Bret Easton Ellis at the Southbank Centre this week: How to get tickets January 30, 2023 Bret Easton Ellis has been getting cancelled since long before the phrase “cancel culture” existed. His third novel, American Psycho, was so controversial it was dropped at the eleventh hour by his publisher and was subsequently sold shrink-wrapped in some countries. Then, in 2019, he published White, a meandering series of essays targeting things like [...]
Tell-all book to reveal ‘blatant calumnies and dark manoeuvres’ against Pope Benedict XVI January 2, 2023 Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s longtime personal secretary has written a tell-all book that his publisher has promised would tell the truth about the “blatant calumnies”, “dark manoeuvres”, mysteries and scandals that sullied the reputation of a pontiff best known for his historic resignation. Archbishop Georg Gaenswein’s Nothing But The Truth: My Life Beside Pope Benedict [...]
Teens keep flocking to TikTok for book inspiration November 23, 2022 Youngsters say that TikTok has helped them rediscover their love for reading, as the tech giant continues to push into the book selling market. New research from the Publishers Association published today found that BookTok, the social media trend focusing on books and literature, is playing a key role in getting Gen-Z reading again. In a [...]
Simon & Schuster to let £2bn Penguin deal fall through November 21, 2022 Simon & Schuster owner is set to let its $2.2bn (£1.9bn) sale to Penguin Random House collapse today after the deal was blocked by US regulators. Sources told Reuters that German media group Bertelsmann, which owns Penguin, has been unable to convince Paramount Global, Simon & Schuster’s owner, to launch an appeal of the decision. [...]
Bloomsbury says increased reading here to stay as Harry Potter publisher eyes £240m yearly sales July 20, 2022 London publishing house Bloomsbury has said it is confident a new cohort of book lovers are here to stay, posting elevated growth for the year so far. The Covid-19 pandemic inspired many consumers to pick up paperbacks, with lockdown giving rise to TikTok reading trends. According to the Harry Potter publisher, increased reading is “here [...]
Summer’s finally here: So what’s on your reading list? June 9, 2022 There’s a lot to be said about cracking the spine on a good book while winter rages outside, but there’s no time quite like summer for demolishing that stack of new releases you’ve been accruing. If you need a little reading inspiration to fill the long days ahead, here are our favourite titles from the [...]
The Works brings back dividend as demand for cheap books and Peppa Pig toys boosts sales May 20, 2022 Discount retailer The Works has reinstated its dividend after telling investors its sales are now significantly higher than at pre-pandemic levels, on the back of a record Christmas and booming demand for books. The firm said it had capitalised on the “BookTok” trend on social media platform TikTok to boost sales of its discount [...]
Bookworms continue to flourish as UK publishing hits new heights April 21, 2022 Bookworms continue to find their heads buried in books beyond the pandemic, with UK publishing sales hitting a new industry high to £6.7bn in 2021. Whilst Nielsen Bookscan estimated that 212 millon books were sold last year, the highest in a decade, new data released today by the Publishers Association has revealed that total sales [...]
Blackwell’s puts itself on the sale shelf after 143 years of family ownership February 1, 2022 One of the UK’s oldest booksellers Blackwell’s is looking to sell up after its 143-year history as it scraps plans to hand ownership of the business to its employees. As first reported by Mark Kleinman, the academic bookshop which has been owned by its founding family since its first store opened in Oxford in 1879, [...]
University puts trigger warning on Harry Potter January 28, 2022 The English department at the University of Chester have issued a trigger warning on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, saying it could lead “difficult conversations about gender, race, sexuality, class, and identity”. As part of a first year module, “Approaches to Literature” module, freshers are required to read JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book [...]