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Kiran Millwood Hargrave's gorgeous second novel, The Island at the End of Everything, has been shortlisted for Best Story at the Blue Peter Book Awards. Since 2000, the enormously popular and influential Blue Peter Book Awards have been recognising and celebrating the best authors, the most creative illustrators and the greatest reads for children. The winners will be selected by an expert reading panel made up of hundreds of children in schools all over the UK. The winning titles will be revealed live on Blue Peter on 1st March 2018, World Book Day. The Island at the End of Everything is set on Culion Island, where some of the inhabitants - including Amihan's mother - have leprosy. Ami loves her home - with its blue seas and lush forests, Culion is all she has ever known. But the arrival of malicious government official Mr Zamora changes her world forever: islanders untouched by sickness are forced to leave. Banished across the sea, she?s desperate to return, and finds a strange and fragile hope in a colony of butterflies. Can they lead her home before it?s too late?

Janklow & Nesbit has authors in three categories of this year's Costa Book Awards. In Biography, Xiaolu Guo's Once Upon a Time in the East and Rebecca Stott's In the Days of Rain make up half of the total shortlist for the category. Kiran Millwood Hargrave's The Island at the End of Everything has been nominated in the Children's category, while Kiran herself is also a judge in the Poetry category. Running since 1971, the Costa prizes are the only major UK book prize open to authors resident in the UK and Ireland. The category winners will be announced on 2nd January, while the overall winning Book of the Year will be announced on 30th January. ?These shortlists are a showcase of everything the Costa book awards celebrate: terrific books with broad appeal that will be enjoyed by readers of all tastes,? said Dominic Paul, managing director of Costa.

MJ Arlidge has continued his bestselling streak with the paperback release of the newest DI Helen Grace title, Love Me Not, which entered the Sunday Times Bestseller List at number 9 this week. She Loves Me A woman?s body lies in the road. At first it looks like a tragic accident. But when Helen Grace arrives on the scene it?s clear she?s looking at a coldblooded killing. But why would anyone target a much loved wife and mother? She Loves Me Not Across town, a shopkeeper is killed while his customers are left unharmed. But what lies behind the killer?s choices? She Loves Me Who lives? Who dies? Who?s next? The clock is ticking. She Loves Me Not If Helen can?t solve this deadly puzzle then more blood will be shed. But any mistake and it might be her own?

Harriet Cummings, whose debut novel We All Begin as Strangers was released in April this year, has been nominated by booksellers for the shortlist of the Breakthrough Author category in the Books are my Bag Readers Awards 2017. The novel is set in 1984 in England, and someone is slipping into homes through back doors and open windows in the village of Heathcote. What's more, the perpetrator knows everything about everyone - leaving curious objects in their homes, or taking things from them. When beloved Anna goes missing, the whole community fears she's been kidnapped. But as the villagers search for Anna, it's their own darkest secrets they're desperate to keep hidden... Inspired by real events, and with a brilliant cast of characters, is a beautiful debut novel you'll want to recommend to everyone. The BAMB Readers Awards, now in their second year, are the only book awards with shortlists curated by bookshops - and the only major awards voted for by booklovers. Harriet Cummings is a freelance writer with a background in history of art and gender studies. As a script writer, she has had work performed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as independent venues around London. While studying at Faber Academy, Harriet threw herself into her first novel and hasn't looked back since. She lives in Leamington Spa with her husband and springer spaniel.

I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong has been selected for the shortlist for The Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2017. The prize is in its 30 year, and celebrates the best science writing for a non-specialist audience. The judges praised the variety of books on the shortlist, each grappling with "the big questions of our time", as well as the creative techniques used to marry scientific discovery with an engaging "comprehensive and enjoyable" narrative. In I Contain Multitudes, Ed Yong opens our eyes and invites us to marvel at ourselves and other animals in a new light, less as individuals and more as thriving ecosystems. We learn the invisible and wondrous science behind the corals that construct mighty reefs and the squid that create their own light shows. We see how bacteria can alter our response to cancer-fighting drugs, tune our immune system, influence our evolution, and even modify our genetic make-up. And we meet the scientists who are manipulating these microscopic partners to our advantage. In a million tiny ways, I Contain Multitudes will radically change the way you think about the natural world, and the way you see yourself. The 2017 winner will be announced at a ceremony hosted by Professor Brian Cox on the 19th September.

