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The Week In Books Quiz for 17th May 2013

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Question 1

This week saw the launch of Baz Luhrmann's take on The Great Gatsby in cinemas. What is the name of Tom Buchanan's mistress in the novel, played by Isla Fisher in the film?

A	Myrtle
B	Daisy
C	Jordan
D	May

Question 1 Explanation: 

If you've not seen the film yet, do take a look at our review after the quiz. And either way make sure to read the book...

Question 2

Another Gatsby based question, what does the first initial "J" of the eponymous hero stand for?

A	Jay
B	James
C	Jerome
D	Just "J" - he has no first name.

Question 2 Explanation: 

Although he starts out as "James Gatz", by the time the novel starts he has become known as the mysterious Jay Gatsby. DiCaprio is pretty good. Shame about the rest of the fi... read the review.

Question 3

Northlake public library near Chicago hope to raise $30,000 through a crowdfunding website to pay for a statue of...

A	George Bush Jnr
B	David Bowie
C	The Incredible Hulk
D	Richard Ford

Question 3 Explanation: 

Libraries may have been perceived as dull places in the past but librarians at Northlake "want to smash that stuffy reputation with a nine-foot tall Incredible Hulk statue". He was an academic after all, so perhaps they just want to make a point about shy, retiring bookish types.

Question 4

Howard Jacobson this week won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse award for a second time with his novel Zoo Time. Which of the items below did he not win as part of his prize?

A	A set of the Everyman Wodehouse collection
B	A case of champagne
C	A cheque for £20,000
D	A pig
E	He won all of the above

Question 4 Explanation: 

As is traditional, the winner receives a pig named after their winning novel. Our thoughts go out to last year's winner, named after Terry Pratchett's "Snuff"... He had it coming.

Question 5

“Whether or not I deserved the Nobel Prize, I already received it, and now it’s time to get back to my writing desk and produce good work.” Which Nobel Prize laureate said this when speaking at a literary conference this week?

A	Doris Lessing
B	Mo Yan
C	J. M. Coetzee
D	V. S. Naipaul

Question 5 Explanation: 

The Chinese author attempted to put to rest the controversy surrounding his refusal to discuss politics after receiving the prize. He said this in Chinese but we thought we'd be easier on you and give you the quote in English. Though we're not sure the others speak Chinese so maybe that would have made it easier. Sorry.

Question 6

Which author stirred a furore this week with an attack in an article entitled In the Reign of the Gay Magical Elves on what he calls the "gatekeepers of politically correct gayness", after already courting controversy with a tweet two weeks ago in which he said: "I like the idea of Glee, but why is it that every time I watch an episode I feel like I've stepped into a puddle of HIV?"

A	Chuck Palahniuk
B	Paul Schrader
C	David Sedaris
D	Bret Easton Ellis

Question 6 Explanation: 

Ellis himself describes himself as gay and was writing about "gay self-patronization in the media." His full article can be found on Out.com.

Question 7

Dan Brown's Inferno launched this Tuesday and next week he will be in the UK to do his first ever UK event. Where is it taking place?

A	Freemasons' Hall
B	The O2
C	Westminster Cathedral
D	Oxford University's Symbology Department

Question 7 Explanation: 

Brown will be speaking in the home of the Freemasons. If you want to be there, you can find out more here (after the quiz, of course): http://bit.ly/13Xwb4s

Question 8

The lost journal of which poet was discovered this week, in which he writes “Paper reports German attack on Poland. Now I sit looking out over the river. Such a beautiful evening and in an hour, they say, England will be at war.”

A	John Betjeman
B	Philip Larkin
C	Ted Hughes
D	WH Auden

Question 8 Explanation: 

The diary covers what Auden described as the "eleven happiest weeks of my life” the beginning of his relationship with American poet Chester Kallman.

Question 9

Revealed in an article on The Huffington Post this week, what was author Maya Angelou's first job at the age of sixteen?

A	Streetcar conductor
B	Milkman
C	Homicide journalist
D	Working in a bicycle repair shop

Question 9 Explanation: 

In fact, she was San Francisco's first black streetcar conductor.

Question 10

A final Dan Brown question to finish... What did the author reveal as his cure for writer's block in a recent interview?

A	Whisky
B	Painting
C	Reading poetry
D	Hanging upside down

Question 10 Explanation: 

Apparently "inversion therapy" gets the blood flowing for him to the extent he has built a specially designed table which allows him to swiftly and safely suspend himself upside down. He's not endorsing this idea so you can't sue him - don't try.

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And Then There Were None...

Bring Up The Bodies...

Middle Earth

Destined To Fly

Wait, are you a Bookseller?

Luhrmann’s love of the book extends to using the first edition cover as inspiration for the Eyes of T.J. Eckleburg road sign.

Three minutes, maybe less, into Baz Luhrmann‘s The Great Gatsby I felt my fingers gripping the arm of my chair. The scene had been set with sepia tinged credits which faded away into glorious digital 3D, for a visual epic that would capture through modern cinematic techniques the thrill of the Jazz Age. And then, some rap music began playing.

The tension which rippled through my body on hearing this was not caused by surprise at this musical choice – Luhrmann’s reputation for using modern music in his period films precedes him. Nor was it down to a latent ’90s indie-kid mentality that music is just that stuff with guitars in it. My white knuckled clench was born of a melancholic anger, a disappointment that the mildly elegant opening sequence had lost out to the director’s gnawing ego.

Throughout Gatsby it is clear that Luhrmann loves the book – the story of a man apart, driven by confused passion and a desire for social acceptance set against the pounding sexuality of the 1920s. Indeed, his casting certainly shows a clear understanding of F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s characters. Gatsby is not quite the role Leonardo DiCaprio was born to play, but most definitely one which he inhabits utterly. The Romeo looks of his youth have given way to a more tired, yet still handsome, face which gives the impression of a man who has lived a longer and more trying life than the sum of his years. Although this doesn’t say much for the effects of a Hollywood lifestyle on young stars, it does add to Gatsby as a man of hidden depth – a man with a mysterious past hidden behind the veneer of his respectability and vast wealth.

Similarly, Joel Edgerton‘s Tom Buchanan ripples through his polo gear whilst Carey Mulligan as Daisy is, if not perfectly cast, then at least inoffensively so. She is the ideal object for the desires of these men and her quietly distant performance keeps her true feelings as far removed from the comprehension of the audience as they are from Gatsby and Buchanan. “The best thing a girl can be in this world” is as she says “a beautiful little fool”, and her Daisy aspires to be just that – though of course we occasionally see something more.

Baz Luhrmann doesn’t make it onto the poster, but he’s an ever present figure in the film.

Oh, and Tobey Maguire has a silly voice, which is nothing new. His squeaky-clean, wide-eyed innocence works a treat as Carraway for the most part, even if it is grating at times, and whilst he may fail to quite deliver in the more emotional scenes, there’s no arguing his ability as he contributes to the film’s lighter comic touches. The scene in which he arranges a tea-time meeting between Gatsby and Daisy standing out as a perfect example of this, even if it does raise the question of how someone ever cast him as Spiderman…

You may have noticed that I’ve focussed mostly on appearance in my descriptions of the three main characters. Luhrmann’s direction is such that one cannot help but do so. Characterisation, in the conventional sense of performance, gives way to visual effects and spectacle to such a degree that it is the superficial which lingers. As a metaphor for the Jazz Age’s decadence this is perhaps quite apt, but as an attempt to commit to film one of the greatest American novels of our time it merely shows the director’s own shortcomings – or rather his ability to hold those shortcomings at bay.

There are scenes where you can feel Baz Luhrmann, Director of Moulin Rouge, step aside for a moment or two. When he lets his talented ensemble cast act, rather than fight his directorial vision, then the viewer is treated to a chance sighting of what might have been – with the tumultuous revelatory scene in the hotel room exemplifying this. But it isn’t long until a jazzified cover of Amy Winehouse‘s Back to Black creeps in, a string quartet inexplicably mime to a drum and bass track, or the interminable 3D-typed words of Tobey Maguire’s occasional narration drip down the screen. Because it’s from a book. See what he did there?

There is an episode of The West Wing where President Bartlet’s advisors are concerned that he is becoming, for want of a better description, boring. He appears to have lost his vibrancy and with it the excitement which drove his campaign to victory before he assumed power. Their ultimate realisation is that they’ve been holding him back – stopping him from making the more forthright comments he might have made before he became President so as to avoid creating unnecessary waves; and equally he has bought into this timid vision of himself. Their advice? “Let Bartlet be Bartlet.” Let the man be as he was intended to be and don’t try to make him anything else, even if he doesn’t realise he is currently denying his true self.

Baz Luhrmann wants to make music videos, or at the very least garish shallow films. It’s clear from any look at his body of work that he is at his most successful when he successfully marries visual innovation – and there’s plenty of that to be enjoyed in Gatsby – with joyous musical absurdity. If he wants to make music videos, let him. Someone within his circle needs to pull him to one side and explain, gently, “Baz, it’s ok. You don’t need to keep making movies like this. Follow your heart. Let Luhrmann be Luhrmann.”

He’ll be happier, and so will I.

PS. Read the book as it’s wonderful.

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy The Great Gatsby from your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/16BKSOt)

This week’s Book Club book of the week is The House Of Rumour by Jake Arnott.

Jake Arnott‘s latest novel, The House Of Rumour, takes the Tarot card deck as the structure for a novel filled with breathtaking flights of fancy…

Larry Zagorski – a young Californian writer of pulp fiction – a British intelligence agent, the occultist Aleister Crowley, Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess, a transsexual prostitute and Ian Fleming… What connects them? The answer lies in 1941… But when Larry looks back on that year, he finds it hard to separate fact from fiction…

Spies, religion, SF writers, cult leaders, rocket scientists, astronauts, UFO spotters, magicians, astrologists, film makers, rock stars, artists, actors, adulterers and unrequited lovers, all woven into a web where truth and illusion meet.

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy The House Of Rumour at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/10OH9L0)

To find out more about our Book Club selection, click here.

Jacobson’s Zoo Time took this year’s prize, now in its 14th year, which seeks to reward the best novel of the past twelve months which the judges believe captures the comic spirit of P.G. Wodehouse.

Jacobson was suitably pleased with his achievement, saying ”to win the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Writing once was bliss for me. To win it twice is very heaven.”

As the winner he receives not only a jeroboam of Bollinger Special Cuvée, a case of Bollinger La Grande Année and a set of the Everyman Wodehouse collection, but also a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig, that will be named after his winning book.

“I am only sorry my pig has to be called Zoo Time.” said Jacobson, “It feels a bit tactless.  But it could have been worse.  It could have been Bring Up The Bodies.”

He will be presented with his prizes at this year’s Hay Festival during a special event where he’ll be discussing Zoo Time with Peter Florence, judge and director of the festival.

The shortlist in full

Zoo Time, Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury)

Skios, Michael Frayn (Faber & Faber)

England’s Lane, Joseph Connolly (Quercus)

Heartbreak Hotel, Deborah Moggach (Chatto & Windus)

Lightning Rods, Helen DeWitt (And Other Stories)

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

A limited number of signed copies were made available to fans on a first come first served basis and the bookshop opened early to help eager readers get their hands on the book.

Jon Howells, from our Press Office, was one of the first to have read the book, having been given it to read overnight in advance of the launch.

“I am very pleased to say that Dan Brown delivers the goods with Inferno, his fourth novel to feature Robert Langdon,” Jon said. “I won’t give any real spoilers here, but I will tell you that this is his most topical book to date – the central premise of the plot is something that has been in the news in the last few weeks and the stakes have never been higher.”

All the ingredients of a Langdon adventure are there Jon says. “As the clock ticks, bullets fly and the bad guys close in, we’re given lessons in etymology, theoretical science, religious symbolism, architecture and much, much more. Suffice to say I know a lot more about Dante Alighieri and The Divine Comedy than I did yesterday!”

Brown fans can also look forward to seeing the author in person at his only ever UK event next week in London’s Freemason’s Hall. In Masonry’s Grand Lodge, he’ll discuss the development of Professor Robert Langdon, Harvard Professor of Symbology, from mild mannered academic to action hero, as well as some of the inspiration behind his world-wide bestsellers. You can buy tickets to the event here.

If you can’t wait to get reading, you can read the first few pages right now.

Competition

To win a signed copy of Inferno by Dan Brown, just tell us the name of Brown’s master symbologist who has appeared in Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, and now Inferno?

If you have any problems using the form below, you can email your answer, together with your full name, by clicking here.

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy Inferno at your local Waterstones bookshop or online at Waterstones.com

Competition terms and conditions

1. No purchase necessary. Please enter your name and email address. Only one entry per person allowed. Proof of entering is not proof of receipt of entry.

2. To be eligible, entries must be received on or before the closing date of 20/05/13 at 11:59 PM. All entries shall become the property of Waterstones.com, and their directors, officers, representatives, advertising and promotional agencies are not responsible for contacting or forwarding prizes to entrants who provide unclear or incomplete information or for entries lost, misdirected, delayed or destroyed.

3. Entrants must be over 16 years old and residents of the UK or Ireland.

4. There will be 5 winners of a signed copy of Inferno by Dan Brown.

5. The promoter reserves the right to amend the specification of the prize or offer an alternative prize of equal or greater value.

6. Subject to availability.

7. No cash alternative will be offered. The prize is non-transferable.

8. A random draw will take place on the morning of 21/05/13 to select the winners. The prize winners will be notified by email, and will need to respond by midnight 23/05/13 as to whether they are willing to accept the prize. If a selected entrant does not meet all of the contract conditions, another entrant will be selected from the remaining eligible entries.

9. This competition is not open to employees of Waterstones, the publisher or their immediate families.

10. By entering the contest, entrants, consent to the use of their names, city of residence, photograph and/or image for publicity purposes in all media carried out by Waterstones, without payment or compensation.

11. The decisions of the contest judges are final. The prize must be accepted as awarded.

12. The right is reserved to terminate or withdraw this contest at any time.

13. a) All entries become the property of Waterstones, who assume no responsibility for lost, stolen, delayed, damaged or misdirected entries or for any failure of the website during the promotional period, for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers, access providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any email or entry to be received by Waterstones on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the internet or any website, or any combination thereof including any injury or damage to an entrant’s or any other person’s computer related to or resulting from playing or downloading any material in the promotion. Waterstones reserve the right, in its sole discretion to cancel or suspend the email portion of this contest should a virus or bug or other cause beyond the reasonable control of Waterstones corrupt the security or proper administration of the contest. Any attempt to deliberately damage any website or undermine the legitimate operation of this promotion is a violation of criminal and civil laws, and should such an attempt be made, Waterstones reserve the right to seek remedies and damages to the fullest extent permitted by law, including criminal prosecution. Entries are subject to verification and will be declared invalid if they are illegible, mechanically MV reproduced, mutilated, forged, falsified, altered or tampered with in any way. Entrants agree to abide by the contest rules and the decisions of the independent judging panel, which are final.

13. b) Entries must be submitted by the named entrant and will be invalid if found to come from a third party. Multiple entries from a single source (eg ‘competition entry’ website/company) will be disqualified. Only one entry will be accepted per email address used.

14. For name/county of prize winner, please send a stamped addressed envelope marked Waterstones Inferno competition to Waterstones Blog, Waterstones Booksellers, 203-106 Piccadilly, W1J 9HD after 15/04/13. No entries should be sent to this address.

15. Entry to the competition is conditional on acceptance of these terms and conditions. By entering your comment, you are deemed to have read and accepted these terms.

