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Julie Kavanagh has won this years Giovanni Comisso Literary Prize for Biography for her account of the life and legend of Marie Duplessis, The Girl Who Loved Camelias. The other finalists were Mementos: The life of Wis?awa Szymborska,Anna Bikont and Joanna Szczesna (Adelphi) and The Courage of the Gray Days. Life of Giorgio Agosti Paul Borgna (Yale University Press). The Italian prize is awarded annually in Treviso and organized by the 'Friends of John Comisso. This is the XXXIII edition. For 16 years it has been chaired by Bruno Visentini and was launched by Giulietta Masina, then handed over to Cino Boccazzi. Technical Jury Rolando Damiani (President), Silvia De Laude, Sandro Gerbi, Danilo Mainardi, Giancarlo Marinelli, Anna Modena, Pierluigi Panza, Sergio Perosa, Giorgio Pullini, Olga Visentini. Grand Jury Neva Agnoletti, Francesco Agostini, Franco Andreetta, Adriano Badoer, Emanuela Bardin Caccianiga, Marta Battisti, Andrea Bellieni, Emmanuel Bello, Simon Benetton, Giuliana Bettiol, Ennio White, Thomas Biancuzzi, Natalina Botter, Laura Bressan, Gino Caccianiga, Enrico Cagnato, Leonardo Canal, Gaetano Cappelletto, Franco Caramanti, Augustine counted, Bruno De Dona, Alessandra De Faveri, Silvia De March, Paul Favaro, Peter Gasparoni, Marina Geromel, Alberto Giacomin, Mariangela Guandalini, Valeria Lipparini, Emilio Lippi, Dino Luppi, the Great Victory, Franca Malabotta, Mazzotti Anna Maria Pugliese, James Molina, Lina Murari Small, Tina Murgia Dall'Armi, Antonio Olives, Giorgio Palesa, Isabella Panfido, Gianluigi Perino, Laura Pisanello, Gianna Polizzi, Irma Salvuzzi, Anna Dry, Mario Sutor, Maria Carla Tecce, Thomas Tommaseo Ponzetta, Gianni Turchetto, Maurizio Vanin, Antonio Zappador.

Gavin McCrea's d?but novel has been selected as one of Publishers Weekly's top books of 2015! "Mrs Engels is a historical novel told through the unforgettable voice of Lizzie Burns, the longtime lover of Frederick Engels. Pulled up from her working-class roots after she meets Engels, Lizzie is nonetheless excluded from upper-class society and haunted by her former flame as she struggles to find her purpose. Sparkling with energy, Lizzie is one of the year's best characters." http://best-books.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2015/fiction#book/book-17

Across much of the world the ash tree has been used for centuries to make everything from axe handles, to cartwheels and even the first motorcars. In Rob Penn's latest book, The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees, he travels from Wales across Europe and Ireland to the USA, to discover that the ancient skills and knowledge of the properties of ash, developed over millennia making wheels and arrows, furniture and baseball bats, are far from dead. The book chronicles our intimate relationship with the tree, and how the urge to understand and appreciate trees still runs through us all like grain through wood. Follow this linkto watch him fell a 70-foot ash in the Black Mountains of south Wales - part of his forestry management efforts to keep the ash and other trees thriving there.

Kat Banyard, author of The Equality Illusion has offered up an early look at what's to come in her next book, Pimp State, in her essay on 'The Human Rights Scandal' published last week on the Faber and Faber website. The article, which has been generating a lot of attention, can be read, in full here: http://www.faber.co.uk/blog/a-human-rights-scandal-by-kat-banyard/ Pimp State: Sex, Money and the Future of Equality will be published next year and promises to weave together first-hand investigation, interviews and the latest research to powerfully argue that sex trade myth-makers will find themselves on the wrong side of history.

?Foyles and Hungerford Bookshop backed Robert Penn?s The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees (Particular Books) to fly off the shelves over the festive period? http://www.thebookseller.com/news/booksellers-back-bryson-super-thursday-s-finest-314211

