The rapid growth of book clubs and successful promotions such as The Big Read and Richard and Judy have stimulated book purchasing and library borrowing. Read more
Just like the States (see News Review 22 July 2002) the UK is going through a huge and sudden growth in courses in creative writing. There's an unending demand for writing courses. In just twelve years the number of universities offering postgraduate degree courses in creative writing has increased from eight to 85. Read more
Uniquely beloved by teenage girls, Jacqueline Wilson is the extraordinary children’s writer who has recently supplanted Catherine Cookson as the most borrowed author in Britain’s libraries. The author of nearly 70 books, her sales exceed 15 million copies worldwide (not counting the US) and Philippa Dickinson, Publisher of Random House Children’s Books in the UK, says: 'She is unstoppabl Read more
It's not often that you can say a book may have changed the course of history, but we might yet be witnessing exactly that. Richard A Clarke's Against all Enemies has had a devastating effect on President Bush's credibility. Partly this is a question of timing - it just happened that the book has been published immediately after what the Spaniards are calling the Madrid massacre. Read more
‘An intelligent observation of the facts of human existence will reveal to shallow-minded folk who sneer at the use of coincidence in the arts of fiction and drama that life itself is little more than a series of coincidences.’