16. The email address you provide to enter the competition will be used by us to contact you if necessary, and will not be shared with other companies. Waterstones will only use your email address in compliance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and in accordance with our privacy policy.

17. Waterstones and the publisher have organised this prize draw in good faith and do not accept liability relating to the prize.

“My seven year-old son is a competent reader, but only reads books when he has to for school. I’d like to encourage him to read more for fun, what do you recommend? “

The key to getting youngsters interested in books for their own merit instead of as homework or a chore is to find something that grabs their imagination enough to make them want to keep reading. The best way to do this is generally to find something that is either packed with adventure and cliffhangers, or is so funny they end up rolling around on the floor crying with laughter. I’ve picked out a few books below that I think do at least one of these things, if not both.

As your son is a somewhat reluctant reader, I’ve selected books that aren’t too fat and daunting in appearance, and have fairly large print, bite-size chapters and plenty of engaging illustrations. Thus, he won’t look at it and think “chore”. If even Jack Stalwart with his super-cool secret agent gadgets doesn’t inspire him, you could try approaching reading in a different manner. Get a book on CD to play in the car on the way to school, to try hooking him into the story on the sly before suggesting he read the book. Or perhaps read a chapter aloud at bedtime and if he begs for more, suggest he reads the next chapter to himself before you turn out the light.

And, on one last note, dear readers, all of these books will appeal to girls as much as they do to boys – in my experience, girls like a bit of action, adventure and poo humour just as much as boys do…

Secret Agent Jack Stalwart,
Elizabeth Singer Hunt

A fabulous adventure series for any James Bond wannabe, with gadgets, maps and (of course) secret missions that are as good as guaranteed to capture any youngster’s imagination. As a member of the Global Protection Force, Jack is sent on missions all around the world to stop evildoers and rescue stolen treasures, all whilst searching for clues to what’s happened to his missing brother Max. These are the books that turned my young cousin into a bookworm and are utterly addictive.

You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum!
Andy Stanton

To describe the Mr Gum books as ‘wacky’ probably doesn’t quite cover it. Full of crazy and unforgettable characters, quirky illustrations and with jokes practically falling off every page, in Book 1 we meet Mr Gum who, despite being disgustingly dirty and untidy, has the most perfect garden imaginable. Why? Well, because if he doesn’t keep it nice, the fairy in the bathtub wacks him one with a frying pan, of course. Slick and hilarious, and likely to cause lots of rude snorting (adults and children alike).

The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog,
Jeremy Strong

One strong-willed (and extremely fast) dog, a bully with a penchant for nasty bets, and one very determined boy who seriously doesn’t want to wind up taking a frogspawn bath. Can Trevor succeed in training his out-of-control dog Streaker by the end of the summer holidays? This is just one example of many Jeremy Strong books that can’t fail to get your child laughing their head off and desperate to read more.

Dirty Bertie
Alan MacDonald and David Roberts

The Dirty Bertie books do what they say on the tin: stories of a slightly grubby little boy who likes to pick his nose and get up to mischief, both intentional and otherwise. Bertie is, first and foremost, a boy with a knack for getting into trouble in the funniest of ways, but without being nasty like Horrid Henry, and with great titles from Pants! and Bogeys! to Pirate! there’s plenty of opportunity to pick the story you feel will most appeal to your own Dirty Bertie…

Spy Dog,
Andrew Cope

A little more text heavy than my other recommendations, but another great adventure story, especially if your son is an animal lover. Lara is no ordinary dog: she is a problem solving wonder-dog, fluent in five languages, computers, and unarmed combat, among other things. But now a spy mission has gone wrong and she’s had to go into hiding with a ‘normal’ family – can she balance crime fighting with domestic duties? And avoid getting too comfortable? Fun, well written, and fires the imagination.

I Am Not a Loser,
Jim Smith

This book taps into the cringe-worthy playground teasing that I’m sure goes on in every school playground across the universe, and Barry Loser’s name alone is just asking for the school bully Darren to poke fun at. Barry, though, can take it, because inside he knows he’s cool. Jim Smith has taken a similar line here to the bestselling Diary of Wimpy Kid, integrating school day stories and comic strip type illustrations on every page, which seems to really appeal to young readers. Lighthearted and has plenty of laughs.

George’s Marvellous Medicine,
Roald Dahl

Again, this is a more text heavy book, but Roald Dahl is as popular today as he ever was, and for good reason: his stories are timeless, hilarious, and he never talks down to kids. In George’s Marvellous Medicine, George is fed up with his nasty grandma and decides to concoct a potion and a half to teach her a lesson – a potion that has some rather unusual consequences. An outrageously wicked story that will undoubtedly enthrall children for generations to come.

Or try…

The Diary of a Killer Cat, Anne Fine

Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown

Sam Silver Undercover Pirate, Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler

The Great Hamster Massacre, Kate Davies

Do you have a children’s book question you’d like me to answer here? Leave a comment below or tweet me @bookythought.

Isabel Popple, for Waterstones.com/blog

Do you have a question for The Book Clinic?

Whether you’re trying to find the next fix for your Science Fiction addiction, looking for the perfect literary page turner for your holidays, or just can’t face ploughing through all the PG Wodehouse books to find the truly great ones – whatever the dilemma, let us know in the comments below…

The event marked the beginning of Waterstones’ May Matilda (Maytilda) Madness where throughout May, Booksellers up and down the country will be championing the book with activity days and story-times. These events will also look to raise money for our new charity partner: the Children’s Reading Fund, who have secured Matilda as one of their mascots.

You can find out more about “Maytilda” in Florentyna Martin‘s post.

Dan Lewis, Waterstones.com/blog

You can find out about Maytilda events at your local Waterstones here and discover more about Waterstones’ partnership with the Children’s Reading Fund here.

You can buy Matilda from your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/ZVsV93)

The eternal philosophical question of what makes us human has raged on for centuries. Is it our hormones, our chemical make up or the experiences we go through? The greatest minds have debated their theories but now Matt Haig’s latest novel sums us up in all our strange beauty.

As mathematician, Professor Andrew Martin, unravels one of the most daunting mathematical questions ever, he is instantly abducted and killed by another life form. It seems that had the professor solved the equation it would have started off a chain of events that would lead to a catastrophe. To stop it the alien life form removes the original Andrew Martin and puts someone (or something) back in his place. Hence, one of their own is sent back to wipe all trace of the Professor’s discovery. Pretending to be a human is hard enough when you’re disgusted by their looks, food and culture but when he’s faced with murder, the alien sees something he’s never seen before – humanity.

Haig is a man unafraid to share the inspirations behind this beautiful novel. The notes at the back of the book explain how he was first inspired to write this story back in 2000 while suffering from a panic disorder that left him feeling as strange and detached as the main character does. Many people say that basing a novel on personal experiences is the way to capture people’s hearts and that is exactly what Haig has done with The Humans.

Taking an aliens perspective, Haig manages to highlight our eccentricities, faults and beauty with both humour and tenderness. Personally I have never openly cried at a novel before, my eyes may have watered and a single tear may have escaped but there is a list in this book that had me in pieces. This was not due to it simply being sad; nothing about this novel is that simplistic. Evocative, enlightening and utterly beautiful this book should be read by everyone and prescribed on the NHS. After turning the final page you’ll put the book down, feel slightly overwhelmed by the fact that it’s over, and feel compelled to sit there are mull it over for a while. Haig’s messages are beautiful, his ideas evocative and his stories captivating, who could ask for more? I will leave you with one of my favourite quotes from the tear inducing list:

“Everyone is a comedy. If people are laughing at you they just don’t quite understand the joke that is themselves.”

Cara Fielder, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy The Humans at your local Waterstones bookshop, oronline at Waterstones.com.

Read a sample of The Humans.

Fortunately, the Milk… sees Gaiman collaborate once again with illustrator Chris Riddell to shape a story that features time travel, parallel universes and children who need their breakfast now…

Though it’s not out until September, we were lucky enough to be able to grab him on a flying visit to the UK, and couldn’t wait to share our interview. We’ll bring you more about the book closer to its publication.

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can pre-order Fortunately, the Milk… at your local Waterstones bookshop or online at Waterstones.com

Click the strip to enlarge.

Did you miss a previous strip? You can see them all here.

If you have books, authors or characters that you think should (or should not) pitch to Sprout, follow her on twitter @SproutsBookClub and let her know.

You can buy Nye’s book Things to do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park… When You’re 29 and Unemployed at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/VkdBCk)

The model is around four metres long and features in Warren’s book Brick City – a celebration of the work of AFOLs, or Adult Fans of Lego, which showcases intricate recreations of some of the world’s most famous landmarks.

Warren’s St Pancras has to be seen to be believed – featuring stunning details such as a working clock tower as well as many Lego people captured going about their daily lives. If you find yourself in London this weekend, drop by and enjoy it for yourself.

Let us know what you think of the model in our comments section.

You can buy Brick City from your local Waterstones bookshop, or online at Waterstones.com.

Truth is stranger than fiction which is unfortunate because it means you can’t make it up. No, you definitely can’t. Nope, sorry. And if you want to write a book called The English: a Field Guide, you have to spend quite a large amount of time “in the field”. You can’t do what certain other people who have written books about the English have done and sit at your desk writing about your mates who happen to be English. Critics will say, “He just wrote about his mates. This book should be called, The Author and His Mates: a Field Guide.” Which would be upsetting.

So I’ve spent the last two years travelling the length and breadth of England (the main reason it’s The English not The British is that my 2001 Skoda would never have made it otherwise) in an attempt to make the book do justice to the title.

So, by way of making the readers of this blog feel sorry for me, thus forcing them to buy the book out of sympathy, I shall mark out some of the more challenging moments of my 8,000-mile journey.

1. 3.45am. Saturday night. Blackpool. Beach chapter. My man called Steve on a trip to Finland insisted that his home town was actually a robust, wonderful and salt-of-the-earthy place. Its permanent residents were great. It was just the visitors that let the place down. So I abandoned my preconceptions, packed a bucket and spade, and booked into the third best B&B in Blackpool (according to Tripadvisor). On the basis of the quality of the B&B, Steve was wrong. My room was like the final scene of the Vanishing, the one where the man wakes up in a coffin, except with more central heating. The window only opened a claustrophobia-enhancing nine inches. The radiator control had been removed. By midnight, I was trying to turn it off using a biro and a paperback. By one, I was trying to sleep with my head on the window sill. By two, the yobs had checked in. By three, they were laughing at the accent I had used to shout at them. By 3.45am, I had heatstroke, a headache and sleep deprivation. Was Steve right about Blackpool? See Chapter 10.
2. 10am. Tuesday morning. Colsterworth Services. A1. Near Grimsthorpe, the Ronseal of towns. The strong smell of detergent overpowered me as I ordered the third Whopper in so many days. I remember service stations being exciting places, the start of all childhood holidays. Has that changed or have I? There and then, I decided to spend 24 hours in one to find out.
3. 3.45pm. Thursday. Knocking on the door of a 70-year-old naturist in Keighley, West Yorkshire, still unsure if he’d be telling me all about his hedge war in clothes or not.
4. 2pm. Tuesday. Sheffield Indoor Athletics Track. I went to speak to some of the guys behind our great success at the Olympics. Since I was there, I asked if I could have a go at the hundred. Just for old times. Sure, they said. Why don’t you have a race with these guys? “These guys” turned out to be Liam Ramsay, U20 Indoor Heptathlon champion, and Deo Milandu, a top decathlon prospect for Rio. No man needs that done to his ego.
5. 11am. Friday. Britain’s coolest office. Would you like to do a somersault into the bean bags? Irritating.
6. 1pm. Thursday. A cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Reading with the president of the Microwave User’s Association. She makes her Christmas dinner in the microwave. Now she was making me lunch… in four microwaves. And I was going to have to pretend to like it. Pretending to like things is very English. Feeling guilty about pretending to like things is even Englisher.
7. 9.30am. DFS Carcroft. The first ever DFS. And I was in combative mood. Here was the shop responsible for all that is wrong with modern England thanks to its lounging three-piece-ers, its puffs, its buy-now-pay-in-2073 super-deals. And there, right in the middle of the shop, was a couple in the midst of buying a horrible cream sofa complete with electronic recliner. That’s right. An electronic recliner. You don’t even have to use energy making the thing recline. I stormed up to them and began remonstrating. You’re not going to buy that are you? What, with electronic recliner? You are so lazy. And the lovely woman smiled back and said, “It’s not for me, it’s for my husband John. He’s disabled.” And then, John tapped his leg. To my horror, it made a wooden sound, not a leg sound. He’d only gone and had it amputated after an accident down mine. I was picking on a man with a wooden leg. I was awful.
8. 9.30pm. Thetford Forest. Norfolk. Dogging. No, I can’t talk about it. See chapter 11.

I could keep going but I’m hoping that’s enough. The book’s only £11.99. I’m not going to beg.

Matt Rudd, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy The English: a Field Guide at your local Waterstones bookshop, or online at Waterstones.com.

Read a sample of The English: a Field Guide now.

It’s Friday again so let’s get quizzy…

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The Week In Books Quiz for 10th May 2013

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Question 1

Which author this week won the moniker of "Hottie of the week" in Pakistan's Express Tribune, by virtue of his "boyish smile."

A	Simon Armitage
B	Salman Rushdie
C	Mosin Hamid
D	Richard Ford

Question 1 Explanation: 

The paper provided ratings for Mr Hamid's various attributes as follows: Face: 65% Charisma: 70% Talent: 90% Total package: 75%

Question 2

A hacker known as Guccifer - who recently obtained and shared the above images of some of George Bush Jnr's artwork - this week managed to leak fifty pages of a new book, Killing Monica, by which author?

A	Dan Brown
B	Candace Bushnell
C	Gillian Flynn
D	Stieg Larsson

Question 2 Explanation: 

The Sex and The City creator Candace Bushnell wrote an email to her publisher expressing her shock at the hacking - only to have Guccifer leak her email too. Oh, and hopefully you know Stieg Larsson is dead so it wasn't him, even if you got this question wrong... There's wrong and then there's very wrong.

Question 3

The mother of a seventh grade (12-13 year old) pupil in Michigan is calling for a ban on which popular book being made available to school pupils?

A	The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
B	The Moomins & The Great Flood, Tove Jansson
C	The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
D	The Bible, Various

Question 3 Explanation: 

The parent argues that a passage in which Anne describes changes she has observed happening to her body as she enters puberty is inappropriate for these prepubescent children. Best keep them guessing what's happening to them presumably.

Question 4

There's been a mixed response to Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, which is released in America this week. One review said: "The cardinal sin of this new Gatsby is that it's..." - what?

A	"...been made at all"
B	"...dull."
C	"...too long."
D	"...it changes the ending."

Question 4 Explanation: 

Dull? Maybe. But dull in glorious Technicolour.

Question 5

What did Harper Lee this week accuse her literary agent of doing?

A	Nothing, and for a 20% cut.
B	Actually killing a mockingbird
C	Duping her out of her copyright
D	Attempting to publish a forged sequel to her 1960 novel.

Question 5 Explanation: 

The 87 year old is suing her agent Samuel Pinkus, the son-in-law of Lee's long-time agent, Eugene Winick for being "engaged in a scheme to dupe" her out of her copyright without payment.

Question 6

These hats form part of a collection which began a US tour this week. Which author did they belong to and, apparently, inspire?

A	Paul Auster
B	Albert Uderzo
C	Dr. Seuss
D	Truman Capote

Question 6 Explanation: 

There was an author who lived what he wrote. The original Cat In The Hat. Apparently the white fur one was a particular favourite.

