James Patterson dominates library lending, with 2.3m loans in 2011
Author takes five places on PLR's top 10 most-borrowed books, with remainder also thrillers and mysteriesWith book lovers up and down the country branding library closures criminal, perhaps the stranglehold crime fiction continues to hold on borrowers'...
Wislawa Szymborska, ‘Mozart of poetry’, dies aged 88
Polish president joins tributes to Nobel prize-winner, calling her the country's 'guardian spirit'Polish poet and Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska, whose beguilingly simple, playful poems spoke to the heart of everyday life, died yesterday aged 88.Des...
Writers bid to revive letter-writing
Famous names including Dave Eggers are offering to write letters to subscribers on a weekly basisA gentlemanly riposte to email is being launched by the literary world as Dave Eggers heads a group of authors who are turning instead to the old-fashioned...
Paulo Coelho calls on readers to pirate books
Multimillion-selling author links with Pirate Bay, saying 'the more people "pirate" a book, the better'Bestselling Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho is joining in with a new promotion on the notorious file-sharing site the Pirate Bay, and calling on "pir...
Whoopensocker dictionary of American dialect completed after 50 years
Collecting regional English from across the US, final volume of 60,000-entry dictionary will be published next monthFrom whoopensocker to upscuddle, strubbly to swivet, 50 years after it was first conceived the Dictionary of American Regional English i...
Carol Ann Duffy ‘wrong’ about poetry
Oxford professor of poetry attacks Duffy's praise of text language, and compares hers to Mills & BoonCarol Ann Duffy might have won numerous literary awards and become the country's first female poet laureate, but Oxford professor of poetry Geoffrey Hi...
Jonathan Franzen warns ebooks are corroding values
Freedom author tells festival audience that the 'impermanence' of ebooks is incompatible with enduring principlesJonathan Franzen has spoken of his fear that ebooks will have a detrimental effect on the world – and his belief that serious readers wil...
Gordon Brown to publish predictions for 2025
Subtitled 'Shaping a New Future' the former prime minister's book will outline his view of where the world is headingGeorge Orwell envisaged that a totalitarian state ruled by Big Brother would be in place by 1984; Arthur C Clarke dreamed of a self-awa...
First ever crime writing MA launched
London's City University says creation of course is in response to student demandAs the underworld steadily increases its grip on literary culture, City University in London is turning to crime, with the launch of an MA devoted to teaching crime fictio...
Battle of the authors’ sexes continues
Jennifer Weiner complains of gender bias in reviewing, Teddy Wayne argues male writers are worse off than womenMale and female authors in America are competing over who has it harder, with bestselling chick lit author Jennifer Weiner arguing the New Yo...
Roald Dahl and CS Lewis among writers revealed to have refused honours
List of authors to turn down OBEs, CBEs and knighthoods also includes Aldous Huxley, Robert Graves and Evelyn WaughAuthors CS Lewis, Roald Dahl and Aldous Huxley all turned down honours from the Queen, newly released documents have revealed.A freedom o...
Vladimir Putin plans 100-book Russian canon all students must read
The Russian prime minister prescribes his top 100 books for the nationVladimir Putin has laid out his plans to compile a canon of 100 Russian books "that every Russian school leaver will be required to read" in an attempt to preserve the "dominance of ...
