The Guardian's Blog, page 5
May 28, 2016
Brought to book: when publishers go to court
A writer scored a significant victory over publishers this week, when comic book giants Marvel and DC – who had tried to block Graham Jules from using “superhero” in the title of his self-help manual Business Zero to Superhero – backed down after more than two years, just before a hearing in London. Their double shame (first coming across as bullies, then failing) raises the question: how well do publishers fare when they sue or are sued – are they legal superheroes or zeroes?
Regina v Penguin, AKA the Chatterley trial (1960)
The crown sought the banning of DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover under the Obscene Publications Act, and equally ill-advisedly the prosecution was led by fuddy-duddy Mervyn Griffith-Jones, who notoriously urged jurors to reject the book as one they would not wish their “wife or servants to read”. They backed Penguin’s right to publish instead, in a case seen as heralding 60s permissiveness (or, as portrayed in Larkin’s “Annus Mirabilis”, the arrival of “sexual intercourse”). Publisher win
The cool girls, good girls and bad girls of modern books
Robin Wasserman’s novel Girls on Fire is the latest entry in a growing genre of books that seek to break up stereotypes about femininity, kicked off by Gone Girl
“Lacey had a theory that people have a finite capacity for the enjoyment of their favorite things. Songs, movies, books, food: We’re hardwired for specific quantities of pleasure, and once the amount is exceeded, good goes bad,” teenage Hannah Dexter explains in Robin Wasserman’s new novel Girls on Fire. “Very rarely, Lacey said, you find something for which your brain has infinite capacity, and that, Lacey said, is the thing we call love.”
Lacey Champlain is the new girl in Battle Creek, the rural Pennsylvania town where Hannah has spent her entire life. The high school they both attend is still in shock following their popular classmate Craig Ellison’s apparent suicide. Lacey becomes more than just Hannah’s best and only friend: She’s her guru, preaching ideas that Hannah sometimes misunderstands but always absorbs. Now that they’ve found each other, the thing Lacey calls love isn’t just an abstract concept for the girls. It also seems to describe her connection to Hannah.
Related: The Gone Girl backlash: what women don’t want
I could recognize Lacey’s presence in my bedroom as its ultimate illustration, Lacey’s combat boots crushing my turquoise shag carpeting, her eyes alighting briefly on the stuffed turtle I still kept tucked between my pillows, Hannah Dexter’s past and future in a doomed collision, matter and antimatter collapsing into a black hole that would consume us both. Translation: I was pretty sure that once Lacey saw me in my natural habitat, she would disappear.
Continue reading...This year’s Wodehouse prize winners are on the money – a judge’s view
The Everyman Wodehouse prize has to produce belly-laughs by the barrowload – which is why Hannah Rothschild and Paul Murray both deserved to win
Anyone can tell a joke, more or less, so any decent writer can produce a funny scene. Maybe a sparkling one-liner. But it’s not easy to do it again and again, and even harder to craft a novel that can genuinely be described as funny.
Related: Wodehouse prize for comic fiction declares joint winners
Continue reading...May 26, 2016
Simon Cowell wants to write a children’s book? Here’s what will give it the X Factor
Jeopardy, rescues, animals that talk … just some of the ingredients that could make Cowell’s book for his son a success
Simon Cowell has announced a new venture: he is going to write a children’s book. He says that he needs to because all children’s books are boring – at least the ones that he’s reading to his two-year-old, Eric. When he appears on The X Factor he gets help from David Walliams, Alesha Dixon and Amanda Holden, at least one of whom writes successful children’s books. So I’m guessing he might be looking for some help with the writing, too.
Related: Simon Cowell gets star advice on plan to write children's book
Continue reading...Food in books: macaroni cheese from Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
After discovering the witty and wonderful Barbara Pym, Kate Young sets out to make a tastier take on the disappointing dish eaten by Mildred Lathbury
By Kate Young for The Little Library Café, part of the Guardian Books Network
Mrs Jubb, who might have been a good cook with any encouragement, must have lost heart long ago. Tonight she set before us a pale macaroni cheese, and a dish of boiled potatoes, and I noticed a blancmange or ‘shape’, also of an indeterminate colour, in a glass dish on the sideboard. Not enough salt, or perhaps no salt, I thought, as I ate the macaroni. And not really enough cheese.
Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
Related: Barbara Pym's Excellent Women: 'One of the 20th century’s most amusing novels'
“...a dried-up scrap of cheese, a few lettuce leaves for which I could not be bothered to make any dressing, a tomato and a piece of bread and butter, followed by a cup of coffee made with coffee essence. A real woman’s meal, I thought, with no suggestion of brandy afterwards...”