Question 7

Revealed this week, what's been happening in this underground bunker in Italy over the past few months?

A	Covert translation of the new Dan Brown novel, Inferno.
B	Secret meetings of the boards of Penguin & Random House.
C	A Lord of The Rings read-a-thon.

Question 7 Explanation: 

Brown's publishers hired eleven translators from France, Spain, Germany, Brazil and Italy who worked seven days a week until at least 8pm, in a windowless, basement at the Milan headquarters of an Italian publisher. According to the Independent "(they were) guarded by armed security personnel. Their laptops were screwed to the workstations, and they were allowed access to the internet only via a single, supervised, communal computer."

Question 8

In the news this week were reports that Paul Theroux's upcoming book, The Last Train to Zona Verde, attacks the views of which celebrity toward Africa?

A	Bob Geldof
B	Madonna
C	Bono
D	Angelina Jolie

Question 8 Explanation: 

Theroux apparently calls him "ignorant". We once read in an interview that the reason Bono always wears sunglasses is that he's very prone to tears... Not that he thinks he looks cool in them. Tears.

Question 9

“I am not upper-class. I am a bohemian.” said which author in response to a comment about his social class from a Brooklyn hipster?

A	Will Self
B	Martin Amis
C	Woody Allen
D	Philip Roth

Question 9 Explanation: 

"But a bohemian who does not use contractions, even in my spoken English."

Question 10

We were delighted to unveil this glorious Lego model in our Piccadilly bookshop this week. But what is it a model of?

A	St Pancras Railway Station
B	Gray's Inn
C	The Houses of Parliament
D	Kensington Palace

Question 10 Explanation: 

The wonderful model, installed to celebrate the publication of Brick City by Warren Elsmore, has to be seen to be believed. So if you can, come and see it.

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And Then There Were None...

Bring Up The Bodies...

Middle Earth

Destined To Fly

Wait, are you a Bookseller?

I wrote a blog called 30 Things I Know About Being Published. A few people liked it, but when I read it now it seems a bit pessimistic. So I thought, for this Waterstones blog, I wouldn’t concentrate on the publishing side, but the writing side. And lay out the things I think about the strange and beautiful and slightly insane act of creating stories.

1. It should be fun. It often isn’t, but it should be.

2. Fiction reports the facts of the imagination.

3. The start is always hard. You start with words. They’ll become sentences, then paragraphs. And they’ll grow. Leave them to it. London was made of villages once.

4. If it feels dangerous, if you get that tingle in your stomach, you know you are doing something right.

5. The book that would be liked equally by everyone would have to be the blandest book in the world.

6. Writing is an act of love. That sounds pretentious. But if you don’t love words, or the species you are writing for, then why are you writing? What is the aim?

7. Writing is soul support. Most things in life that we are surrounded by are about external things, material things, superficial things. Books are about the opposite. “Read a book and you are giving yourself an inner life,” says Jeanette Winterson. “Reading is a rendezvous with your soul.”

8. The first time I know I am going to finish a novel is when it stops me sleeping and I have to get out of bed at three in the morning to write some of it down.

9. Books breed books. Words breed words. The key to good writing starts with good reading.

10. A paragraph in the morning takes me the same amount of time as a sentence in the afternoon.

11. Cliches are popular for a reason – they contain universal truths. The aim is to find new clichés.

12. Bravery is a prerequisite.

13. Genres can be prisons. Even the genre of literary fiction.

14. Writing is a public act. Write to include people, not exclude them.

15. Writers are meant to hate adverbs. But woefully is one of my all-time favourite words. It makes me think of a sad elephant.

16. Read it aloud.

17. Novel means new. A good aim of writing might be to find new ways of seeing.

18. Writing isn’t coal-mining. But it is bad for your back.

19. The 40,000 words moment is the moment you know it is going to get easier.

20. Markets don’t read. Humans do.

21. Read Emily Dickinson.

22. Words are what thoughts are made of. A book is a sculpture made of thoughts.

23. Editing is 90 per cent of writing.

24. See beyond a characters height and dress sense. Characters and dating profiles aren’t the same thing. Life is a feeling, not a collection of interests.

25. Have regrets. “Regrets are fuel,” as Geoff Dyer puts it. “On the page they flare into desire.”

26. Don’t let a fear of sentimentality put you off emotion. People like a book that makes them think, but love one that makes them feel.

27. First person needs a reason.

28. Writing is music. To write well you need to be able to hear music in silence.

29. People want stories. It is a basic human need. This will never change.

30. Books can save lives and minds. They saved mine.  And we read them not always to escape ourselves but to find ourselves. They are maps for our souls.

Matt Haig, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy Matt’s new novel (is that tautologous?) The Humans at your local Waterstones bookshop, or online at Waterstones.com.

Read a sample of The Humans.

This week’s Book Club book of the week is May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes.

A.M Homes‘ latest novel, May We Be Forgiven, recently shortlisted for the Women’s (née Orange) Prize for Fiction, is a darkly comic exploration of modern family life.

Harry’s life is thrown into turmoil in a matter of a few pages when his high-flying brother suddenly appears to lose control. Thrust into an entirely new and unfamiliar role, that of the calm centre of a family in free-fall, Harry is forced to find a balance between his own happiness and theirs…

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy May We Be Forgiven at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/12UUayf)

To find out more about our Book Club selection, click here.

John Irving, author of The World According To Garp and other modern classics described Red Moon as “a serious, politically symbolic novel – a literary novel about lycanthropes. If George Orwell had imagined a future where the werewolf population had grown to the degree that they were colonized and drugged, this terrifying novel might be it.”

We don’t think there’s much more we need to add to that recommendation, save to say that if you think you’re getting a plain old horror story, think again…

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

Find out more about Red Moon on the tumblr website.

You can buy Red Moon from Thursday 9th May at your local Waterstones bookshop or online at Waterstones.com

Book jackets and record covers seemed to be the area a lot of designers wanted to work in whilst cutting their teeth at art school.  I was lucky enough to work on an album cover so it was onto book covers. The way I got into book cover design was down to a simple conversation about wanting a new bike. My senior designer at the time told me I should find some extra freelance work whilst working full-time in job to fund the said bike. So, with his help, I did.

After four years of designing book jackets for various titles, this year I won the award for Best Cover at the William Hill Sports Book Awards for That Near-Death Thing– Inside the TT: The World’s Most Dangerous Race by Rick Broadbent. I was a particularly proud of this achievement not only for the accolade but for the confidence I put in the work.

That Near Death Thing: Inside the Most Dangerous Race in the World, which won Richard the William Hill Best Cover Award.

Using That Near Death Thing as an example I’ll explain a little about the process of designing a book cover.

First, like with any design job there is a brief. This is a really important part of the process, a well thought out brief can really help a designer and vice versa, an ill-conceived brief can make you feel like your on a merry-go-round. When I received the brief for That Near Death Thing I could see how the design could work: a fast motorbike on the front with italic neon-coloured type (since we all know italic type looks fast, like it’s speeding off the page). I had no interest in designing such a stereotypical cover and wanted to approach it from a different angle. I’m lucky – I work with a great creative director at Orion Books called Lucie Steriker, who is open to suggestions and happy to push my ideas through.

Once the brief is outlined, it’s onto the fun part, designing. With That Near Death Thing I looked at a great series of photos by Stephen Davison and came across a photo of a biker leaned over on his motorbike, speeding past a convenience store. This seemed to sum up the TT for me, the juxtaposition of a 1000cc race bike cranking 180mph+ past an average shop selling newspapers and potatoes, shows just how close the riders are to death: what with no run out, no gravel and certainly no hay bales. The shot I chose was taken in a series of angles and perspectives so I had a few to work with. The next stage was to look  at the composition, treatment and typography.

Another example of photographer Stephen Davison’s TT photography that captures the juxtaposition inherent in the race.

Once the design process begins, I usually have up to 30 rough ideas for the jacket laid out on the computer. This is part of the ideas stage and whilst working through this process it can open up different artistic routes. For this cover I felt the real time photo wasn’t working as well as it could, so I began treating the photo. I’ve always been drawn to silkscreen prints and the breakdown of photos into 2-3 colours. I began experimenting on the photo and felt it was the right area to come from. This was not only an aesthetic choice but I felt the motorbike market was a little over saturated with one style of design and if we were confident to go down a slightly different route then we could stand out from the crowd.

Without sounding too morbid I wanted the type to echo a headstone. I wasn’t trying to sensationalize the idea of death in the TT, but it is a very real part of the race. Typography works like an image – you should get a feeling when you look at a typeface, and one called Poster Bodoni for me felt right. I usually present 3-4 designs, which hopefully results in one being chosen. In this instance the process was fairly smooth and I only had a few slight changes to make to get to the final design.

I’ve always tried to push my design. Sometimes the correct answer can reveal itself in unorthodox ways. Still, I feel there is an important role to play when designing a book cover. I know consumers will purchase books from reading reviews, recommendations, categories and style. However, often the cover is the first thing they see and I feel that if it alone encourages someone to buy it (in a market where there are so many similar designs) then I’ve succeeded. Real books shouldn’t lose out to their electronic neighbours and a well considered book cover is a beautiful thing to hold in your hand. A cover needs to look good and convey the story in some way whether it’s a biker racing past a local store or a cyclists ripped race number on the tarmac. In other words judging a book by its cover is not a bad place to start…

Richard Norgate, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy That Near-Death Thing– Inside the TT: The World’s Most Dangerous Race by Rick Broadbent at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/104WiY4) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/ZsyI2Q)

Leslie Howard and his Churchill look-a-like accountant Alfred Chenhalls

The National Archives at Kew is a fascinating place to visit.  I have spent quite a bit of time there recently, researching into a mystery which continues to intrigue those interested in wartime history and espionage. I was visiting Kew to look at files opened in recent years dealing with a wartime air disaster that still raises questions as to the who and why of it.

Seventy years ago this June, a plane carrying the film star Leslie Howard was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by the Luftwaffe. The plane was a civilian aircraft that flew regularly between neutral Portugal and Bristol.  An informal agreement on both sides in the war respected the neutrality of civilian planes from countries not involved in hostility.

Yet this agreement was broken on 1 June 1943, as six Junkers Ju 88 fighters dived to attack the unarmed Douglas DC-3. All 13 passengers and the Dutch crew of four were killed. No trace of the plane has ever been recovered from the sea. No question about who had been the killers, down to the name of the German pilot who had first opened fire, but the reason as to why the plane was attacked remained contentious. It was not so much a Whodunnit as Who was the target?

The news of the tragedy shocked England, and was said to have delighted the Nazi minister of propaganda Goebbels. Leslie Howard was a much loved figure as a British actor with charisma and ideals. While at the pinnacle of Hollywood success as star of Pygmalion, The Scarlet Pimpernel and Gone with the Wind, he had sacrificed his royalties, bought himself out of his contract, and returned to Britain in 1939, to work for the war effort.

Ian Colvin, the author of Flight 777

Rumours were that the Germans had targeted Howard, as an active and high profile propagandist for the British.  My father Ian Colvin, tipped off by a secret contact, investigated the case in the 1950s. His book Flight 777 – The Mystery of Leslie Howard examined Howard’s enigmatic personality as well as his work for the British war effort, and the way chance had played its role in the fate of those travelling on the plane.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the tragedy, the book has been reissued by military publishers Pen and Sword, with additional photographs hitherto unseen in the UK, a new introduction and epilogue, and detailed notes, some drawn from recently opened files in the National Archives that throw light on Howard’s life and the lives of those who died in that air attack.

Like an Agatha Christie detective story, there were among the unlucky 13 passengers aboard Flight 777 several candidates for the double-edged distinction of being a Nazi-target. Was it a possible case of mistaken identity for Leslie Howard’s tax advisor and agent, Alfred Chenhalls – a tubby, bald, cigar-smoking bon viveur who resembled Winston Churchill? The Prime Minister was in Algiers at the time surveying progress in the Mediterranean and was expected to fly back any day.

Or were the Germans gunning for mining expert Ivan Sharp, who was buying up large supplies of wolfram at hugely inflated prices in Portugal, to the detriment of the German armaments industry? Then there was a scion of the Berlin Jewish dynasty, Wilfrid Israel, whose rescue work with the Kinderstransport had been an inspiration for Leslie Howard’s 1941 anti-Nazi film Pimpernel Smith. The airliner itself was the jinxed Ibis, the only one of four planes the Dutch KLM pilots had rescued after the German invasion of Holland to have been attacked twice on the Bristol-Lisbon route, before the third fatal encounter.

The mystery of Leslie Howard’s death, aged 50, was in line with the enigma of his personality. His vague manner disguised, as David Niven, his co-star in 1942 in The First of the Few, noted, “a busy little brain, always going.” The slight, fair-haired actor seemed the epitome of an English gentleman, yet Leslie Howard was the son of a Hungarian Jew, Ferdinand Steiner, who had emigrated to England in the late 19th century. When Leslie was five the Steiner family had moved to Vienna but after five years returned to England. Leslie Howard would thus have witnessed as a child the corrosive effects of anti-semitism that spawned such as Hitler.

The actor met Winston Churchill in 1937 during informal talks on plans to film the story of Lawrence of Arabia, and had made known his anti-Nazi views to the future prime minister, who was later to use theatricals, such as Noel Coward and Laurence Olivier, with their ease of access to notable people, as “agents of influence.”

Leslie Howard

Howard had already made a visit to Ireland on a bridge-building mission to the anti-British premier Eamon de Valera, and broadcast a regular letter to America designed to bring neutral United States onside. His British Council lecture tour to Spain and Portugal in May 1943 was sensitive enough to involve correspondence with the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, after Howard had expressed reluctance to go ahead with the Spanish part of the tour. He was visiting Madrid at a time when General Franco was being urged by Hitler to join the Axis. The General was said to have enjoyed Gone with the Wind, and to be interested in a link between the Spanish and British film-makers.

In the 1950s there was much my father knew that could only be written by concealing identities. He disguised the identities of the women whom Howard had encountered while in Iberia, under the all purpose name of “Countess Miranda”, to avoid legal complications. Leslie Howard, despite warnings from his British Council host in Madrid, had indulged in a fling with the Polish manageress of the hotel’s beauty salon, who was a German agent. There were also flirtations with a society beauty sympathetic to the Axis, and a re-union with an old flame, former Hollywood film actress Conchita Montenegro, who was married to a senior member of the right wing Falangist party. Shortly before her death in 2007, she claimed in an interview that Howard had used her fascist connections to contact Franco, theoretically to persuade the dictator to stay out of the war.

Some National Archive files pertaining to Leslie Howard were closed until a few years ago. The new introduction and notes by myself and brother Andrew Colvin provide a key to some of the secrets. The mystery as to whether British Intelligence knew beforehand that Flight 777 would be attacked but took no action, to hide the fact that they had cracked the German Enigma code, is touched on by my father in the last chapter as a possibility.

What is certain is that Lisbon and Madrid were in a ferment of espionage and counter-espionage. Every spy one has heard seems to have focussed on the Iberian Peninsula at that time – Kim Philby, Graham Greene and Guy Burgess having responsibility for disinformation in London. Former Berlin Head of MI6 Frank Foley, a senior figure in British Intelligence, made several de-briefing trips to Lisbon during 1942-43. And, of course, there were the Abwehr agents scavenging for information by any means. Into this dangerous maelstrom of espionage and double-bluff strolled one idealistic actor to play out his part, along with his Churchillian companion.

Clare Colvin, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy  Flight 777 – The Mystery of Leslie Howard by Ian Colvin from your local Waterstones (http://bit.ly/ZsjJWA), or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/11H6xyv)

Click the strip to enlarge.