Gavin McCrea's d?but novel, Mrs Engels, joins the twelve strong longlist of titles celebrating LGBT writing announced after hours of debates between the judges over an exceptional list of submissions, the most the prize has seen in its history to date. Once again, with a list including fiction - from debut novelists to well established literary faces - non-fiction and poetry, the Green Carnation proves itself as one of the most diverse prizes. ? Blood Relatives ? Stevan Alcock (4th Estate) ? Deep Lane ? Mark Doty (Jonathan Cape) ? Sophie and the Sibyl ? Patricia Duncker (Bloomsbury) ? Artwash: Big Oil and the Arts ? Mel Evans (Pluto Press) ? A Place Called Winter ? Patrick Gale (Tinder Press) ? Chasing the Scream ? Johann Hari (Bloomsbury Circus) ? A Brief History of Seven Killings ? Marlon James (OneWorld) ? The Gracekeepers ? Kirsty Logan (Harvill Secker) ? Mrs Engels ? Gavin McCrea (Scribe) ? Stammered Songbook ? Erwin Mortier (Pushkin Press) ? Don?t Let Him Know ? Sandip Roy (Bloomsbury) ? The Curator ? Jacques Strauss (Jonathan Cape) Chair of the judges for 2015, author Niven Govinden said of the longlist ?After a long summer of reading and discussion, I'm delighted that we have produced an incredibly strong longlist, chosen from a substantial and eclectic range of submissions. The twelve books selected - all markers of excellence - will hopefully challenge and resonate with readers, and be loved too." Simon Heafield, Marketing Manager for the prize?s partner Foyles said "The Green Carnation Prize has once again produced a longlist of fantastic quality and dazzling variety. I?m sure any of our customers could find a book to fall in love with on this list; we?re delighted to continue our partnership with the Prize, and to have the opportunity to highlight these remarkable books.? The Green Carnation Prize is a prize awarded to LGBT writers for any form of the written word, in any genre, as well as novels in translation. The shortlist for the prize will be announced on Thursday the 5th of November. For more information please visit: www.greencarnationprize.com or www.foyles.co.uk

The fourth DI Helen Grace thriller, LIAR LIAR, by bestselling author M.J. Arlidge has gone straight into the Sunday Times Bestseller List. All three previous books in the series were ST bestsellers and the novels have now sold over 450,000 copies. In the dead of night, three raging fires light up the city skies. It's more than a tragic coincidence. For DI Helen Grace the flames announce the arrival of an evil she has never encountered before. Because this is no firestarter seeking sick thrills, but something more chilling: a series of careful, calculating acts of murder. But why were the victims chosen? What's driving the killer? And who will be next? A powder keg of fear, suspicion and dread has been laid. Now all it needs is a spark to set it off . . .

Alex Bellos, author of bestselling popular maths books, today releases a maths colouring book, Snowflake, Seashell, Star: Colouring Adventures in Numberland. Snowflake, Seashell, Star combines aesthetic and conceptual beauty to convey simple, but deep, mathematical ideas. It uses intricate patterns and illustrations to invite the reader into a calming and illuminating experience, and to communicate the visual and abstract wonder of mathematics through 80 wonderful images to colour. "Alex Bellos' and Edmund Harriss' mathematical colouring book is great. It puts the beauty of maths, famous but elusive, at the tip of anyone's pen. And you're not condemned to admire that beauty from a distance. With lines and numbers there to help, you can actually "create" it, even if you're not a gifted artist or mathematician." - Plus Magazine, an online maths magazine that is widely used by schools. https://plus.maths.org/content/snowflake-seashell-star Alex?s book, Alex Through the Looking Glass: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life, is shortlisted for The Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2015. This is the only major international prize that celebrates science writing for a non-specialist audience. We wish him luck for tonight?s announcement of the winner!

Many congratulations to Sunjeev Sahota, whose novel THE YEAR OF THE RUNAWAYS is one of six books shortlisted for this year?s Man Booker Prize. The novel tells the story of three Indian immigrants living in a house in Sheffield, and the devout, extraordinary woman on the other side of the city who will change at least one of their lives. Writing in the Guardian, Kamila Shamsie described it as ?a brilliant and beautiful novel? and Cressida Connolly in The Spectator said ?Novels of such scope and invention are all too rare; unusual, too, are those of real heart, whose characters you grow to love and truly care for. The Year of the Runaways has it all? I doubt if I?ll read a better novel this year." Our congratulations, too, to Anna Smaill, who was longlisted for her debut novel THE CHIMES.

Kevin Fong, a flying doctor and expert in space medicine, will use the Royal Institution Christmas lectures to explore how an immense controlled explosion propels astronauts into a beautiful and hostile environment where a single mistake can mean death in seconds. The lecture series, How to Survive in Space, will hopefully include a live two-way video chat with Tim Peake, Britain?s first European Space Agency astronaut, who is set to arrive at the International Space Station for the start of his mission, Principia, days before the lectures begin. The Royal Institution runs an online ballot for tickets to watch the lectures being filmed. The ballot is open to RI members and UK registered schools and will run from 3 to 24 September. More info can be found here: http://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures

Adrian Scarborough reads Michael Peppiatt's intimate and indiscreet account of his thirty-year friendship with the defining artist of our time. Michael Peppiatt met Francis Bacon in June 1963 in Soho's French House to request an interview for a student magazine. Bacon invited him to lunch, and over oysters and Chablis they began a friendship and a no-holds-barred conversation that would continue until Bacon's death in 1992. The Soho photographer, John Deakin, who introduced the young student to the famous artist, called Peppiatt 'Bacon's Boswell'. And for decades, Peppiatt accompanied Bacon on his nightly round of prodigious drinking from grand hotel to louche club to casino, witnessing all aspects of Bacon's 'gilded gutter life', as well as meeting the likes of Lucian Freud, East End thugs, Andy Warhol and the Duke of Devonshire. He also frequently discussed painting with Bacon in his studio, where only the artist's closest friends were ever admitted. Despite the chaos Bacon created around him Peppiatt managed to record scores of their conversations ranging over every aspect of life and art, love and death. And here he shows Bacon close-up, grand and petty, tender and treacherous by turn, and often quite unlike the myth that has grown up around him.