Derek B. Miller's novel The Girl in Green has been selected for the 2017 shortlist of the Gold Dagger Award. The Girl in Green is a brilliantly original and timely tragi-comedy about the consequences of the war in Syria and misguided attempts to help. Iraq 1991. US soldier Arwood Hobbes is bored. When British Times journalist Thomas Benton ? embedded in Arwood?s U.S. Army company ? bribes Arwood with an ice cream to let him into the rebel-held stronghold of Samawah, Arwood perks up and an off-book mission is born. Three hours later, the village of Samawah is razed by Saddam?s helicopter gunships, Benton is trapped, and a village girl in a green dress dies in Arwood?s arms. Twenty-two years later, in 2013, Arwood has become an arms dealer and Benton a washed-up hack. As refugees fleeing the war in Syria flood over the border into Kurdistan, the two men see TV footage of a mortar attack on a food queue, which seems to injure the same girl in the same green dress. It can?t be her, of course, but their sense of needing to make up for the past takes them back to Iraq to rescue the girl. It is a mad-cap mission that can only go wrong, and spectacularly wrong it goes ? Set in a Middle East filled with refugees, humanitarian organizations, insurgents, and national staff trying to rebuild their shattered world, The Girl in Green is not a war novel. It is a humane, compassionate, funny and haunting journey through that undefined space between war and peace. The award has run since 1955 is presented annually to the best crime novel of the year.

David Bellos' The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventures of Les Miserables has been longlisted for the Historical Writers' Association's Non-Fiction Crown 2017 awards. Packed full of information about the book?s background and design, The Novel of the Century brings to life the extraordinary story of how Victor Hugo managed to write his novel of the downtrodden despite a revolution, a coup d??tat and political exile; how he pulled off the deal of the century to get it published, and set it on course to become the novel that epitomizes the grand sweep of history in the nineteenth century. Yet this biography of a masterpiece also shows how and why the moral and social message of the novel remains full of meaning for our time. The shortlist for the award will be announced on 13th July 2017, and the winners will be presented with their awards in November.

Leading international literary agency Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd are looking for a new Agency Assistant / Office Manager. This is a great opportunity for someone wanting to work across a range of genres supporting agents ? literary & commercial fiction and non-fiction ? so it would suit someone with diverse reading tastes. The job would also involve providing general office administrative support and liaising with publishers and authors, so the candidate should have a keen eye for detail and be confident working on a range of tasks, and would ideally have already spent time working for a literary agency or publisher. CV and covering letter to Rachel Balcombe rbalcombe@janklow.co.uk PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS VACANCY IS NOW CLOSED.

The seventh installment in MJ Arlidge's DI Helen Grace series, Love Me Not, has continued the success of previous books, entering the Sunday Times bestseller list at number four upon release. She Loves Me A woman?s body lies in the road. At first it looks like a tragic accident. But when Helen Grace arrives on the scene it?s clear she?s looking at a coldblooded killing. But why would anyone target a much loved wife and mother? She Loves Me Not Across town, a shopkeeper is killed while his customers are left unharmed. But what lies behind the killer?s choices? She Loves Me Who lives? Who dies? Who?s next? The clock is ticking. She Loves Me Not If Helen can?t solve this deadly puzzle then more blood will be shed. But any mistake and it might be her own? Love Me Not follows the successes of the rest of the series, maintaining an unbroken streak of top ten bestsellers. The first in the series, Eeny Meeny, was the biggest selling debut crime novel of 2014.

Low-level dishonesty is rife everywhere, in the form of exaggeration, selective use of facts, economy with the truth, careful drafting - from Trump and the Brexit debate to companies that tell us ?your call is important to us?. How did we get to a place where bullshit is not just rife but apparently so effective that it?s become the communications strategy of our times? Evan Davis' new book, Post Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It, explains all. This brilliantly insightful book steps inside the panoply of deception employed in all walks of life and assesses how it has come to this. It sets out the surprising logic which explains why bullshit is both pervasive and persistent. Why are company annual reports often nonsense? Why should you not trust estate agents? And above all, why has political campaigning become the art of stretching the truth? Drawing on behavioural science, economics, psychology and of course his knowledge of the media, Evan ends by providing readers with a tool-kit to handle the kinds of deceptions we encounter every day, and charts a route through the muddy waters of the post-truth age. The book has already received a plethora of excellent reviews. In the Guardian, John Gray called it "a rich and probing analysis of the use and misuse of the media", while in the Sunday Times, Roland White said "Davis's journey through the bullshit swamplands makes fascinating reading." In the Observer, Nick Cohen said of Post Truth "Evan Davis tackles bullshit by largely eschewing politics and producing a measured account of irrationality in economics. His care and his determination to make complicated ideas accessible show, above all, why he is such a good broadcaster."