Did you miss a previous strip? You can see them all here.

If you have books, authors or characters that you think should (or should not) pitch to Sprout, follow her on twitter @SproutsBookClub and let her know.

You can buy Nye’s book Things to do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park… When You’re 29 and Unemployed at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/VkdBCk)

Rincewind, who featured in the very first Discworld book The Colour of Magic, returns in The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day, though in recent years you’’ve been busy creating plenty of other new characters and worlds – most recently in Dodger–. How does it feel to return to an old character? Is it the proverbial comfy old shoe feeling or more like that of the outgrown and now mildly restrictive trouser?

Rincewind, who is doing fine, thank you, also gets a mention in the upcoming Raising Steam (coming later this year). I do like to give my characters a rest after a while, although I have to admit that I like Commander Vimes; he is so blasted onto my imagination that if he could type he could write a book for me.

The ““Science”” bit of “”Science Fiction”” is often a place for flights of fancy –as you’’ve demonstrated on many occasions. What is it then that keeps drawing you to explore both the Disc and Roundworld through “proper” science in the Science of Discworld series?

In many ways it’s because this world appears to be a fantasy when you step back and look at it.

You’’ve looked at the extinction threat to orang-utans in a recent TV show and this week a team from Oxford University’’s Future of Humanity Institute have warned there’’s a real threat of human extinction in the next century at the hands of our own naivety when it comes to responsible use of our scientific knowledge –are you optimistic about scientific progress or is it just a matter of time before our iPads become sentient and turn on us?

Regrettably they won’t, although it would be fun if they did.  But yes, I am with those guys in Oxford.  Because of the war god of the Israelites we believe that the world is about us to do anything we like with while all the other creatures, sapient or otherwise, are just playing pieces.  We think it’s all about us.  In fact, it should be all about the planet.

Given the choice, would you swap your life on Roundworld to live on the Disc? What advantages do you think you’d enjoy there if so?

Are you serious?  They don’t have personal computers on the Disc.  And, I have to tell you, the Discworld isn’t… real.  Sorry.

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy the The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day at your local Waterstones (http://bit.ly/13RRNyG), or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/109kP9Q)

Pinch, punch, first quiz of the month…

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The Week In Books Quiz for 3rd May 2013

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Question 1

 

This month we are celebrating "Maytilda", a season of events and activity in our bookshops to support our charity partner the Children's Reading Fund. How long ago was Roald Dahl's Matilda first published?

A	10 years ago
B	15 years ago
C	25 years ago
D	30 years ago

Question 1 Explanation: 

A whole 25 years have passed since Matilda was first introduced to us. Who else feels quite old when they think about that? Waterstones was just a smidge over 5 years old at the time...

Question 2

Staying with "Maytilda": what was Matilda's surname?

A	Wormwood
B	Woodward
C	Trunchbull
D	Trotter

Question 2 Explanation: 

Not a very nice name - but better than Bruce Bogtrotter...

Question 3

The Bodleian Library this week celebrated their successful purchase of draft copies of the poem Binsey Poplars by which English poet?  

A	John Donne
B	Gerard Manley Hopkins
C	Robert Browning
D	WH Auden

Question 3 Explanation: 

Hopkins' poem is a celebrated lament for the trees that ran along the Thames in the village of Binsey. Not sure what's more quintessentially English - the village name "Binsey" or the idea of writing a poem about its trees...

Question 4

Another poet was once approached by a magazine who wished to reprint one of his poems, entitled Love -the handwritten manuscript of which is expected to sell for around £4,000 when it comes up for auction next week. His response was: “I had forgotten writing such a poem, much less publishing it. I thought it rather good...” What was his name?  

A	Ted Hughes
B	Philip Larkin
C	TS Eliot
D	Ezra Pound

Question 4 Explanation: 

It begins: “The difficult part of love / Is being selfish enough, / Is having the blind persistence / To upset an existence / Just for your own sake...”

Question 5

This week, Steven Soderbergh, director of the films Traffic and Magic Mike announced and began writing...

A	His obituary
B	An adaptation of Henry V
C	A Twitter novella
D	A children's book about drug trafficking

Question 5 Explanation: 

His crime/mystery novella GLUE is told in the second person. You can catch up on it by following him (AFTER THE QUIZ): https://twitter.com/Bitchuation

Question 6

English PEN announced this week that they were auctioning fifty famous books containing specially commissioned annotations by each author. Although many enjoyed the opportunity, which of the authors below said “It was an appalling experience in my case. I can’t bear to revisit my own work, I physically can’t bear it. But they asked, and it’s a charity, and so you do it.”

A	Hilary Mantel
B	JK Rowling
C	William Boyd
D	John Banville

Question 6 Explanation: 

Banville added "Well they invited me months ago, and I thought by the time it came round I’d be dead." Optimistic there.

Question 7

Game of Thrones fans felt mixed emotions at news that there's to be a new book by George RR Martin coming this December - what is it to be called?

A	The Winds of Winter
B	The Wit And Wisdom Of Tyrion Lannister
C	Thane of Gnomes
D	The Stalwart Stark

Question 7 Explanation: 

One fan apparently called this distraction from the next book proper in the series - which IS to be called The Winds of Winter - "the equivalent of a Christmas album." He's got the beard for a great video, so here's hoping.

Question 8

The 2012 Costa First Novel Award winning book The Innocents to be adapted for TV by the team behind Channel 4's award winning version of William Boyd's Any Human Heart. Who wrote it?

A	Francesca Segal
B	Jess Richards
C	Maggie Shipstead
D	Gillian Flynn

Question 8 Explanation: 

Segal said “I’m not sure who I would like to see play the leads but a lot of people online have suggested Keira Knightley.” Presumably for just one of them?

Question 9

NASA this week called for members of the public to send them what to be sent to Mars?

A	Their favourite book
B	A haiku
C	Their favourite word
D	Their least favourite book
E	Richard Ford

Question 9 Explanation: 

A space shuttle approaches Red Mars looms The proud writer smiles.

Question 10

SF writer Chris Beckett this week won the 2013 Arthur C Clarke award for his novel Dark Eden...

A	The story of an alien planet where the incestuous offspring of two stranded astronauts struggle to survive.
B	The story of a utopian world which is one day plunged into darkness when their sun disappears.
C	The story of a planet inhabited only by people called Adam and Eve.
D	The story of a god-like character's attempts to scrap the world he has created and start again.

Question 10 Explanation: 

The novel is set on the planet Eden and the subject matter - incest - is quite "dark" so one imagines the title was quite easy to come by...

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And Then There Were None...

Bring Up The Bodies...

Middle Earth

Destined To Fly

Wait, are you a Bookseller?

This week’s Book Club book of the week is Walking Home by Simon Armitage.

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy Walking Home at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/103r3YJ)

To find out more about our Book Club selection, click here.

In 1945 a defeated Germany was divided into four zones – British, American, French and Russian. It’s said that the French got the wine, the Americans the view and the British the ruins. For a time, no-one was sure what the future of Germany looked like. Some doubted it would ever be one country again. As many know, the British, French and American zones eventually joined to form West Germany in 1948; the Russian’s effectively kept their zone and called it East Germany. By then, the Cold War was well under way and the rest is a history popularised through the films of Carol Reed and novels le Carré. But just before things became icy and espionage-obsessed, there was this extraordinary period during which the occupying forces wrestled with the massive task of rebuilding a smashed country and rehabilitating a damaged people, whilst at the same time trying to balance a need for forgiveness and justice against a desire for revenge and punishment. Once-bitter enemies were now living side by side, sharing the same bars, eating in the same restaurants, driving the same cars and, in some cases, sharing the same house. What did this look like?

The Aftermath is set during this relatively forgotten period. And it takes its inspiration from something my grandfather did whilst serving as the British Governor of a Hamburg suburb. In August 1946 British families started arriving in Germany to be reunited with servicemen and live in the British Zone. There was such a shortage of housing that the British started requisitioning houses and putting their German owners in nissen huts. In the summer of ‘46 my grandfather went to view a house that had been requisitioned for him and his family, but instead of asking the German family to leave he took the radical and (as far as my research showed) unique step of letting them stay. And so, just one year after the Second World War, my grandmother, father, uncle and aunt arrived in Hamburg to be told they were sharing a house with their former enemy. It was this situation –rich in narrative and thematic possibility – that provided the spark for my novel; the gift of a story from a forgotten part of history.

Rhidian Brook, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy The Aftermath from your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/17xL2UO)

For many of us there is really nothing like getting into a great book. That feeling of being completely immersed in the characters, the plot, or the philosophy is one of the great pleasures in life. I for one am sometimes a little sad when a good book comes to an end.

In an age of over stimulation, the written word still holds a special place in many people’s hearts. A world where we can let our imaginations run wild. It’s a shame then, when book lovers view reading for pleasure as a luxury, and amidst a contrived sense of urgency believe they simply don’t have the time. How often have you heard the phrases: I read a lot more when I…. or when I…I will have more time to read. We get excited over a book and then it sits on our bed-stand, unread and unloved. One after one they pile up, a reminder of our hurried lives.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. Everyone has 24 hours in a day and with the right mindset and strategies we can be more efficient than ever before. With a little planning you will soon find your day opens up, making way for more of the things you love.

Here are seven tips from our new book Winning Without Losing to help you start finding the time:

Learn it from day one: When was the last time you fully read the instructions for a new piece of software or equipment, or methodically went over the steps before setting out on a task instead of just diving in? It may seem slow and counterintuitive while you are doing it, but by figuring out the most efficient way to do things from day one, you will reap the rewards over the long-term.

Double up: Ok, so maybe you can’t pull time out of thin air. At least not yet. However it is possible to make your time work double for you. Discuss a project while working outside, read on the train, or seize an opportunity for mini-workouts. If you look you will find many hidden pockets of time throughout your day

Release your grip: When you surround yourself with good people, let them contribute. You don’t have to control every situation. This lets you focus on the things only you can do. You may also be pleasantly surprised by their input.

Start setting small safety nets: Many of us can be balanced when things are going as planned – it’s when things go wrong that we scramble. Putting in back-up systems to avoid worst-case scenarios lets you rest easy and avoid those crazy times. When was the last time you backed up your hard drive?

Do the worst first:  As we procrastinate and let a task sit, it builds and builds, sucks our physical and mental energy and distracts us from our other work. Start tomorrow by getting that thing done that has been hanging over your head all week.

Shorten your list: We make lists in order to feel organized, writing a long list of everything we need to do. This often results in being unfocused as well as unhappy when we don’t accomplish them all. Instead, write a today list. Focus on the 3 most important tasks that will have the most impact today. Do them and feel good about it.

Make the time to read: I can see the look on your face now. How does reading give you more time to read? Reading can be a wonderful way to relax and have a mini-holiday that lets you bounce back refreshed. It helps you by: allowing you to pause your mind, gives you a perspective as well as fresh input, knowledge and experiences…it can even help you get to sleep. Finally, with the right book, reading can be pure pleasure…and what’s more important than that?

So escape into your favorite novel or book. Pick it up off your bedside table and enjoy the journey, for in the end that’s all there is. And that’s the way it should be.

Jordan Milne and Martin Bjergegaard, for Waterstones.com/blog

Read an extract of Winning Without Losing now.

You can find Winning Without Losing: 66 Strategies for Building a Wildly Successful Business While Living a Happy and Balanced Life in your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/YlTNkn) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/Zzq5XN)

Introduced by a spectacular trailer a week ago, A Delicate Truth has won rave reviews from critics - Mark Lawson writing in The Guardian called it a return to form and a novel that nobody else could have written since it “draws on a career’s worth of literary skill and international analysis”.

Operation Wildlife, a top-secret mission to the rock of Gibraltar, is ”an utter cock-up” which is quietly covered up by all concerned. Retired diplomat Sir Kit Probyn and Foreign Office civil servant Toby Bell set out to uncover the truth, only to find themselves drawn ever deeper into a larger conspiracy…

The Waterstones exclusive edition contains an essay by John Le Carré on his inspiration behind the book and photographs from the set of the upcoming film A Most Wanted Man, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman.

You can listen to John le Carré read an extract from A Delicate Truth, or click here to read a sample yourself now.

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy A Delicate Truth, by John le Carré from your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/17cHnMM)

Our Matilda themed window at Waterstones Piccadilly…

“A little magic can take you a long way.”
Roald Dahl

First published by Jonathan Cape in 1988, this year marks the 25^th anniversary of Dahl’s beloved Matilda. In light of this, Puffin Books have published a large-format full-colour edition of Matilda that will delight and inspire young children across the country. Waterstones is proud to announce this edition as our Children’s Book of the Month for May.

According to the official Roald Dahl Website, Matilda remains the “biggest seller amongst Roald Dahl’s books for children.” However, if you’ve not yet experienced the wonder that is Matilda, allow me to give you a quick summation of the magic.

Matilda is a precocious five-year-old girl who can tackle tricky multiplication and zip through a Chalres Dickens novel without a fuss – a feat that even some of the most avid of readers will struggle with. She is bright, intuitive and incredibly patient. These traits do not only impress her classmates and favourite teacher, Miss Honey, but help Matilda through her strenuous home life, where her dimwitted parents believe she is idiotic. Over time, it becomes apparent that Matilda possesses strong telekinetic powers and she uses these to teach the bad people in her life a few lessons – be they her parents or the evil headmistress, Miss Trunchbull. Matilda is a sweet, entertaining story and showcases the best of Dahl’s skills: unforgettable characters, entertaining scenarios (superglue in the hat, newt in the glass of water…) and enchanting prose.

Typically, this book is recommended for eight-to-thirteen-year-olds but, over the years, we have been treated to a variety of adaptations (including audiobooks) that have showcased this story to people of all ages. In 1996, Danny DeVito produced and starred in the movie adaptation and, in 2010, Matilda the Musical premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Courtyard Theatre, before it hit London’s West End with rave reviews.

The new large-format edition opens up this story once more. We are treated to Dahl’s magical tale paired with Quentin Blake’s instantly recognisable illustrations in colour, all wrapped up perfectly in their re-branded jackets. Hopefully, this “picture-book” style will inspire parents to read this tale to younger children, proving that Matilda is most certainly a story for all ages.

The new edition of Matilda is also a perfect way to celebrate Waterstones’ May Matilda Madness (or “Maytilda” Madness, as some of our booksellers have dubbed it). Throughout May, Booksellers up and down the country will be championing this wonderful publication with activity days and story-times. Bookshops will be hosting events to raise money for our new charity partner: the Children’s Reading Fund, who have secured Matilda as one of their mascots. (See how it all ties in rather nicely?) Whether it’s a Bruce Bogtrotter Bake Sale at our Leeds Bookshop, Story Time at our Bromley Glades Bookshop or Activity Days at our Tunbridge Wells, Northampton and Harrogate Bookshops, make sure you head out to your local Waterstones and discover this wonderful book for yourself.

Whether you’re new to the story or feel inspired to revisit it, pick up a copy of this glorious book and you’ll find a little magic can most certainly take you a very, very long way.

Florentyna Martin, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can find out about Maytilda events at your local Waterstones here and discover more about Waterstones’ partnership with the Children’s Reading Fund here.

You can buy Matilda from your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/ZVsV93)

Other large-format, full-colour  Roald Dahl books include:

Fantastic Mr Fox`
George’s Marvellous Medicine
The Twits

Katherine has given up trying to be happy. Thirty, stuck in a town and a job she hates, her mounting cynicism and vicious wit repel the people she wants to attract, and attract the people she knows she should repel. Her ex Daniel, meanwhile, isn’t sure that he loves his new girlfriend Angelica. But somehow not telling her he loves her has become synonymous with telling her that he doesn’t love her, meaning that he has to tell her he loves her just to maintain the status quo.

