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made aware of Bologna’s dates this month. He said rescheduling LBF


Independent Bookshop Top Five


is dependent on the avail- ability of Olympia London. “We will strive to ensure minimal disruption to our visitors. It is a shame that the issue around dates seems to be splitting the industry, forcing people to choose one fair over the other.” Elena Pasoli, the director


Manifesto:The Battle for Green Britain Dale Vince and John Robb Ebury, £9.99, 9781529909852


LBF considering moving 2024 dates following Bologna clash


Lessons in Chemistry


Bonnie Garmus Penguin, £9.99, 9781804990926


London Book Fair (LBF) is “investigating if there is a possibility of moving the LBF dates for next year” following a scheduling near-collision with Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF). Earlier this month, BCBF announced that next


year’s fair would take place between 8th and 11th April— only four days before the London fair, which is set to take place between 16th and 18th April. Gareth Rapley, director of LBF, stressed LBF released its 2024 dates in October 2022 and was only


of BCBF, acknowledged the inconvenience the near-clash could cause for some, but explained that “BolognaFiere’s calendar is particularly busy in March due to the presence of two very large B2B trade fairs”, which impose a shift of the other trade shows to April. Alice Sutherland-Hawes,


founder of ASH Literary, said that “the fact we get less than a week in between fairs next year is a cause for concern”.


Rights deal


Début novel by Yang acquired by Sphere Sphere has acquired The Lotus Shoes and one other novel by début author Jane Yang above. Tilda Key, publishing director, pre-empted UK and Commonwealth, excluding Canada, rights to the “glorious, heart-rending story of loss and love, betrayal and sisterhood, tragedy and triumph”, from the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency. Publication of The Lotus Shoes is slated for January 2025. Set in 1800s China, it traces the extraordinary journey of two women from differ- ent worlds, one sold into slavery and the other into marriage.


You Choose Your Adventure Pippa Goodhart, Nick Sharratt Puffin, £1,


9780241618882


This week’s most read


Jobs losses on the cards at Welbeck after Hachette buy


Rights deal


Dave Pigeon Bookshop Mayhem! Swapna Haddow Faber, £1,


9780571380329


Billy’s Bravery Tom Percival Bloomsbury, £1, 9781526658784


Data source Nielsen BookScan


TheBookseller.com


Garvey début gets the Canongate treatment Canongate has scooped a “brilliantly crafted” début, The Wardrobe Department, and another novel by Elaine Garvey. Jenny Fry, publisher and commercial director, acquired world rights in the two books from Eleanor Birne at PEW following a four-way auction. The Wardrobe Department will be published in spring 2025 with Leah Woodburn as Garvey’s primary editor. It is set in 2002 and follows a woman who has moved from rural Ireland to work at a West End theatre.


Jefferson wins overall Rathbones Folio Prize for ‘life force’ book


HQ acquires début novel by Stranger Tings actress


P


ulitzer Prize-winning critic and author Margo Jefferson below left,


novelist Michelle de Kretser and poet Victoria Adukwei Bulley have been awarded Rathbones Folio Prizes in the inaugural year of the new prize structure, with Jefferson taking home the overall prize. However, the prize is now in search of a new sponsor, with Rathbones ending its support after seven years. This year the Rathbones Folio


Prize awarded winners across three categories: Fiction, Poetry and Non-Fiction, before a Book of the Year was chosen from the winners. Each category winner received £2,000 and the Book of the Year Winner took home the overall prize of £30,000. The refreshed format aims to “address the changing landscape of literary prizes, spotlight more


LBF ‘investigating’ moving 2024 fair


authors, and offer readers and retailers a clearer, broader range of recommendations”. Jefferson was awarded the


Non-fiction prize at a prize ceremony at the British Library on Monday (27th March) before going on to win the overall prize for Book of the Year for Constructing a Nervous System (Granta), which judges praised as a “life force of a book”. The Sri Lankan-Australian novelist de Kretser won the Fiction prize for her novel Scary Monsters (Allen & Unwin) which the judges said was “a work of beautifully composed genius”, while Adukwei Bulley, described as “the rising star of British poetry”, was awarded the Poetry prize for her début collection Quiet (Faber) that judges described as “a quiet revolution of a book”.


09


© Mark Capilitan


© Charlie Brown


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