BECOMING A WIZARD AND MORE BOOKISH NEWS.

Firstly many thanks to blogger DIZZY C and author MARGARET JAMES from whom I won a signed copy of Margaret's book.......

THE GOLDEN CHAIN.

There have been so many bookish articles in the news of late I thought I'd bring you the ones that caught my attention.

Ian Fleming has beaten Agatha Christie to the title of highest earning British crime writer with Fleming worth over a cool £100m and Christie a close second at £100m exactly.

Both however were beaten by American writers John Grisham (£366m) and Dan Brown (£400m). - Source: Maev Kennedy, the Guardian (11/04/2011)

For a few years now the Orange Prize seems to have caused controversy. This year, and not for the first time I seem to remember, its all to do with the prize being restricted to women writers and Bethany Hughes, chairperson of the judges expressing her hope that the award will be abolished.

The £30,000 prize was established in 1996 to celebrate "excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing".

"I very much hope one day we won't need an Orange Prize," said Hughes.

"When it's a level playing field - when as many women as men see their books reviewed, when women get the same publishing advances as men - how fantastic that the Orange Prize will no longer need to exist. But it's there to redress the balance." - Anita Singh, The Telegraph (13/04/2011) READ MORE.

Robert Louis Stevenson, author of classics such as Treasure Island and, The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde is to have a set of fairytales he wrote printed as a set for the first time.

 Stevenson spent the last years of his life on the Samoan island of Upolu where he wrote a series of fantastic tales and fables that he specifically asked to be published as a set.

However, instead of complying with the writer's request, his literary agent, Sidney Colvin, asked Cassell to publish two of the fairy stories – The Bottle Imp and The Isle of Voices – in a volume alongside a naturalistic short story of a completely different type.

The new volume of Fables and Fairy Tales is due out in 2013, as part of the New Edinburgh edition of Stevenson's works, which is planned to be the definitive collection. - Vanessa Thorpe, The Observer (24/04/2011) READ MORE.

Though not a fan of this authors work, I must confess that as an older teenager I would always borrow my (naughty) little sister's copy to read.

Having detailed their passionate exploits across thousands of pages over the past 25 years, Jilly Cooper has suggested she feels too old to continue writing about sex.

 In an interview that will disappoint the many thousands of readers whose summer holidays revolve around a copy of her latest book and a sun-lounger, the 74 year-old author said she had tried and failed to pen bedroom scenes involving elderly characters, and may not return to the subject again. - Martin Beckford, The Telegraph (25/04/2011) READ MORE.

The Harry Potter/Twilight books make readers feel the same satisfaction as being affiliated to a real-life group, scientists say.

Analysis found that readers became part of the community described with tests revealing that  HP readers 'became' wizards and Twilight readers vampires.

A researcher said: "The study explains how this everyday phenomenon of reading works, not just for escape or education, but as something that fulfils a deep psychological need." - Source: The Telegraph (27/04/2011)

Yet another novel with the potential to annoy the Christians of this world.

THE SECOND COMING by John Niven.

'God's coming - look busy!' God really is coming, and he is going to be pissed. Having left his son in charge, God treated himself to a well-earned break around the height of the Renaissance. A good time to go fishing. He returns in 2011 to find things on Earth haven't gone quite to plan...The world has been rendered a human toilet: genocide; starvation; people obsessed with vacuous celebrity culture, 'and', God points out, 'there are fucking Christians everywhere'. God hates Christians. There's only one thing for it. They're sending the kid back. JC, reborn, is a struggling musician in New York City, helping people as best he can and trying to teach the one true commandment: Be Nice! Gathering disciples along the way - a motley collection of basket cases, stoners and alcoholics - he realises his best chance to win hearts and minds may lie in a TV talent contest. "American Pop Star" is the number one show in America, the unholy creation of English record executive Steven Stelfox...a man who's more than a match for the Son of God. - Synopsis courtesy of Waterstones.com

So .........

• Who is your favourite crime author? Do you prefer Ian Fleming to John Grisham/Agatha Christie to Dan Brown?
• Is it sexist that the Orange Prize only goes to women writers?
• A fan of Robert Louis Stevenson? Will you be reading a copy of his Samoan fairytales?
• 74 and too old to be writing about sex?
• Harry Potter or Twilight - are you a wizard or a vampire (or even a werewolf)?

PS I almost forgot to mention, as with my Monday Media posts wherever possible I will endeavour to bring you the links to articles I have used in my Media Monday posts but this is not always possible.