When their former friend Nathan returns from a stint in a psychiatric ward – to find that his mother has transformed herself into bestselling author and Twitter superstar “Mother Courage” – Katherine, Daniel and Nathan decide to meet to heal old wounds and reaffirm their friendship. But will a reunion end well? Almost certainly not.

Read an exclusive extract from Idiopathy here. 

Find out more about our Waterstones eleven authors.

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy Idiopathy at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/10pWvPG)

The UEA alumni team proved a force to be reckoned with.

The University of East Anglia’s reputation for creative writing was a major part of the decision to award Norwich UNESCO World City of Literature status in 2012 – the first English city to gain the accolade. Two recent announcements illustrate the ongoing UEA effect – the institution’s influence in all things literary.

Firstly, novelist Rose Tremain has been appointed as UEA’s next chancellor.  She studied English Literature as an undergraduate from 1964-67 being taught by Angus Wilson and Malcolm Bradbury and later returned to teach on the Creative Writing MA in 1989 for six years.  In 2000 the university awarded her an honorary doctorate.

As a Booker nominee, winner of both the Costa and Orange prizes, and one of the original Granta list of Best Young New British Novelistsin 1983 (with fellow UEA graduates Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro and Clive Sinclair), Tremain is a typical example of the calibre of writers produced at UEA and her appointment in UEA’s 50^th anniversary year is indicative of the stature in which creative writing is held by the university. She will be the first graduate, the first writer and the first woman, to hold the post.

The second recent announcement was that of the 2013 Granta list of Best Young British Novelists which includes UEA alumni Naomi Alderman and Adam Foulds.  They continue the tradition which has seen graduates featuring in each of the four Granta listings. 1993 saw Ishiguro appear again whilst 2003 proved a bumper year with Ben Rice, Toby Litt, Rachel Cusk and Susan Elderkin.

UEA’s graduates have had a presence in the major awards shortlists for the past 50 years and count 3 Booker winners (McEwan, Ishiguro and Anne Enright), Costa winner Andrew Miller and Orange winners Deidre Madden, and Diana Evans as some of the more notable. Tracy Chevalier (Girl with a Pearl Earring), John Boyne (The Boy in Striped Pyjamas) and Joe Dunthorne (Submarine) have seen their novels turned into movies, as has Rose Tremain with Restoration.  Other adaptations are in the pipeline.

MA graduate Joe Dunthorne’s Submarine met with critical success in Richard Ayoade’s directorial debut.

The creative spark also extends to the university’s BA students – Charlie Higson, David Almond and Gordon Alexander Smith are bestselling children’s authors – as are MAs   Nicholas Allen and Simon Scarrow.

The reputation of creative writing at UEA sees students apply from all over the world and thereby graduates contribute to the literary scene worldwide. This reputation also draws visiting authors to Norwich and enhances the line up of the biannual literary festivals run in conjunction with Waterstones on campus, attracting international writers of the highest calibre. My personal favourites have so far are Patricia Cornwell, Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood. A visit to UEA is often one of only a handful of engagements on their UK itinerary and over the festivals’ 21 years we have seen many authors return time and time again. The announcement of the line up for the Autumn Literary Festival is always eagerly awaited in August and the talk of who might feature in the anniversary year is already creating a buzz. In fact as part of the university’s 50^th celebrations this July, the inaugural Festival of Literature for Youth sees Charlie Higson back in Norwich as part of UEA’s outreach project with local schools.

I have neglected to mention too many fine authors and poets but the current list of published alumni on the UEA website runs to approximately 300 names, and this is too small a space to showcase them all.

What does the future hold? The legacy of work published each year over the past 50 years suggests more of the same – internationally recognised award winning literature.  An example being the current Waterstones Eleven list, our choice of the best debut novelists this year, which features 2003 MA Graduate/current PhD student Sam Byers’ novel Idiopathy as well as 2013 MA Graduate D W Wilson whose novel Ballistics will be published in August.

Margaret Janes, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can find out more about the UEA’s Creative Writing Course on their website.

People seem remarkably interested in the fact I used to be a journalist.

What was it like? Was I any good at it? Do I miss it? What do I think about people hacking phones? Is tabloid or broadsheet paper better for keeping haddock and chips dry when you’re waiting at a bus stop? I’m a chap who likes to be honest so I do best to answer truthfully. It’s broadsheet. You can double-fold it, and it absorbs gravy much better. Also, the ink doesn’t come off and you don’t end up with a Page 3 girl’s thoughts on the recession embossed backwards on your chips.

With regards to the grander questions, I’m not sure. What was it like? Well, it was my job.  It didn’t feel particularly rock and roll but it was considerably more fun than working in a call centre. There were days when I felt like I was a hero in a Cary Grant movie and days when I felt like a battery chicken trying to find the energy to push out one last double-yolker.

I became a reporter at 17, you see. And at 17, you don’t know anything. I didn’t realise just how odd it was to have somebody like me covering Crown Court cases. After all, I had purple hair and an earring and called judges “dude”. I just knew that I wasn’t going to get my £40 a week (genuinely!) if I didn’t come up with a few decent stories each week. Where does one find stories? Well,  people help. People are tremendously interesting. They’re repositories of secrets and intrigue. And if you say nice things and buy them drinks and promise not to be too much of a twat about it, they sometimes agree to share them with you. Then you write down what they say, get a photographer to take their picture, come up with a witty intro, send the whole thing to the newsdesk, and sod off to the pub. It’s not rocket science.

Was I any good at it? Yes and no. I was good at taking a dull story and making it sound interesting. It’s not a title I put on my business cards but at several regional newspapers I was known as the very finest of the turd-polishers. I could turn some turgid council press release into a Page 5 lead. I could sprinkle glitter. I could take somebody else’s 20 words and make a double-page spread. The art? Making sure nobody noticed that there was no actual content to the story. I was pretty good at getting people to talk to me. Reporters do often enter people’s lives at moments when they would really rather take a cheesegrater to their knees than talk to the Press. But because my compassion was genuine and I tried not to make promises I couldn’t keep, the majority of people I spoke to didn’t regret it. I was also shockingly bad at it. It didn’t help that I wanted to be a novelist so badly it made my teeth hurt.  Journalism was my day job for 17 years and for almost the entire time I was trying desperately to get away from it. As such, I was far from the most devoted of newspaper employees. My mind was elsewhere. The odd bit of creative writing slipped into what should have been factual news reports. I sometimes took quotes straight from a press release without bothering to try to get something better. Sometimes I couldn’t face going out to the scene of a car accident, so just made up some atmospheric stuff from the comfort of the pub. I guess I was okay at it. But I can’t imagine I’m missed.

But do I miss journalism? No, not really. I still feel a desire to follow ambulances when I see blue lights and when somebody tells me a story in the pub I’m instantly imagining it as a double-page spread with glossy photos, but I’ve stood in too many miserable places waiting for people to call me names for me to think of it with much affection. And it doesn’t help that journalism seems to be a thing of the past. My first job was in 1995. We had no mobile phones, no internet, no email and thought the fax machine was the work of some woodland witch. We wrote stories on computers that used a solitary font style, in green, on flickering black. We spoke to people. We used phoneboxes. We disappeared for a day and didn’t get shouted at as long as we came back with a story. The good times seem to have gone. The news stories just fill gaps around the adverts and the reporters I still meet seem positively agoraphobic about leaving the office.

All in all, I’m grateful to regional newspapers. I met the people who would form the spine of my books. I met inspirations for heroes and villains. I learned what grief looks and feels like. I wrote some decent tales and polished a few turds. I learned to write shorthand notes in my pocket without anybody noticing and learned how to pretend to be drunker than I was around indiscreet coppers and councillors. More than anything, I learned to write. And how to dodge awkward questions about phone hacking ….

David Mark, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy Original Skin at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/11pj1ea)

There’s something magical about a good picture book, it can capture a child’s imagination and inspire a love for reading before a child can even read. Classics such as Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle unite thousands across the land in fond memories. Every now and then though I do hear from an exasperated parent, their love for a book broken by having to read it five times a night for the last six months. So I’ve picked my top picture books that appeal to adults just as much as they do children.

The Heart And The Bottle, Oliver Jeffers

Oliver Jeffers is well know for stunning drawings and beautifully touching stories but The Heart And The Bottle is my personal favourite. It tells the tale of a little girl in pain who puts her heart in a bottle so it can never get hurt again. Realising her life isn’t any better, she decides she wants her heart back. Philosophical and touching, this is a beautiful life lesson for children, hidden within the pages of a fabulous picture book.

 The Dark, Lemony Snicket & Jon Klassen

This brand new picture book unites the artistic skills of Jon Klassen and the twisted genius of Lemony Snicket for the very first time. Laszlo is a young boy with a very common fear of The Dark. Although The Dark spends most if its time hiding in the basement of Laszlo’s house, one night it changes it’s mind and comes to see him in his bedroom. This is a timeless tale of learning to face your fears and pushing your limits but Snicket and Klassen do it in such a unique style that it’ll capture the hearts of young and old alike.

 The Arrival, Shaun Tan

Shaun Tan is simply one of the most amazing artists of all time and this silent, wordless picture book is a real thing of beauty. Tan follows a man as he leaves his war torn home he knows so well and searches for a new life. He captures the hopes and fears of the immigrant with such a tender depth that words just aren’t necessary. Captivating for children and utterly haunting for adults. You can read about the recent theatre adaptation of The Arrival in an earlier blog post from Sita Brahmachari.

Varmints, Helen Ward & Marc Craste

Varmints is the beautifully illustrated story that follows a group of creatures that tend their beautiful countryside home but soon an industrial city encroaches on their perfect environment. But one of the creatures just won’t give up and there is one little plant it’ll do anything to protect. Unlike any other picture book I’ve ever seen, this story has a real message, conveyed in a truly unique style.

I Want My Hat Back, Jon Klassen

 Normally I wouldn’t include an artist and writer twice in this list but I just have to make the exception for the wonderful Jon Klassen. This is the most light-hearted of all my choices and follows a bear as he hunts for his hat. He asks the fox, the rabbit and the tortoise but then he thinks back, he has seen his hat!  It’s fun, quirky and an utter delight to read again and again.

Have you got any favourite picture books that you think will become future classics? Then let me know below.

Cara Fielder, for Waterstones.com/blog

Click the strip to enlarge.

Did you miss a previous strip? You can see them all here.

If you have books, authors or characters that you think should (or should not) pitch to Sprout, follow her on twitter @SproutsBookClub and let her know.

You can buy Nye’s book Things to do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park… When You’re 29 and Unemployed at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/VkdBCk)

It was only once I’d finished writing my first novel A Bright Moon For Fools that I understood the ancient and mysterious bond between writing and relationships: rejection.

Your first rejection, like your first love, is always the most painful. In my case it was doubly so because it wasn’t even from a publisher. It was from my agent.

Recently returned from Caracas, clutching my story about a man called Harry Christmas – part Ignatius P. Reilly, part Jim Royale, part Oliver Reed –crashing around rural Venezuela, unable to get over the death of his wife and getting into serious trouble, I was brimming with pride and excitement.

“I’m back!” I told the agent, “It’s taken me three years and now I’m done!”

“Congratulations!” he said. “Fantastic! Send it to me! Great!”

I never heard from him again.

For five months I left messages and sent emails. Finally I got through to an assistant. Let’s call him Henry. “Henry” I said “I’m just calling to see if your boss has read my manuscript yet’ and he said ‘What was your name again?” and then he said “What was the book called again?” and then he let off a harrumph and sighed. Poor old Henry was having a rather tiresome day.

“I think I have seen that around somewhere,” he conceded. “Things have been so busy lately – probably the best thing is – why don’t you just send it in again?”

“Henry,” I replied “have you ever seen a man defecate in his own mouth? Because that’s what you’re going to be able to do once I’ve ripped your spine out! Now find my book and tell him to read it!” and you know what he said? Nothing. Because that’s not what I said to Henry.

What I said was “OK. Um. Right. OK…” by which time Henry had already hung up the phone, and I was stuffing another manuscript into a jiffy bag so full of self-loathing it didn’t fit into the post box.

Eventually I got another agent and that’s when the real rejections began, the juicy ones, the ones that taste like acceptance for the first two thirds of the email before turning to ashes in your mouth with the word “Unfortunately…”.

But, as the saying goes, when one door closes, another one slams in your face.  You remain undeterred. In fact, you get used to rejections. Then you find you quite like them. You’ve absorbed the stories of your favourite writers who were rejected countless times before being published. “I knew it.” you curse as yet another gloomy email arrives. “This proves it’s a great novel!”

Now you’ve been driven quite insane. You positively delight in the rejections. You are a veteran. Rejection letters are your war stories. When I finally received an email from Inside The Dog Press saying they wanted to publish my book I threw myself back from my desk in horror “This is an outrage!” I thundered. “How dare they?”

But that was it. On May 2 it will finally be in the shops – and revenge will surely be mine. Now I can haunt the aisles of Waterstone’s, waiting for someone to pick up a copy before I snatch it out of their hands and rubber stamp the word “rejected” on their foreheads. “Your central character isn’t likeable enough,” I’ll say, carefully replacing the book on the shelf. “And you won’t appeal to teenagers. Now clear off!”

Jasper Gibson, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can order A Bright Moon For Fools online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/14iE9bE)

David Walliams is one of the most popular children’s authors around at the moment, bringing parents and children alike into bookshops, and inspiring lots of young people to pick up a book for their own reading pleasure, often for the first time.

What makes Walliams’ books so utterly readable? He writes like young readers think. The Boy in the Dress, for instance, is full of little asides, irony and sarcasm. He uses straightforward language and focused storytelling, but two key things stand out most: his books are very funny whilst quietly touching on “issues”; a perfect blend of hilarity and thoughtfulness. His characters often find themselves in awkward or difficult situations, but Walliams finds the humour and gets them through it. Not only are the laughs well-balanced (there may be fart jokes, but there are smart ones too), his stories successfully cross traditional social barriers.

But what happens when your son or daughter has read all five of Walliams’ books? What next to keep them interested and inspired?

Roald Dahl (anything at all written by him)

The original master of children’s humour, the author to whom all other ‘funny’ books are compared, and apparently one of David Walliams’ biggest inspirations, Roald Dahl is perhaps the most obvious go-to read for any David Walliams fan. And there are plenty to choose from too – Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, The BFG, and more. Roald Dahl’s humour has quite a cruel base that an adult might be shocked at, but this is exactly why children love him so – as well as the way in which he empowers his characters and brings an anarchic atmosphere to his stories, whilst subtly discussing moral issues.

Dark Lord -The Teenge Years, Jamie Thomson

Dirk Lloyd is not who he appears to be: a thirteen year-old, slightly pudgy schoolboy. No, he’s actually supreme ruler of The Darklands, thrown out of his kingdom after losing a mighty battle between good and evil. Talk about an undignified place for a Dark Lord to wind up in. Cue lots (and lots) of tongue in cheek humour as Dirk struggles to cope with human life  – foster parents, school, psychoherapists – and find a way to get back to his own world. Brilliantly written and a deserving winner of the 2012 Roald Dahl Funny Prize (pipping none other than Walliams himself to the post).

