I’m one of the signatories to an online petition against age banding books for young readers that reads as follows: We are writers, illustrators, librarians, teachers, publishers and booksellers. Some of us have a measure of control over what appears on the covers of their books; others have less.But we are all agreed that the proposal to put an age-guidance figure on books for children is ill-conceived, damaging to the interests of young readers, and highly unlikely, despite the claims made by those publishers promoting the scheme, to make the slightest difference to sales.We take this step to disavow publicly any connection with such age-guidance figures, and to state our passionately-held conviction that everything about a book should seek to welcome readers in and not…
Been too busy to post much lately and today I have a houseful of guests, but they’re all at the cricket, getting wet, so here I am. What’s new? I love the cover of this week’s new New Yorker, which just popped through my door, by my favourite comic book writer, Adrian Tomine (the illustration of it to your right is from his myspace , check it out). This is a month of clashes. Not that I’m complaining. Better to have two great things to do and have to choose between them than spend every evening watching teams you don’t care about on Euro 2008. Last night’s was the worst. My MA students were launching their fine anthology, Leap 08 at 7, and I’d agreed…
Been too busy writing (and marking) to blog recently, but here’s a fantastic video, full of fun references, of the single from Erykah Badu’s great new album. Check it out. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW5P2r2dIbA]
This week I’ve read two books that stuck in my mind. I picked up The Suspicions of Mr Whicher after seeing it discussed on Late Review. It was as engrossing as the panel suggested – keeping me fully occupied on a flight to and from the lovely Polish city of Krakow. The subject is a Victorian murder mystery that fascinated and inspired Wilkie Collins (leading to ‘The Moonstone’) and Charles Dickens, meticulously told by Kate Summerscale. Today Which resident of the locked house killed the toddler? is a mystery that can be solved with a little googling, but Summerscale takes the story further and comes up with chilling suggestions. I’ve been a big fan of the 33 1/3 series of short books about rock albums…