Latest news

Tune in to BBC Radio 4 next Wednesday at 21.00 to hear Alex Bellos take you on a mathematical learning journey from the first stages of number recognition, through to an understanding of how children solve sums and calculate answers. On the way he will look at the neuroscience of maths and how our mathematical brain develops. He will also investigate the scientific evidence behind teaching maths and compare how modern methods of teaching children differ from those taught to their parents, helping kids today go beyond basic numeracy to develop a passion for numbers.

Creation, Adam Rutherford's extraordinary, flip-back book on the origins, and future, of life in genetics, has been picked as one of Nick Lezard's Paperbacks of the Week, for the Guardian: ? Dr Adam Rutherford (as he is at pains to point out, no relation to Ernest) is one of the best explicators of any science that I have read ? in a field of good explicators, which is increasingly crowded. So even if you don't have a thing for biology, you will still find this entertaining; you will also find it informative and perhaps, ultimately, scary.? Click here for the full review.

'Blurred Lines', a play about gender politics created by Carrie Cracknell and Faber's Nick Payne, and inspired by Kat Banyard's book, The Equality Illusion, is currently showing at The Shed at The National Theatre and getting fantastic reviews: 'Explosive. Terrific. A superb all-female cast.' Guardian **** 'A funny and visceral exploration of sexuality, gender (in)equality.' Time Out **** 'The writing is witty, the direction elegant, the performance sharply observed.' Telegraph **** 'Thought-provoking. Sharp and challenging new theatre.' Independent **** 'A spirited 69-minute blast.' Observer **** 'Book your tickets now.' Stylist You can buy tickets here. And read about how Kat's book inspired the play here and here.

On Mon 3 Feb 2014, Xiaolu Guo - poet, film-maker and author of the soon to published I Am China - will take part in a panel discussion at an evening to celebrate the launch of a special edition of Guernica magazine focused on free expression, produced in collaboration with Free Word, in association with ARTICLE 19 and English PEN. In the form of essays, interviews, poetry and fiction, the magazine features contributions from leading writers exploring some of the cornerstone questions of free expression today: What does free expression mean in societies who have suffered atrocities? How can this freedom fall under imperial control? How can it be fought for through civil disobedience? What does it mean to safeguard free expression for those we revile? And who guards this freedom online in a fractured and conglomerated internet? To celebrate the launch of this edition, we?ll be addressing some of these questions in a panel discussion at Free Word Centre. Hosted by Kamila Shamsie, the panel includes Guernica?s Editor Michael Archer, novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo, and writer Mirza Waheed, one of the contributors to the issue. This event is by invitation only, but if you?d like to find out more or to attend, please contact: lauren@freewordcentre.com

Norwich Castle, one of the key settings in Elly Griffith?s latest novel, The Outcast Dead, will host the book-launch, in it's keep, on the 5th February. The latest in her Norfolk-based series featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway, was inspired by a tour of Lincoln Castle, a former prison like Norwich Castle. Griffiths says: ?One of the things I love most about Norfolk is its layers of history?I?m writing the next book now, that?s going to be about the abandoned RAF bases. Norfolk has got a few more stories left in it for me yet.? Tickets are ?10 and include ?5 off the book at the event. They can be bought at Jarrold in Norwich or at www.jarrold.co.uk

Publication day, and a flurry of brilliant reviews and coverage for Natalie Young's extraordinary d?but, Season to Taste: The Stylist's Best Books of 2014. Marie Claire?s ?The 2014 Dates To Put In Your Diary. Immediately.' Daily Mail: ?Young writes in a wonderfully detached, dry-as-a-bone style.? Irish Independent: ?It is a thriller in the truest sense. I swallowed it whole, eager and enthralled. The narrative is crisp and snappy, the dialogue sparse, the pace never skips a beat.? The Evening Standard: ?Season to Taste by Natalie Young (subtitled How to Eat Your Husband) comes out this month and is tipped as this year?s Fifty Shades-style literary sensation, destined to capture the imaginations of more unhappily married, fiftysomething women with a weekend penchant for light sadism (and, in this case, horticulture and cookery).' The Sunday Times: 'It tells the story of 53-year-old Lizzie Prain from Surrey, who kills her nasty husband of 30 years with a garden spade, chops him up and turns him into various internal-organ stews and testicle sausages. What EL James did for sales of handcuffs ? the idea goes ? so Natalie Young will do for freezer bags and E coli.?