Millions, Frank Cottrell Boyce

What would you do if a big bag of cash landed in your lap one day? Buy a lifetime’s worth of pizza? A fast car? Or would you do the “right thing”? Time is short though: Damian has only days before, (a) the money becomes worthless and (b) the bank robbers (where the money originated) close in. Attempts to spend his windfall have both hilarious and thought-provoking consequences. This book won Frank Cottrell Boyce the CILIP Carnegie Medal, with its wonderful characters, laughs, and thoughtful addressing of various issues.

There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, Louis Sachar

Bradley Chalker is a bully, a reprobate, a fighter, a liar. He’s the child nobody wants to sit next to in class. But what if the persona he shows to everyone else isn’t really him? What if, in his world, he isn’t the bully at all? Louis Sachar uses humour and engaging characters to tell a heartwarming story with an underlying message similar to those David Walliams portrays, about believing in yourself and building self-confidence. This clever and intelligent blending shows why it’s a book often used in the primary classroom.

Goblins, Philip Reeve

Goblins is a little different from my other suggestions as it’s a complete departure into the world of fantasy, featuring goblins (obviously), trolls, giants and other magical creatures rather than humans and human idiosyncrasies. Skarper is an uncommon goblin and uncommon hero (not only does he teach himself to read, but – euch – he is kind) who unwittingly finds himself thrown into quite an adventure. Fast-paced and with tonnes going on, from fights and power struggles to unwanted rescues, there is a humorous edge to everything whilst Philip Reeve subtly gets readers to question their assumptions about life, the universe and everything.

The Falcon’s Malteser, Anthony Horowitz

Private investigator Tim Diamond is particularly dumb and particularly bad at his job, which probably explains why he has so few clients. Thank goodness, then, for younger brother Nick – he’s pretty good at getting them out of the rather preposterous fixes they seem to keep falling into. Anthony Horowitz is better known for the Alex Rider series, but The Diamond Brothers actually came first; they are witty, chock full of puns, word play, pop culture references, not to mention absurd situations. Adventure and cliff-hanger twists are guaranteed – where else, after all, are you likely to find an alligator called Fido?

The Incredible Luck of Alfie Pluck, Jamie Rix

How do you transform yourself from being the unluckiest boy in the world into the luckiest? By eating a chicken that contains the newly created “Luck” gene, of course. The only trouble is that once you become the luckiest boy in the world everyone wants a piece of the action, and Alfie has to go on the run, escaping various near death experiences purely by, ahem, luck. Full of Roald Dahl-esque characters, this is another great title that has been featured on a Roald Dahl Funny Prize shortlist. Sniggers abound.

And for older readers (13 and 3/4 and above)…

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and ¾, Sue Townsend

David Walliams has referred to this book as having been his bible when he was growing up. The title is pretty self-explanatory: it’s the story of one boy’s unwieldy navigation through puberty, from school woes and girls to spots and a set of parents mid-divorce. Uncomfortably realistic, it’s the book that boys read because they are pretty much living it, and that girls read in an attempt to vaguely understand boys. If your teen enjoys this, try the Geekhood series by Andy Robb next.

Do you have a children’s book question you’d like me to answer here? Leave a comment below or tweet me @bookythought.

Isabel Popple, for Waterstones.com/blog

Do you have a question for The Book Clinic?

Whether you’re trying to find the next fix for your Science Fiction addiction, looking for the perfect literary page turner for your holidays, or just can’t face ploughing through all the PG Wodehouse books to find the truly great ones – whatever the dilemma, let us know in the comments below…

Just ten questions stand between you and a mark out of ten telling you how many of those questions you answered correctly. Time for the Week in Books quiz…

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The Week In Books Quiz for 26th April 2013

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Question 1

Which classic Irish novel, turned early 90s film, has now launched this week as a West End musical?

A	Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt
B	The Commitments, Roddy Doyle
C	Dubliners, James Joyce
D	The Sea, John Banville

Question 1 Explanation: 

"The challenge is to make it a fresh show and not to ape the film," said Mr Doyle. The other challenge is probably to make sure it's nothing like Rock Of Ages... Don't worry though- Mustang Sally is in there.

Question 2

A second theatrical question - the Almeida Theatre and Headlong Theatre company announced this week that they'd be bringing a musical version of which (perhaps slightly odd choice of) book to the stage later this year?

 

A	Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
B	The Catcher In The Rye, JD Salinger
C	American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
D	Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson

Question 2 Explanation: 

That'll be lots of Whitney Houston and Huey Lewis and the News covers then?

Question 3

  John le Carré's latest book A Delicate Truth was published on Thursday. What is the author's real name?

A	David Cornwell
B	John Cornwell
C	Brian Cornwell
D	Patrick Cornwell

Question 3 Explanation: 

His pen name, "John the Square" in French, was forced on him since Foreign Office officers weren't allowed to publish books in their own names. Particularly if the books they published were about their actual jobs with a few names changed...

Question 4

Which author was named this week by Prospect magazine as the "world's top thinker"?

A	Steven Pinker
B	Stephen Hawking
C	Richard Dawkins
D	Noam Chomsky

Question 4 Explanation: 

Having topped the list back in 2004, Dawkins was ecstatic to retain his title. "Thank God!" he said in relieved jubilation.

Question 5

 

The longlist for this year's Desmond Elliott Prize for fiction was announced this week. How many men are on the list of ten debut fiction authors?

A	Four.
B	Three.
C	Two.
D	None.

Question 5 Explanation: 

Two of those three are Waterstones eleven debut authors of the year - congratulations to Kevin Maher and Gavin Extence. Overall the list proves that 2013 is shaping up to be a very strong year for women's fiction.

Question 6

"Would it kill you to write something people actually want to read?" According to a profile this week in New York Magazine who said this to novelist Claire Messud, best known for The Emperor's Children?

A	Martin Amis
B	Christopher Hitchens
C	Peter Carey
D	Salman Rushdie

Question 6 Explanation: 

Charming.

Question 7

"I've finally written a book that isn't a ribald satire and because it's actually based on my life, contains almost no sex whatsoever." Who said this of their forthcoming memoir from Random House, Little Failures, announced this week?  

A	Ian Hislop
B	David Sedaris
C	Gary Shteyngart
D	Richard Ford

Question 7 Explanation: 

It's an almost disappointingly straightforward title from the man who gave us Super Sad True Love Story, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, and Absurdistan...

Question 8

The Presidential library of George W. Bush was opened in a ceremony on Thursday in Dallas. How many of the thirteen official presidential libraries are now located in the state of Texas?

A	One
B	Three
C	Ten
D	None

Question 8 Explanation: 

It apparently cost $250 million. That's a lot of money to store unsold copies of Decision Points.

Question 9

Erotic novelist Chad Leslie Peters posted an ad on the website Craigslist asking for what, to help him write his next book...

A	A young woman to have an affair with.
B	A young couple to have an affair with.
C	An old woman to have an affair with
D	An old couple to have an affair with.

Question 9 Explanation: 

The ad reads "I plan on writing a non-fiction version of The Affair. The book will detail every aspect of a mutually-agreed to romantic affair between myself and a young FEMALE lover (perhaps you), experienced over 30 days, as in the novel. I will then combine your written thoughts with my own to present the reader with two versions of the same erotic story." Does the participant get a cut of the profits?

Question 10

Twenty years ago, an innocent biographer introduced to "an unsuspecting public a single word of terrifying power and controversy." What was that word?

A	Fashionista
B	Blog
C	Gotcha
D	Athleticism

Question 10 Explanation: 

The word first appeared on page 100 of Stephen Fried's 1993 book Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia. He has this week written an extended apology in The Atlantic magazine.

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The announcement took place this evening at the Russian Bookshop at Waterstones Piccadilly. “We are excited to have such a strong shortlist in the first year of the Pushkin Prize” added Jack who is co-chairman of Pushkin House.

The prize is open to any popular non-fiction books written in English on Russia, or the Russian-speaking world, and attracted more than 40 entries, including translations from both German and French. Pushkin House, which is London’s leading centre for Russian Arts, hopes the prize will encourage and reward the very best non-fiction writing on Russia, whilst promoting serious discussion on the issues raised.

The list takes in the lost aristocracy after the revolution, in Former People; the emergence of Stalin’s Terror, in Moscow, 1937; a look back to Cold War Russia, in The Iron Curtain, and Soviet Baby Boomers; the growth of Russia’s oil industry in Wheel of Fortune; and the Man Without a Face, Vladimir Putin.

The shortlist in full:

The Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956, Anne Applebaum (Allen Lane) Read an extract

Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, Masha Gessen (Granta)

Wheel of Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Fortune in Russia, Thane Gustafson (Harvard University Press)

Soviet Baby Boomers: An Oral History of Russia’s Post War Generation, Donald J Raleigh (Oxford University Press)

Moscow, 1937, Karl Schlögel (Polity Press)

Former People: The Last Days of Russia’s Aristocracy, Douglas Smith (Macmillan)

The winner will be announced at the Hay Festival on Wednesday 29^th May at 6pm, and will win a cash prize of £5,000.

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

This week’s Book Club book of the week is The President’s Hat by Antoine Laurain.

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy The President’s Hat at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/ZMwtY5)

To find out more about our Book Club selection, click here.

Not just your standard book trailer, this specially commissioned film is produced in part by The Ink Factory a company who are no strangers to le Carré’s work – they’re currently in post production on a film adaptation of A Most Wanted Man, directed by Anton Corbijn and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, and will later this year begin shooting Our Kind of Traitor.

Co-produced with Somesuch & Co, the film delivers a portrait of le Carré’s creative process whilst also giving some clues about the conspiracy at the heart of A Delicate Truth. As the director Kim Gehrig explains, the film  ”draws you in and gives you an indelible sense of the world of the novel, but at the same time preserves the experience of reading the book itself.”

The Waterstones Exclusive edition of A Delicate Truth contains an exclusive essay by John Le Carré on the writing of the novel as well as  photographs from the set of the film A Most Wanted Man.

Check back next Wednesday for more on A Delicate Truth…

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy A Delicate Truth from your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/17cHnMM)

Let us know what you think of the film in the comments below.

“The great thing about a book of grammar is that it is democratic. You don’t need to go to Eton to learn about semi-colons.”

There is a bit of back story to Gwynne’s Grammar, Ebury’s new guide to writing good English which raced up the charts in its first week of release. It all started when, about three years ago, I mentioned to the journalist Toby Young that I was looking for someone to teach my children Latin. Toby suggested I try Mr Gwynne, a septuagenarian old Etonian who he’d met at a Spectator party (or should that be whom?).

We employed Mr Gwynne, and twice a week he would appear on Skype in our Exmoor farmhouse and drill my unwilling offspring in Latin grammar. Mr Gwynne also drilled us parents in the failures of the progressive school system. To Mr Gwynne, everything went wrong in the sixties when education became child-centred. The teaching of old school subjects like grammar went out, and self-expression came in.

This might have been fun for the kids at the time. The trouble is that it produced a generation of illiterates who do not know where to put the comma. I tended to agree with Mr Gwynne that it was a shame that children are no longer taught the definition of a verb or an adverb, still less a preposition or a pronoun. We all use words every day, and written communication, if anything, has become more important than ever, with the rise of email and websites. Therefore it would seem like a very good idea to study our own language at school. Apostrophes matter.

Well, I suggested to Mr Gwynne that he might like to put down the fruits of his grammatical study in a little primer that could be used as a handy textbook at home. So it was that Gwynne’s Grammar was born. Our title was a play on a famous 16^th century grammar book called Lily’s Grammar.

We had one hundred copies lovingly produced by Christian Brett of bookmaker and typesetter Bracketpress. We put an effusive 18^th century style title on the front page, and Christian hand sewed the pamphlets. The cover was of a nice light blue card.

This first edition sold out fairly quickly and we decided to print an expanded version, which included the classic style guide The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White (author of Charlotte’s Web), first published in 1918. We printed 1,000 copies. Again, these sold well. At the same time, we booked Mr Gwynne to give grammatical lectures at the newly established Idler Academy of Philosophy, Husbandry and Merriment in Notting Hill.

In publishing a grammar book, I liked to think that we were working in the same auto-didactic tradition as the great radical and reformer William Cobbett, who wrote A Grammar of the English Language in 1832. His intention was to provide the means whereby the common man and woman could educate themselves in their own language. Cobbett wrote in his introduction that his intention was to “lay the solid foundation of literary knowledge amongst the labouring classes of the community; to give practical effect to the natural genius found in the soldier, the sailor, the apprentice and the ploughboy.”

Why is grammar important? Here is how Cobbett put it: “The actions of man proceed from their thoughts. In order to obtain the cooperation, the concurrence, the consent of others, we must communicate our thoughts to them. The means of this communication are words; and grammar teaches us how to make use of words.” Cobbett wanted to make men free, he wanted to help them think clearly, he wanted them to be able to detect when politicians and businessmen were trying to deceive them. Grammar was the gateway to this sort of freedom.

The great thing about a book of grammar is that it is democratic. Everyone can afford it. It puts knowledge into everyone’s hands. You don’t need to go to Eton to learn about semi-colons.

About a year ago, Jake Lingwood at Ebury Press bought a copy of Gwynne’s Grammar from the Idler Academy. He called me in for a meeting and said he was interested in publishing it. “It’s the attitude I love,” he said. There is an old saying that education is more effectively done when spiced with the prejudice of the teacher, and you will find Gwynne’s Grammar to be very spicy indeed.

Ebury have done a great job in producing an elegant hardback at a very affordable price. And it seems that there is a real thirst out there for grammatical instruction. Why? Because it is a useful book, a beautiful one, and it is great fun to read. Truly, grammar will set us free.

Tom Hodgkinson, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy Gwynne’s Grammar from your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/13saAjN)

World Book Night is a celebration of books which promotes the pleasures and benefits of reading to people who don’t regularly read. It occurs on the 23^rd of April, Shakespeare’s birthday and deathday, every year and every year some twenty thousand givers make a gift of twenty free books, chosen from the twenty titles on offer, to members of their community who may not regularly read. I’ve been lucky enough to have been chosen as a giver for the last three years and it has been a brilliant experience.

The first year of World Book Night I was working in our Liverpool One store in charge of front of store and I heard about WBN through our intranet. It seemed like a nice thing to do and I applied to be one of the givers. I also volunteered to organise the deliveries of books for the WBN givers that were being delivered into our store, mainly as an opportunity to talk to the other givers. There were a wide variety of people picking up books from us and I was fascinated by the reasons for their applying to be givers and how they would be gifting their books. One lady ran a reading group for local homeless people and was handing out Stuart: A Life Backwards to the group, another giver was handing out books in her local pub, more than a few were unsure quite what they would do with their books. In the end all of them seemed to hold a common belief. They all felt that reading could change a life for the better, that access to books could help improve someone’s existence. It was, although it hadn’t been conscious, part of the reason I had applied as well. I gave my book, Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin, to a local women’s hospital. The multiple perspectives of the book, the baroque narrative, offered hope, for me, for change. For difference, for acceptance, for growth. At its best literature lays a calming hand on your shoulder and lets you know that you are not alone. If you’ve ever spent time in a hospital then you’ll know how much a calming hand on your shoulder can mean, how deeply alone you can feel while surrounded with other people, each bed like an island in a sea of bleached linoleum. I wanted my books to counter this. I wanted anyone who read the book to feel like someone had done something nice in giving them a book too. It’s soppy but the world can be a rough place. At heart WBN is about doing something kind. I never got to see the people who got the books. It turns out that just walking into a hospital and distributing books is a little trickier than I’d thought but the nurse who took the two boxes from me seemed pleased with the gesture, if a little confused. I was happy with that.