Continue reading...Captain America has gone from punching Hitler to fascist sympathies – is it time to panic?
Marvel’s reveal that Captain America is a sleeper agent for rightwing group Hydra feels like a betrayal of his Jewish creators – but nothing is set in stone in comics
Truth, justice and the American way … are all out the window this week, as Marvel comics revealed that Captain America, their stalwart upholder of everything red, white and blue, is a sleeper agent for Hydra: a fascist, terrorist organisation.
In the first issue of Steve Rogers: Captain America – written by Nick Spencer, with art by Jesus Saiz – one of Marvel’s best-loved characters, who this year celebrates his 75th year of publication, comes out of the closet as a flag-bearer for his long-time enemies, sending the internet into a mini-maelstrom that could be summed up as a collective: “What the fuck?”
Related: Marvel editor-in-chief: 'Writing comics was a hobby for white guys'
Hydra?!?!? #sayitaintso
Related: DC Rebirth: Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman get rebooted … again
Continue reading...Would Enid Blyton 'delight' in new Famous Five parodies? Will we?
Whether or not she would be pleased, take-offs of the much-loved children’s books look set to follow the success of Ladybird spoofs
“We are certain Enid Blyton would have delighted in the gentle parody of her characters,” says Anne McNeil of Enid Blyton Entertainment. “Characters which have helped to create a multimillion-selling global brand.”
Related: Ladybird book pastiches become stocking-filler hit of 2015
“It says the Famous Five are still the most popular children’s books ever,” said George, wolfing down a slice of delicious fruit cake they had bought from the local paedophile – sorry, red-cheeked farmer and his wife - that morning.
“I call that pretty ripping,” said Julian as Anne brushed the crumbs from his pullover and flagellated herself with a willow branch for being a girl.
Related: Enid Blyton's Famous Five get 21st-century makeover
Continue reading...May 24, 2016
Translation Tuesday: Panty by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay – extract
Read an extract from the latest novel by Kolkata’s Bandyopadhyay, credited as ‘the woman who reintroduced hardcore sexuality to Bengali literature’
By Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay and Arunava Sinha for Translation Tuesdays by Asymptote, part of the Guardian Books Network
I entered the apartment at eleven at night, unlocking three padlocks in succession. The flat took up the entire first floor of a tall apartment building. I paused for a few moments after entering, trying to make out my surroundings in the light coming in from the passage outside. I found the switchboard near my left hand. Stepping forward, I turned on all the switches. One after the other. And not a single light came on. But I could tell that a fan had started whirring overhead. Once my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I found myself standing at one end of a hall. The main road below me had begun to quieten down. The light from the street lamps filtered into the dark hall through large windows, creating an unfocused chiaroscuro that came to my aid. Advancing in this hazy glow, I realised that there were doors running down both sides of the hall. On a whim I turned towards an open door on the left.
The room I entered was a large bedroom, with an ensuite. This time, too, I succeeded in locating the switchboard. I swiftly flicked all the switches on. Still not a single light came on. But this time, too, the ceiling fan began to rotate. I tried to understand the layout of the room. It wasn’t empty like the hall; rather, it was crowded with furniture. I found myself standing before a mirror stretching across the wall. The reflection didn’t seem to be mine, exactly, but of another, shadowy figure. I touched my hair. Eerily, the reflection did not. I paid no attention. Setting my bag down on the floor, I returned to the hall.
The panty seemed to offer itself as a second presence in this solitary place. A feeling of companionship
Related: Translation Tuesday: Albina and the Dog-Men by Alejandro Jodorowsky – extract
Continue reading...Crime fiction does justice to Colin Dexter and Jeffrey Deaver
The creators of Inspector Morse and Lincoln Rhyme have both created great characters to go with gripping plots – but their stories aren’t finished yet
Lifetime achievement awards can feel like a double-edged sword for authors – it is great to be recognised for your vast body of work by colleagues, reviewers and fans, but on the flipside there is a sense of “Hey! I’m not done yet!”
This year, the two authors who represent the best in our industry will receive the Strand Critics lifetime achievement awards. Colin Dexter and Jeffery Deaver possess elusive traits: highly fertile imaginations, unforgettable characters, an ability to generate gripping plots, and a warm generosity towards beginning authors.
Continue reading...May 23, 2016
Poem of the week: The Ash Plant by Seamus Heaney
Written in memory of his cattle-farming father, this tribute lends him a kind of mythical power as a guide to knowing both life and death
The Ash Plant
He’ll never rise again but he is ready.
Entered like a mirror by the morning,
He stares out the big window, wondering,
Not caring if the day is bright or cloudy.
Related: Seamus Heaney’s final work – ‘Death’s dark door stands open … ’
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