"Ideas can and do change the world," says historian Rutger Bregman, sharing his case for a provocative one: guaranteed basic income. Learn more about the idea's 500-year history and a forgotten modern experiment where it actually worked ? and imagine how much energy and talent we would unleash if we got rid of poverty once and for all. Rutger Bregman's book, Utopia for Realists, shows that we can construct a society with visionary ideas that are, in fact, wholly implementable. Every milestone of civilization - from the end of slavery to the beginning of democracy - was once considered a utopian fantasy. New utopian ideas such as universal basic income and a 15-hour work week can become reality in our lifetime.

Edward Dusinberre has won the RPS Music Award 2017 for Creative Communication with his book Beethoven for a Later Age. The Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards recognise outstanding musical achievement across the UK, with projects, artists and organisations from across the UK receiving accolades. Edward Dusinberre is first violinist of the world-renowned Tak?cs Quartet. Performances of Beethoven have shaped their work together for over forty years. In Beethoven for a Later Age, using the history of both the Tak?cs Quartet and the Beethoven quartets as the backbone to his story, Dusinberre recounts the exhilarating challenge of tackling these pieces. Beethoven for a Later Age takes the reader inside the daily life of a quartet, vividly showing the necessary creative tension between individual and group expression and how four people can enjoy making music together over a long period of time. The key, the author argues, is in balancing continuity with change and experimentation ? a theme that lies at the heart of Beethoven?s remarkable compositions. No other composer has posed so many questions about the form and emotional content of a string quartet, and come up with so many different answers. In an accessible style, suitable for novices and chamber music enthusiasts alike, Dusinberre illuminates the variety and inherent contradictions of Beethoven?s quartets, composed against the turbulent backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath, and shows that engaging with this radical music continues to be as invigorating now as it was for its first performers and audiences. BBC Radio 3 will present highlights from the awards. Click here to listen.

Kiran Millwood Hargrave's debut novel The Girl of Ink & Stars has won the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year. Judges praised the poetic beauty of the novel and were impressed by the time and effort put into editorial and production for a debut author. The book beat strong competition including Tom Fletcher's The Christmasaurus, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and David Walliams' The World's Worst Children. The British Book Awards, or Nibbies, is organised by The Bookseller and brings together books of the year with trade accolades in order to celebrate the whole journey from the author's mind to the reader's hand, and showcase the range and depth of modern publishing. Set at the start of the Golden Age of mapmaking, The Girl of Ink & Stars is a skilfully crafted middle-grade adventure novel inspired by the Canarian myth of Guayota and his demon-dogs. Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella dreams of the faraway lands her cartographer father once mapped. When her friend disappears, she volunteers to guide the search. The world beyond the walls is a monster-filled wasteland - and beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a fire demon is stirring. Following her map, her heart and an ancient myth, Isabella discovers the true end of her journey: to save the island itself.

Amber Lee Dodd's We Are Giants and Kiran Millwood Hargrave's The Girl of Ink & Stars have both been shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2017. The award is given annually to the author and editor of an outstanding debut novel for children. Previous winners include Philip Reeve, Siobhan Dowd, Patrick Ness and Frances Hardinge. The winner will be announced on Wednesday 5th July at a ceremony in London. We Are Giants tells the story of Sydney, who thinks her mum Amy is the best mother in the world, even if she is a bit different. When everyone else kept growing, Amy got to 124cm in height, and then stopped right there. The perfect height, in Sydney?s opinion: big enough to reach the ice-cream at the supermarket, small enough to be special. Sydney?s dad died when she was only five, but her memories of him, her mum?s love, and the company of her brave big sister Jade means she never feels alone . . . But when the family are forced to move house, things get tricky. Sydney and Jade must make new friends, deal with the bullies at their new school and generally figure out the business of growing up. But Sydney doesn?t want to grow up, not if it means getting bigger than her mum. And her mum is barely four feet tall. The Girl of Ink & Stars is set at the start of the Golden Age of mapmaking, and is a skilfully crafted middle-grade adventure novel inspired by the Canarian myth of Guayota and his demon-dogs. Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella dreams of the faraway lands her cartographer father once mapped. When her friend disappears, she volunteers to guide the search. The world beyond the walls is a monster-filled wasteland - and beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a fire demon is stirring. Following her map, her heart and an ancient myth, Isabella discovers the true end of her journey: to save the island itself.