^th.

The longlist includes nine titles from debut writers as well as the more familiar industry names of Tessa Hadley and Nicole Krauss.

The winner of the Orange prize receives a cheque for £30,000.

Longlist 2011

• Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate)
• Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador)
• The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury)
• Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber)
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
• The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury)
• The London Train by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape)
• Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson (Sceptre)
• The Seas by Samantha Hunt (Corsair)
• The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna (Faber and Faber)
• Great House by Nicole Krauss (Viking)
• The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus)
• The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Viking)
• Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile (Serpent's Tail)
• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus)
• The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin (Serpent's Tail)
• The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (Harper Press)
• Annabel by Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape)

MoD Pulp Book at Cost of £150,00 to UK Taxpayers

A book on Afghanistan has been recalled and pulped after a request by the British Ministry of Defence.

The entire first print run of Dead Man Risen, an account of Britain’s role in the recent military movements in Afghanistan, was bought by the MoD and pulped at a cost of £150,000. A spokesman said that the book contained information which could damage national security.

The book is in the process of being reprinted after removing around 50 words, despite continued opposition from the armed forces.

The content of the book is said to be critical and embarrassing for the MoD, suggesting soldiers suffered from a lack of equipment in 2009 and detailing controversial incidents of civilian casualties.

World Book Night

Tonight marks the first annual World Book Night where 20,000 book lovers will give away 1 million books across the UK.

An inaugural ceremony was held last night in Trafalgar square, where registered book ‘givers’ got to listen to some of the world’s greatest authors supporting the cause. Philip Pullman, Margaret Atwood and John
Le Carré all read from their own books whilst Alan Bennett reopened the debate about public libraries by declaring ‘Closing libraries is child abuse’.

25 titles were chosen by an independent committee, with examples from every conceivable genre included in the final list, and each of the 20,000 ‘givers’ have been given 49 copies of their chosen title to share with the general public.

The World Book Night website is already filling up with reports from the ‘givers’ about how they distributed their allocation with all early indications suggesting that the scheme has been a great success.

The initiative has not escaped without criticism though, with some independent booksellers and authors suggesting that giving away books during a perceived crisis in the print industry only aided in devaluing books in their printed format. However, The Bookseller reports that sales of the 25 titles (which include Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) have received a boost in the first few months of 2011, seemingly due to the publicity surrounding World Book Night.

As part of their Year of Books, the BBC has devoted their scheduling tonight to World Book Night, including a look at the books ‘We Really Read’, starting at 7.30 tonight on BBC2. 

A full list of this year’s 25 titles can be found on the official website and if you missed out on taking part this year and would like to take part next year, information has already been posted so that you too can take part in the grandest literary event of 2012. For full details see worldbooknight.org

Were you a registered giver, or were you lucky enough to receive a free book? What do you think about World Book Night? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

Happy World Book Day!

If you have a child of school age (or indeed, if you are one) you’re probably aware that today is World Book Day in Britain and Ireland. Whilst the rest of the world celebrates reading and literature on the 23^rd of April, we Brits hold ours early to ensure it falls within the school term.

Created to encourage children to read, this year’s World Book Day has been somewhat overshadowed by the first annual World Book Night (which will be held on March the 5^th) when 1 million books will be given away.

As part of World Book Day, every child in Britain is given a £1 book token redeemable against any book including the special £1 series of reads which have been created especially for the occasion. Expect to see large queues in your local bookshop this weekend.