A TV adaptation of Hallie Rubenhold?s Lady Worsley?s Whim aired on BBC2 as a racy period drama titled The Scandalous Lady W on 17th August. Starring Natalie Dormer as the spirited young heiress, over 2.5 million people tuned in to watch her make history with a divorce that shocked the country. To keep this number on the rise, watch it here.

Gavin McCrea?s Mrs Engels has been long-listed for the 2015 Guardian First Book Award as one of ten d?buts selected by judges for their flair and originality. His novel, set in both Manchester and London, imagines a world where Friedrich Engels marries a simple factory worker, Lizzie Burns, whilst joining Karl Marx in stirring up a revolution, and Lizzie?s own heart. Notably, 6 out of the 10 books selected for the ?10,000 prize are published by independent presses, with a further two titles published by major houses in the UK after smaller imprints first picked them up elsewhere. The Guardian?s literary editor, Claire Armistead, commented on how small independent publishers are unearthing ?new blood? due to ?larger houses ? finding themselves under increasing pressure to make a commercial case for each acquisition?. The long-list in full: MRS ENGELS by Gavin McCrae (Scribe) MAN V NATURE by Diane Cook (Oneworld) PHYSICAL by Andrew McMillan (Johnathan Cape) THE FISH LADDER by Katherine Norbury (Bloomsbury) THE FISHERMAN by Chigozie Obioma (One, Pushkin Press) NOTHING IS TRUE AND EVERYHTING IS POSSIBLE by Peter Pomerantsev (Faber) GRIEF IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS by Max Porter (Faber) THE SHORE by Sara Taylor (Heinemann/ Windmill) THE WALLCREEPER by Nell Zink (4th Estate) SPILL SIMMER FALTER WITHER by Sara Baume (Tramp Press/ Heinemann) The winner will be announced in late November.

Judge Sarah Waters: "The best science writers can move and thrill us just as much as Austen or Dickens" The Royal Society has announced the shortlist for The Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2015, the only major international prize that celebrates science writing for a non-specialist audience. The shortlist in full (in alphabetical order by author surname): ? THE MAN WHO COULDN'T STOP by David Adam (Picador) ? ALEX THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS: HOW LIFE REFLECTS NUMBERS AND NUMBERS REFLECT LIFE by Alex Bellos (Bloomsbury) ? SMASHING PHYSICS: INSIDE THE WORLD'S BIGGEST EXPERIMENT by Jon Butterworth (Headline) ? LIFE'S GREATEST SECRET: THE STORY OF THE RACE TO CRACK THE GENETIC CODE by Matthew Cobb (Profile) ? LIFE ON THE EDGE: THE COMING OF AGE OF QUANTUM BIOLOGY by Johnjoe Mcfadden and Professor Jim Al-Khalili (Bantam Press) ? ADVENTURE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE: A JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF THE PLANET WE MADE by Gaia Vince (Chatto & Windus) Chair of judges Ian Stewart said: "While these books vary widely in their subject matter, they all excel at telling the human story, making science accessible and real without dumbing it down. Whether it's through Gaia Vince's reports of her ecological Adventures in the Anthropocene, finding out what it?s like to work at the Large Hadron Collider in Smashing Physics, or Bellos's infectious enthusiasm in Alex Through the Looking-Glass, these books provide wonderfully engaging entry routes into complex topics." Founded in 1988, (and previously known under different banners including the Aventis Prize and Rh?ne-Poulenc Prize), the Prize celebrates outstanding popular science books from around the world and is open to authors of science books written for a non-specialist audience. Over the decades it has championed writers such as Stephen Hawking, Jared Diamond, Stephen Jay Gould and Bill Bryson. Chair of judges Professor Ian Stewart is a mathematician and Royal Society Fellow, also known for his Science of Discworld series which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett and Jack Cohen. He is joined on the judging panel by Guardian Books Editor Claire Armitstead, Channel 4 lead anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Electronic Engineer and recipient of a Royal Society University Research Fellowship Dr Jo Shien Ng, science broadcaster and author Dr Adam Rutherford, and award-winning novelist Sarah Waters. The winner will be crowned at an evening ceremony on 24th September and will receive a cheque for ?25,000, with ?2,500 awarded to each of the five shortlisted authors. Professor Brian Cox OBE, currently The Royal Society?s Professor of Public Engagement in Science, will be hosting the awards ceremony.