By the time the second year of World Book Night came round I was working at Waterstones head office and found myself working quite closely with the people running WBN. I had made sure to apply to be a giver as soon as the opportunity arose. It was my first year in London and if there was anyone whose loneliness concerned me it was my own. I had moved to Acton, knew no-one and was missing my friends in Liverpool. This year my WBN giving had to serve more than just the purpose of getting books into the hands of people who might not pick up a book otherwise, this year it had be about getting involved with the community. Maybe a little selfish but I wanted to make some friends out of it this time.  It was a small lifeline for me. If I’d had more time I may have found a local charity that could have used the books and volunteered but as I didn’t I decided to give the books away at my local gym. A council run leisure centre, the building housed a swimming pool, a large hall for badminton, basketball, tennis, gymnastics and a gym. In many ways it represented what I most loved about London, people from different backgrounds coming together to do something in a way that made the most of their commonalities. Function overcoming differences. I gave away The Damned Utd by David Peace that year, one of those rare books about sport that are enjoyable to people who don’t like sport, a book that is propulsive, profane, pleasing in an entirely different way to The Blind Assassin. A perfect book to give away in a gym and one easy enough to read for people who hadn’t read for a while and those who might be starting English as a second language. Once I’d convinced people the books were free and made those who got a copy promise to read it the books disappeared in a matter of minutes. Everyone went away smiling. Not least me.

This year I will be interacting with World Book Night solely as a giver. I’ll be picking my books up from the Piccadilly Waterstones store, bringing them home on the number 9 and on the 23^rd of April taking them on a new, small adventure. I’m thinking about taking the books I’ve been lucky enough to receive to a local centre that teaches English to diasporic people. I’ve friends who are taking books to prisons, friends who are taking books to schools, friends who are taking books to reading groups for people who suffer from mental health issues. The book I’ll be giving away is The Dark Judges by John Wagner, a graphic novel and  one of the two most exciting improvements, among many, that WBN has made in the last three years, the other being the addition of a Quick Reads title, another brilliant literacy title. The Dark Judges is a smart and stinging satire but above all else it’s an enjoyable romp. The mixture of words and pictures will help reluctant readers, the excitement and adventure will coax them along when they struggle and, crucially it won’t talk down to them. Because the most difficult thing about the past three years of playing my little part in WBN has been about my own struggle with language.

I was lucky enough to fall into a joy of reading at a young age and that has improved my life immeasurably. I’ve reaped the benefits of literacy professionally, personally and culturally. And I really wanted to be part of something that brought that joy and those benefits to other people without telling them that they “really ought be reading” and running the risk of being condescending. I wanted the women in the hospital to have a richer life, in some way, after reading The Blind Assassin, the people in the gym to see things subtly differently after reading The Damned Utd but I didn’t want them to feel the patronising hand of middle class assumption guiding them to become “better”. So, for me, at the heart of what makes WBN beautiful is that it is about sharing, not preaching. I want to share a process, an ever changing process, called reading with people to help them find joy and succour and strength in a world that will deny all of these to any of us and I want to find joy and succour and strength in doing so. I have never said to anyone I’ve given a WBN book to “You should read this” I’ve always said “I love this book because…. perhaps you might like it too”. And I love World Book Night because of this. Perhaps you might like it too.

Matthew O’Donoghue, for Waterstones.com/blog

Get involved

You can be a part of the magic of World Book Night by joining our booksellers in the myriad of events taking place tonight across the country.

From Harlan Coben in Guildford to the World Book Night party at Liverpool One; Samantha Shannon discussing The Bone Season in Oxford to a book swap night (with cheese and wine) at Waterstones Huddersfield.

Don’t stay in tonight – get out and join the fun.

See more details of our all World Book Night Events here.

Are you a World Book Night giver? Have you received a book on World Book Night before? Let us know your stories, and share your World Book Night photos in the comments below.

“The war tried to kill us in the spring, as grass greened the plains of Nineveh and the weather warmed.” It’s a hell of an opening line, no? Beautifully constructed, balancing life and death between the sprouting of the new foliage and the continuing threat of war. It’s poetic. It’s grand. It’s a brilliant opening line for a book and the perfect one for this tale: The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, the story of the difficulties faced by an American soldier during the war and the consequences he takes home with him. The book carries the authoritative weight of the author’s time spent in Iraq as a member of the US Armed Forces, it is a serious book about serious things and, make no mistake, it is a book worthy of your attention. By contrast “The men of Bravo are not cold.” does not carry the same force as an opening sentence. It is slight, almost banal. It is only when we find out why they are not cold and where they are the simple genius of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain sinks in. The Men of Bravo, Bill included, are in a limousine on their way to attend a big important American football game as part of a “victory tour” convincing the home front that the war in Iraq is worthwhile. Right at that moment the war is not trying to kill them. But it is waiting for them in this dark and funny book about serious things and, make no mistake, it is also a book worthy of your attention. These two books take radically different approaches to discussing the wars in the Middle East that the West has been involved in in the last ten years. But do they work as anti-war books?

Which is to have already made a large assumption; namely that The Yellow Birds or Billy Lynn are anti-war novels. Maybe they aren’t. The Yellow Birds certainly sets itself up in the dark heart of war and the effect  it has on the soldiers fighting, both in the field, and at home but it might not actually be anti-war. Written from the point of view of John Bartle, a US Soldier who has returned from Afghanistan with secrets to contend with and horrors still to face, the novel shifts in time and space from chapter to chapter, the elegant structure unfolding deliberately and creating no small amount of intrigue. There was, we learn, an event so horrific that it overshadowed all else that occurred in John’s time in Afghanistan, but what that is cannot be revealed until the narrator is ready, or is forced, to face it. It is almost an existential whodunit. We know John done it, the  answer we seek is what “it” is. Whether the  price paid by the protagonist of the novel, and by extension the other fighters of the war,  is an acceptable  one, given what might be gained from fighting the war, is up to the reader, I suppose but the richness and grandeur of the prose kept me from really identifying where The Yellow Birds stands as a text. The book simultaneously makes war sound utterly horrific and also somewhat majestic. As an ex-soldier I don’t doubt that Kevin Powers has more to say about war than me, he’s certainly a better writer, and he definitely knows more about the experience of being at war than the four hours spent playing paintball in rural Dorset is likely to have imparted to me but I’m not sure that majestic is what The Yellow Birds is aiming at. Maybe his account is truthful maybe war, in and of itself, is somehow seductive, despite the horrors that occur in the book. Maybe the only thing that the book is guilty of is being honest. And perhaps this is where The Yellow Birds fails for me, although this might equally be my failure. I come to it not as a soldier and as someone who believes whole-heartedly that war must be a terrible thing to have to fight. I also come to it as someone who has seen, someone who has been affected by, the “pride, pomp and circumstance” we afford “glorious” war. The language surrounding war is big and scary and often speaks to a part of us that might not be our best.

Ben Fountain isn’t a soldier, although he has spoken to veterans to try and honour their experience, and while there is horror in his book most of it is a horror less bloody than Kevin Powers but more accessible to most of us readers. Ben approaches war as farce, as folly, as fundamentally illogical and he manages this by removing the soldiers, briefly, from the war. Perhaps that isn’t quite right, perhaps he approaches the discourse around war as farce. Billy and the men of Bravo are the survivors of a particularly hellish fire fight that was caught on film by a major news channel. As the surviving members they have a value beyond the standard infantry; Bravo are walking, talking propaganda. Whisked back to be displayed as proof of the superiority of the American soldier to the folks back home what Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk really is is a mirror. Powers has spoken of the difficulty of writing about war as war is only like itself. Fountain’s genius is in  showing us what war means to the spectators, dropping a warped three hundred page funhouse mirror in front of us and lighting it with death, loss, hope, sex, sports, entertainment, capitalism and television: a kaleidoscope of densely knitted activities. The only logical response to war in Billy Lynn’s world is incredulous laughter but the only responses forthcoming are faux-solemnity, hubris and a deliberate disengagement bordering on hypocrisy. If the people Billy meets are so concerned with the armed men and women of the United States’ sacrifice and the values they are upholding why are they not more directly involved in the fight? Complicity reaches into the lives of the folks back home even when they have no physical link to the war. The setting of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk works as a comment on the correlation between sport, commerce and war as well as literally brining the war back home. A tour of the sickeningly well stocked storeroom for the home football team shows that no expense is spared in the training and provision of goods for the athletes, an expense that is not shared with the young soldiers in Iraq who are lucky to have all of their weapons working. What is this war worth that we spend more on football than our young soldiers’ safety? What is the war for? What does it mean to be at war anymore anyway? Crucially, as the war becomes about managing our understanding of what has happened, who is winning, a war that is occurring thousands of miles away with no concrete repercussions for most of America, as Bravo are paraded in front of proud patriots gathered to watch football, has the war started to function as another sick kind of entertainment? I don’t know that Ben Fountain ever answers these questions but a book as funny and accessible as this that raises these questions is a rare and mysterious beast indeed.

One of my old tutors once told me that in America in the 50’s and 60’s when nudity wasn’t acceptable in mainstream films, medical films purporting to show the effects of sexually transmitted diseases were allowed to show genitalia. The theory was that these films had lost their sexual frisson due to the scientific nature of the film. This was later expanded to documentaries about nudist camps. Of course the popularity of these films was completely out of kilter with the popularity of documentaries and health films that didn’t feature nudity. The viewers negotiated a way to enjoy the nudity, to separate talk of VD and gonorrhea from the images on the screen. This negotiation always pops into my mind when I talk with people about serious books about war, books that aren’t adventures, books that portray the harsh realities of war. Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon’s war poetry always carried, for me, a sense of grandness and stoicism that seemed to remind me of my comfortable, safe existence. It built into a feeling that not only should I be grateful for the sacrifices of my forefathers but that I was less than them somehow, that all of my generation were lacking. That war was an experience that made these men (and it was always men) and I would never know how I would fare in a war (although I do; I would fare badly). I think that The Yellow Birds fits alongside Owen and Sassoon. It made me feel like I hadn’t lived, that I hadn’t risked my life for something and that meant my life lacked meaning. Perhaps this feeling is peculiar to me, this latent machismo but I doubt it. It’s a brilliant book, poetic and painful, but it never manages to escape the discourses that we surround war with, discourses that are held up to the light in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and shown to be hollow. Within the first two pages of his book Ben has laid out the words that form the moral foundations of these wars and linguistically twisted them enough that they rupture and leak. Billy Lynn shows the negotiation that we experience as spectators of the war, the negotiation that allows us to ignore just enough of it to accept it, and challenges our part in the war. That would be enough but it is as funny and humane as The Yellow Birds is brutal and poetic as well. We are lucky to have witnessed two such brilliant debut novels in the last year but for my money Ben Fountain has really hit the target.

Matthew O’Donoghue, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can find both The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) as well as online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/17wxXcz, http://bit.ly/XVhKi0)

Recently I asked my followers on Twitter if they had any questions or particular genres that they would like me to discuss here on in my column. The lovely @charlieehay got in with the first question:

What was the first book to be graced with a film adaptation?

In my innocent ignorance, I thought this would be an easy one to answer… Well apparently not, it appears to be quite a debated subject. From what I can gather, most people seem to agree that it was Trilby And Little Billee in 1896, based on Trilby by Gerald Du Maurier, but this inspired me to take a look more broadly at some of the first ever fictional characters and stories to hit the big screen

Sherlock Holmes

The world famous Sherlock Holmes has been capturing the hearts of book reader and cinema goers from as early as 1900, when he appeared in the Mutoscope film Sherlock Holmes Baffled. It’s a testament to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s captivating and beautiful writing that he is as popular today as he was back then –  according to the Guinness Book of Records, he remains the most portrayed movie character with more than 70 actors playing him in over 200 films. It just goes to show that a classic really can be timeless.

Snow White

The German fairy tale Snow White, penned by the Brothers Grimm back in 1812, had it’s first of many movie adaptations in 1902. Since then the story has been moulded, modified and almost changed beyond recognition into over 200 other movies from the well known Disney classic – which the BFI have a terrific book all about –  to last years Snow White And The Huntsman and I am sure there will be more to come.

Jules Verne, H.G. Wells & Science Fiction

The 1902 French movie, A Trip to the Moon or Le Voyage Dans La Lune, was inspired by two science fiction classics. From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells. It is the first recorded science fiction film and pushed special effects and became hugely popular both at the time and even in modern day.

 Alice In Wonderland

The first ever movie adaptation of Alice In Wonderland was released back in 1903 and even though The British Film Institute have restored the movie, only one copy of the original is known to exist – with some parts having been lost forever. With over 106 movie adaptations released so far (Tim Burton‘s being one of the most recent) I am sure we’ll continue to see Alice on the big screen for years to come.

 Uncle Tom’s Cabin

I was completely unaware of both the book and movie until I started researching this subject, but back in 1903 Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was adapted into a thirteen minute long silent film. Its popularity led to it being adapted eight more times by 1927. The strangest might be the “play within a film” version which is found in The King And I performed by the slaves of the court of Siam. The book tells the tale of two slaves. Eliza, who escape slavery with her young child and Tom, who doesn’t manage to escape and is passed from master to master.

Thank you so much to @charlieehay for getting involved in my column and giving me such a fascinating subject to study. If you’ve got a question you want to put me or a subject you’d like me to look into, then you can tweet me your ideas at @thetattooedbook.

Cara Fielder, for Waterstones.com/blog

Apart from being a reenactor or mildly eccentric, that is! Well, the answers lie in a number of places. History has fascinated me since I was a boy, and so too has Hadrian’s Wall. As a boy, I devoured such great books as The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. I longed to visit the wall, yet when I moved to London in the late 1990s, ordinary life got in the way. It wasn’t until early 2001 and the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in the U.K. that I saw Northumberland and the wall. I had trained as a veterinary surgeon, and had a lot of experience with cattle and sheep, so I volunteered to help with the crisis. I was posted to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where I worked for a year. I can vividly recall my first sight of the wall, in April 2001. It was sky lined against the northern horizon, which was running left to right before me. Four trails of smoke rose from the pyres on farms where slaughtered cattle and sheep were being burned. A terrible thing to see, but what I thought of was Roman camps, and of how such smoke would have risen into the sky in much the same place, nearly 2000 years before. My imagination ran riot from that moment on.

For a number of years, I had toyed with the idea of writing novels about soldiers set in ancient times. However, my time in Northumberland ― during which I visited the vast majority of the sites along the wall ― soon cemented that idea into a story set in the area, about Roman legionaries. It took a while to start writing, but by 2003 I had begun a novel set in Corbridge in AD 181, the year a major tribal rebellion shook northern Britannia. This story has never been published, but it was strong enough to gain me an agent. After finishing another novel, The Forgotten Legion, I secured a three book deal with Random House in the summer of 2007. As they say, since then, life has never been the same. Yet my love of Northumberland and the wall remains undiminished. I return to visit it on a regular basis, and I still have intentions to write a novel set in or around the area one day.

For more than a decade, I have been a keen, if irregular, hiker. When the Hadrian’s Wall path opened about 8 years ago, I instantly wanted to walk it. Work got in the way of course, both veterinary and writing. A few years went by. I got married and kids started to come along, and any hope of following the path vanished. Kids have a way of growing up, though, and in late 2012, I began to think of walking the wall again. It would be a great way of getting fitter, and I thought naïvely, of raising some money for charity. I announced my intentions on Facebook and Twitter near Christmas – so that I couldn’t go back on my word! I got in touch with Anthony Riches, author of the acclaimed Empire novels, the first two of which are set in Housesteads fort on Hadrian’s Wall. In 2010, Tony had walked the four day central section of the wall, in full kit, for charity. It was therefore easy to persuade him to come along; the same applied to one of our ‘Romani’ friends and author of the great Gladiatrix novels, Russell Whitfield. Soon after, we had a huge boost to our plans. Dr. Mike Bishop, author, archaeologist and renowned expert on the wall, agreed to guide us on our quest.