The National Book Critics Circle has announced its 30 finalists in six categories - autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry - for the best books of 2013. Sir John Eliot Gardiner's definitive biography of Johann Sebastian Bach, Music in the Castle of Heaven , joins Scott Anderson, Leo Damrosch, Linda Leavell and Mark Thompson on the short-list for the Bigraphy category. The National Book Critics Circle Awards, founded in 1974 at the Algonquin Hotel and considered among the most prestigious in American letters, are the sole prizes bestowed by a jury of working critics and book-review editors. The awards will be presented on March 13 at the New School, in a ceremony that is free and open to the public.

Olivia Laing has written a piece in the latest issue of Granta ?do you remember?. An excerpt of the story can be found on Granta's website. Olivia will be participating in launch events for the issue, alongside her US tour to promote the American edition of The Trip to Echo Spring, published by Picador US this month to much accolade,and was featured on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. The tour dates can be found on her website.

Caroline Criado-Perez has been awarded the Human Rights Campaigner of the Year Award at the Liberty Human Rights Awards. Her award was presented by actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Criado-Perez led a campaign which called for the reinstating of a well-known female figure on UK banknotes after Elizabeth Fry was removed from the ?5 note. Jane Austen will appear on banknotes in 2017. Liberty campaigns for the promotion of fundamental rights and freedoms in the UK. Each year, it rewards outstanding human rights heroes at the annual Liberty Human Rights Awards. Granta will publish her debut Do It Like A Woman in 2015.

Audible have commissioned M.J. Arlidge to write an audio exclusive thriller series for release summer 2014. The 10-part series, entitled SIX DEGRESS OF SEPARATION, is a political assassination thriller and will be told in 30 minute episodes. Arlidge has worked in television for the last 15 years, specialising in high end drama production. He has produced a number of prime-time crime serials for ITV In the last five years, and is currently working on a major adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans for the BBC. This year Penguin will publish his debut crime novel, EENY MEENY, the first in a planned series featuring DI Helen Grace.

Some great early press coverage for Season To Taste (or How To Eat Your Husband) by Natalie Young in the papers this weekend: "Set to be one of the most talked about - and most gruesome - books of 2014" said The Sunday Times, and follow this link to read the Daily Mail review in full. With publication by Headline due early next year, we are sure there will be more to come.

Jonathan Jones's The Loves of the Artists chosen in 3 Book of the Year Lists this week: the Observer, the Telegraph and the Spectator. 'What was the quest that inspired the Renaissance? In his refreshing and original... Jones proposes that it was not linear perspective so much as sexual intimacy. Nudes and portraits, often modelled by people close to the artist, led to a new image of humanity'- Martin Gayford, Books of the Year, The Spectator.

Following her shortlisting for the Costa Biography Award, and her strong showing in Christmas round-ups of ?Books of the Year? for The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing has been shortlisted for the Salon London Transmission Prize. Launched in 2008, Salon London showcases passionate experts from the worlds of science, psychology and the arts with a focus on fresh perspectives and new experiences.This award is given in recognition of the value of certain ideas and the work that speakers do to get them to an audience. The 2013 shortlist has been selected by a panel which includes Salon founders Helen Bagnall, Juliet Russell and Diccon Towns, with author and artist Ella Berthoud, Theoretical Physicist Prof. David Tong, QI writer and author Stevyn Colgan and Associate Director of The Literary Platform, Joanna Ellis.

Outstanding success across the press for DB Miller's Norwegian by Night in the end of year editor's picks: Economist (6 Best Fiction Titles of the Year) 'Not many authors succeed in being funny about dementia. This unusual thriller, with its memorable octogenarian hero, introduces a bold new voice in fiction that deserves to become better known.' Guardian Crime Thriller Roundup Norwegian By Night, winner of the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Dagger, is the funny, moving and gripping story of cantankerous 82-year-old widower and ex-marine Sheldon Horowitz, uprooted from his native New York to Oslo, who finds himself on the run with the six year-old son of a murdered neighbour and the ghosts of his past.' Kirkus Top 10 Favourite Crime Novels 'Ripe with memories of wars long ago fought and regrets insurmountable, this is a remarkably moving, memorable debut thriller.' Barry Forshaw, Financial Times 'Miller's discursive but richly written novel introduces us to 82-year-old Sheldon, a Jewish-American anti-hero who worries about senility and chafes in his new country, Norway - until Balkan villains and a cross-country chase change his life.' It was also crowned Crimefictionlover's #1 Debut of the Year.