THIS WEEK


News Review The headlines: in brief


Reading Agency and BBC team up for Big Jubilee Read campaign Books by authors including Bernardine


Evaristo, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel are among 70 titles featured in The Reading Agency and BBC’s Big Jubilee Read campaign.


Taking 10 books from each decade of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, organisers say the campaign will enable readers to engage in the discovery and celebration of great books, while shining a spotlight on lesser-known works and authors deserving greater recognition. It includes Atwood’s The Handmaid’s


Tale (Vintage), Evaristo’s Booker- winning Girl, Woman, Other (Hamish Hamilton) and Mantel’s Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate).


BERNARDINE EVARISTO’S BOOKER-WINNING GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER WILL FEATURE AS PART OF THE JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS


The list was chosen by an expert panel of librarians, booksellers and literature specialists from a “readers’ choice” longlist. Also featured are John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy


Rights deal


of the Week


600


Former US Secretary of State turned thriller writer Hillary Rodham Clinton above has been added to the Hay Festival line-up, which features more than 600 writers, thinkers and performers. The ex-First Lady will be in conversation with lawyer Helena Kennedy on 2nd June as part of the festival’s Women & Power series. Hay is returning for its first in-person event since 2019 this year and runs from 26th May to 5th June. This year’s festival has more than 500 in-person events over 11 days.


Rights deal


Chatto & Windus picks up Dani Shapiro’s fiction Chatto & Windus has won a six-way auction for Signal Fires, an “exquisite” and “unputdownable” first work of fiction in more than a decade from Dani Shapiro left. Editorial director Poppy Hampson acquired UK rights to the “electrifying novel about family secrets” from Fiona Baird at WME. The book has been sold in seven territories so far and will publish in the UK in February 2023. It is the first of Shapiro’s works to be published in the UK.


08 22nd April 2022 Stat


(Penguin Modern Classics), Seamus Heaney’s Death of a Naturalist (Faber), Marlon James’ The Book of Night Women (Oneworld) and Andrea Levy’s Small Island (Tinder Press). Reading Agency c.e.o. Karen Napier said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with BBC to celebrate the proven power of reading at this historic moment of national celebration. The Reading Agency hugely values the support of our library partners bringing this fantastic book list to life.” Delivered with public libraries, reading groups, publishers, bookshops, and authors, the campaign will be supported by events and activities in libraries and bookshops. Resources for reading groups are also available. There will be programming across the BBC, including “Between the Covers” and “Front Row”.


Hodder signs two-book deal with Chokshi Hodder has signed adult début The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi left in a two-book deal. Senior commissioning editor Molly Powell bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, at auction from Anna Carmichael at Abner Stein, acting on behalf of Thao Le at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. William Morrow executive editor Jessica Williams negotiated the deal for North American rights. The Last Tale of the Flower Bride will publish in spring 2023.


Jackie Morris creates Books Are My Bag tote design Author and illustrator Jackie Morris above has created this year’s Books Are My Bag tote bag, which will be available in bookshops across the UK and Ireland from Bookshop Day on 8th October. Morris has worked as an illustra-


tor, artist and author on more than 40 books. Her tote design features a fox curled up behind a bookshop, dreaming. The limited-edition bag is part


Te Bookseller @thebookseller


@Waterstones has joined with publishers and authors in a bid to raise £1m for Ukraine https://bit.ly/3L2kymL


of the annual campaign organised by the Booksellers Association to celebrate bookshops. Morris said: “As a writer, I owe


my career to booksellers. As a reader, I love the individuality of different stores that so beautifully reflect the personalities of the staff. It is a real honour to be invited to design this year’s Books Are My Bag limited-edition bag, to celebrate Bookshop Day.”


© Suki Dhanda


© Beowulf Sheehan


© Aman Sharma


© Elly Lucas


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