A man in uniform – Ben went to great lengths to keep his clothing authentic.

Sourcing all the kit that I intended to wear was great fun. From the start, I had decided to dress as a hastatus, a class of legionary from the second war between Rome and Carthage, and the type of soldier that a character in one of my books had become. I already owned a shield and a helmet of the time, but that was it. Thankfully, I know, or know of, lots of artisans who make ancient world replica weapons and clothing. Soon I had ordered linen undertunics, a wool tunic and hooded wool cloak from Wales, and hobnailed Roman boots from Gloucestershire. I bought a new sword, a javelin, baldric and belt from Spain; commissioned a bronze breast and backplate from the last metalworker in Catalonia and had a feathered crest for my helmet made in the West Midlands. A saddler’s in Bath designed and made a leather cover for my shield, and a reenactor in Tyne & wear made the straps with which I would carry it.

It wasn’t hard for me to pick which charities to support. During my work in the Foot and Mouth Disease crisis, I had to supervise the slaughter of many tens of thousands of animals. The experience was immensely traumatic, and it took me a number of years to get over it. I can only imagine what it must be like to be a soldier who has served in war. Combat Stress, which helps veterans who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), was therefore a natural choice. So too was Medecins Sans Frontieres, an organisation which offers worldwide front line medical care to people in conflict zones and areas of natural disaster.

From the first moment that I began to raise money, I was bowled over by people’s generosity. I set an initial target of £3000. Readers from all over the world ― Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Sweden and other countries ― began to donate, and they didn’t stop! Large numbers of authors and publishers whom I know, as well as friends, family and complete strangers also gave, often very generously. Social media have been an integral part of the fund raising process. I have auctioned many signed books, my own as well as those donated by other authors, on Twitter and Facebook, raising large sums for them. The whole process ― and that’s before we’ve even walked a muddy step of the way ― has been immense fun. Best of all, we have already raised more than £9300, with £500 more guaranteed in the next few days. The magical figure of £10,000 now seems not just inevitable, but something to smash through.

Ben Kane, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can sponsor Ben online by visiting: http://charitygiving.co.uk/benkane

Follow Ben on Twitter @BenKaneAuthor

Pre-order Ben’s new book Hannibal: Fields of Blood

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Did you miss a previous strip? You can see them all here.

If you have books, authors or characters that you think should (or should not) pitch to Sprout, follow her on twitter @SproutsBookClub and let her know.

You can buy Nye’s book Things to do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park… When You’re 29 and Unemployed at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/VkdBCk)

The running shelf in most bookshops is usually full of coaching guides with anodyne titles such as Running Made Easy, Running for Beginners or How to Run. But for those running the London marathon on April 21, it’s too late for all that. What you need now is some last-minute running inspiration; stories of incredible running feats – or even ordinary running feats beautifully told – that can get you in the zone and ready to race.

The big beast of running books is the bestselling Born to Run. Published in 2010, it tells the story of an ultra marathon in the Copper Canyons in Mexico between some of the best American ultra-marathon runners and a group of super fast Mexicans called the Tarahumara. Gripping as this story is, however, what really catapulted the book on to bestseller lists across the world was its exploration of the concept of barefoot running.

The author, Christopher McDougall, tells the story of a group of Harvard scientists who devise a theory that humans evolved as we did through our ability to run. For thousands of years we survived by persistent hunting, which meant chasing even the swiftest animals down using our incredible running endurance.

In essence, he says, we were born to run. And the best way to run is as we were designed: barefoot. The argument is compelling, and running shops across the world are now full of “barefoot shoes” (which are shoes with very thin soles, designed to allow you to run in a barefoot style, while protecting your soft, pampered, western feet).

The book itself is an enjoyable read, even if McDougall’s constant hyperbole can be grating at times. But its barefoot revelation can change your running forever – it did mine. So be warned.

A much more low-key, British affair, is Feet in the Clouds by Richard Askwith. This recounts the author’s attempts to infiltrate the world of fell running. Along the way, this fairly average runner from London attempts epic feats of endurance, and rubs shoulders with the unassuming legends of the sport. It’s a poetic, windswept story that leaves you craving a run in the wildness of the mountains.

A very different book is Barefoot Runner by Paul Rambali. This tells the story of Abebe Bikila, the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal, who strode barefoot to an imperious victory, in a world record time, in the marathon in the Rome Games of 1960. He then repeated the feat, this time in shoes, in 1964 – winning gold and breaking his own world record. The book has been criticised for glaring inaccuracies, and is written as though the author had exclusive access to the subconscious mind of the great Ethiopian runner, but despite all this I couldn’t help getting swept away by it.

A more accomplished and acclaimed writer is Haruki Murakami. His book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a rambling wander through his life as a runner and a writer. While I can’t help feeling most other writers would be laughed out of their publisher’s office if they pitched this book, in Murakami’s hands it is full of insight and beauty. His attempt to run a 62-mile ultra marathon, and his near religious experience at the end, is a fittingly mad and gripping climax to his musings.

A book in a similar vein is the newly released Running with the Pack by philosopher Mark Rowlands. I have to admit I’m only half way through this, but I’m enjoying its catalogue of insights into the reasons why we run, and it’s ponderings on what we think about while we do it.

Finally, for fans of running The Perfect Distance by Pat Butcher tells the story of possibly the greatest, most intriguing rivalry in the sport’s history. For a period in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe were the best in the world, breaking records for fun. Yet they hardly ever raced each other, and they spoke to each other even less. This well researched book talks to the people behind the scenes and brings to life the issues and motivations behind their fascinating rivalry.

Running has an inherent beauty and simplicity that all these books capture to a certain extent. In some ways running is the most basic thing in the world, just putting one foot in front of the other. Yet, as these books, and many others, testify, there is so much to say about it. So get reading, get inspired, and get running.

Adharanand Finn for Waterstones.com/blog

Running with the Kenyans is now available in paperback from Faber & Faber and you can find it in your local Waterstones, or online at Waterstones.com

Question one: It’s Friday. What usually happens on the blog on a Friday? Answer… The Week in Books quiz of course…

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The Week In Books Quiz for 19th April 2013

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Question 1

Which author was described this week as having been a victim of “tall poppy syndrome”?

A	Hilary Mantel
B	Miranda Hart
C	Kate Mosse
D	Richard Ford

Question 1 Explanation: 

Miranda Richardson, chair of judges of this year's Women's Prize for Fiction, was defending the inclusion of Mantel on the shortlist. As she saw it, Britain too often indulged in “tall poppy syndrome”, where those who are judged to have already had their share of success should “go away and die now”.

Question 2

Adam Johnson won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction this week for his novel The Orphan Master's Son. Where is it set?

A	South Korea
B	China
C	New York
D	North Korea

Question 2 Explanation: 

Johnson "wanted to give a picture of what it was like to be an ordinary person in North Korea. It's illegal there for citizens to interact with foreigners, so the only way I could really get to know these people was through my imagination." Probably a safer way of doing it altogether in the current circumstances...

Question 3

What was announced this week as the title of the new James Bond novel, from William Boyd?

A	Polo
B	Solo
C	Bond Age
D	Dead Late

Question 3 Explanation: 

Set in 1969 the novel, which is coming in September, sees a 45-year-old Bond “go solo” on a secret mission. Such a shame it's not Bond Age.

Question 4

Singing from the Floor by JP Bean, an oral history of folk clubs, was cited in The Guardian this week as being one of the top five acquisitions announced at this week's London Book Fair. Which first-time celebrity editor acquired it?

A	Mick Fleetwood
B	Bob Dylan
C	Cillian Murphy
D	Jarvis Cocker

Question 4 Explanation: 

The Pulp front man says it poses a challenge to pull such a history together as "the events in question took place many years ago and may have involved the consumption of alcohol".

Question 5

Speaking at London Book Fair's Digital Minds Conference, what was Neil Gaiman's advice to publishers?

A	"Don't print rubbish."
B	"Learn from the film and music industries."
C	"Fail."
D	"Get your CVs in order - Amazon have already won."

Question 5 Explanation: 

The author said publishers should "try everything. Make mistakes. Surprise ourselves. Try anything else. Fail. Fail better. And succeed in ways we never would have imagined a year or a week ago."

Question 6

Which best selling author did pop star Justin Bieber describe this week as a "belieber"?

A	Hilary Mantel
B	Charles Dickens
C	Katie "Jordan" Price
D	Anne Frank

Question 6 Explanation: 

On visiting Amsterdam's Anne Frank museum the singer wrote in their visitor book "Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber." Hopefully she'd have had better taste...

Question 7

Which book tops the American library association's annual list of "challenged books" - the most complained about titles, deemed to contain offensive language or overly graphic content?

A	The Captain Underpants series
B	Fifty Shades of Grey
C	The Koran
D	The Horrible Histories series

Question 7 Explanation: 

Apparently it made top billing over erotica's finest for containing "offensive language, unsuited for age group". Author Dav Spilkey worried that this might put parents off letting their children read his books but said "It's pretty exciting to be on a list that frequently features Mark Twain, Harper Lee, and Maya Angelou".

Question 8

Amazingly, one of the shortlisted authors for this year's George Orwell Prize for journalism...

A	is 16 years old.
B	hasn't actually written a book.
C	is dead.
D	is Hilary Mantel.

Question 8 Explanation: 

The late Marie Colvin’s On the Front Line, was chosen alongside six others from an original selection of 210 books.

Question 9

Announced this week, The Works of Master Poldy is to be published to celebrate...

A	The birth of Jeremy Poldy - the first, and apparently worst, British publisher.
B	The Women's Prize for Fiction.
C	Bloomsday.
D	The anniversary of the Gutenburg printing press.

Question 9 Explanation: 

According to the artist producing the limited edition book, as part of the annual celebrations around James Joyce's Ulysses "The Works of Master Poldy is the first-ever attempt to boil down the essence of Leopold Bloom into a collection of his wide-ranging thoughts and quips."

Question 10

The DPLA launched this week. What is it?

A	The Digital Public Library of America.
B	The Dutch Phonetic Linguists Association.
C	Denver People's Library Authority.
D	A randomnly chosen acronym which stands as the name of a new "future" eBook format.

Question 10 Explanation: 

The Digital Public Library of America aims to make the holdings of America’s research libraries, archives, and museums available online and free of charge to the entire world. America got it first though which is probably fair. Hopefully it won't be like iTunes where it took ages for it to make its way across the pond.

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And Then There Were None...

Bring Up The Bodies...

Middle Earth

Destined To Fly

Wait, are you a Bookseller?

Light is the sixth and final instalment in Michael Grant’s Gone series. Instead of skipping to the end and filling this blog with spoiler alerts, I thought I would explain a little about Gone, for the benefit of those who have not yet been captivated by this enthralling, unstoppable series.

Just imagine: you’re fourteen and perhaps bored out of your brain in a history lesson. Then, in the blink of an eye, your teacher disappears…

This is how Sam Temple’s story begins. Michael Grant wastes no time in building up the tension: page one, seventeen words and the teacher has gone. “No ‘poof’. No flash of light. No explosion.” It soon becomes clear that everyone over the age of fifteen has disappeared, just like their teacher, and the town of Perdido Beach is now occupied by teenagers. If that wasn’t enough, some of these teenage ‘survivors’ develop X-Men-esque powers. Predictably, mayhem ensues.

Amidst the chaos, the panic and the car crashes, a leader must arise. As far as I’m concerned, Sam Temple is the best type of hero: the reluctant hero. We see that he is a natural leader, based on past actions, and his friends and contemporaries looks to him for answers. He is brave, quick thinking, courageous and – like most heroes – flawed. Unfortunately for Sam, his greatest flaw is something he cannot control. He has two-hundred and ninety-nine hours, fifty-four minutes until he turns fifteen… Until he is gone.

Yet, what’s a hero without a rival? Enter Caine and his gang. Bullies by nature and completely troublesome, they evolve into tyrants, picking on the weaker members of society. An inevitable head-to-head between Sam and Caine is expected and Michael Grant delivers this to us with power and excitement.

Beyond the plot devices, well-crafted characters and mysterious creatures that have brought this world into a new era, Grant subtly raises questions about society. In a dystopian world, how would we divide ourselves? Would the bad people get worse? Would the good people stand up against the bad? Would you stand up for an autistic child who was being bullied for no reason? At points, Grant shows us a glimpse of what would happen if you chose the easy option, let the bullies do their thing, whilst you keep your mouth closed. It is shocking and brilliant and I hope that teenage readers get as much out of this as adults do.

At the end of it all, the Gone series is like a broken roller-coaster. There are twists and turns, gradual builds with fast gripping climaxes, and slow moments to catch your breath before it plunges you back into the swift, downward spiral. Then, just as you think you’re coming to the end, the ride falters and off it goes again with a new book.

Fans of the series so far will be delighted with Light, as Grant has retained the unrelenting force with which he started. It is action-packed, dramatic and a fantastic finale.

Florentyna Martin, for Waterstones.com/blog

The Gone series:

Gone
Hunger
Lies
Plague
Fear
Light

Which will you read next?

You can buy Light from your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/11kjoXD)

This week’s Book Club book of the week is Ancient Light by John Banville

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

You can buy Ancient Light at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/12oS7FG)

To find out more about our Book Club selection, click here.

Announced this morning at the London Book Fair, the shortlist is astoundingly strong and though she and her publishers will no doubt be hoping that Bring Up The Bodies romps home yet again with another award, Mantel’s victory would be far from a comfortable one.

Fresh from her inclusion in the Granta Best of Young British Writers list yesterday evening, previous winner Zadie Smith‘s NW will be seen as a very strong competitor – as no doubt will A.M. Homes tour-de-force May We Be Forgiven - a Waterstones Book Club selection.

Our current Book of the Month, Kate Atkinson‘s Life After Life has proven popular with readers and critics alike and would not be a surprise choice should it go all the way. Meanwhile previous winner, Barabra Kingsolver will no doubt be as hopeful to repeat her 2010 success – when she pipped Mantel to the post - as first time nominee Maria Semple will be to walk away with the £30,000 prize on first time of asking…

The Chair of judges, Miranda Richardson said “The shortlist for 2013 represents six tremendous writers at the top of their game.”

The winner will be announced on Wednesday 5^th June.

Tell us who you think will win in the comments below.

The shortlist in full…

Life After Life, Kate Atkinson (Doubleday)

May We Be Forgiven, A.M Homes (Granta)

Flight Behaviour, Barbara Kingsolver (Faber & Faber)

Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate)

Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, Maria Semple (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

NW, Zadie Smith (Hamish Hamilton)

Dan Lewis, for Waterstones.com/blog

Granta’s friends: The Book Brat Pack back in 1983 – see who you can recognise…

Granta‘s Best of Young British Novelists 2013

Naomi Alderman

Alderman has not only written three novels, most recently The Liar’s Gospel, but plenty of short fiction and genre writing – there’s even a Doctor Who book and scripts for online games on her extensive and varied CV. No stranger to such nominations, in 2007 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, and one of Waterstones’ 25 Writers for the Future.

Find books by Naomi Alderman

Tahmima Anam

Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in Anam was raised in Paris, New York City, and Bangkok before settling in London where she now lives.

She was nominated for both the Guardian First Book Award and the Costa First Novel Prize, for her debut A Golden Age, which ultimately won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book.

Find books by Tahmima Anam