Latest news

Derek B Miller has won the CWA 2013 John Creasey Dagger, for best new crime writer of the year, with Norwegian by Night. The judges, who were unanimous in their decision, praised ?? this beautifully-written contribution to Nordic noir with a twist. It cleverly avoids many the genre?s clich?s and pitfalls and emerges triumphant as a fully-dimensional gem.?

Yesterday, Julie Kavanagh spoke about her biography of Marie Duplessis, The Girl Who Loved Camellias, on ?In Tune? on Radio 3. Julie Kavanagh brilliantly re-creates the short, intense, and passionate life of a girl who, at thirteen, fled her brute of a father and Normandy to go to Paris, where she would become one of the grand courtesans of the 1840s, inspiring Alexandre Dumas fils?s novel and play La dame aux cam?lias, Giuseppe Verdi?s opera 'La Traviata', George Cukor?s film 'Camille', and Frederick Ashton?s ballet 'Marguerite and Armand'. Follow this link to listen again.

'Nirvana by Numbers', a documentary aired on BBC Radio 4 yesterday, follows Alex Bellos around India to explore the fundamental numerical gifts which early Indian mathematicians gave to the world, and asks whether the great religions of ancient India - Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism - had any part in their origins. Alex's first book Alex's Adventures in Numberland was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize and the National Book Award's Non-Fiction Book of the Year. Click here if you missed it.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner was interviewed yesterday on Radio 4's 'Front Row', talking about Music in the Castle of Heaven, his definitive biography of Johann Sebastian Bach. Click here to listen in. Alternatively, book tickets to see him in discussion with Raymond Tallis at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Wednesday 9th October.

The number of female politicians in Britain is decreasing, teenage girls are suffering increased violence from boyfriends, and the pay gap between men and women over the age of 30 shows no sign of equalising. Some claim that inequality and sexism are on the increase. But where does sexism come from? Claudia Hammond chairs an expert panel discussion, this Wednesday, at The Royal Institute, in association with the British Psychological Society. Tickets: ?12 standard, ?8 concessions and ?6 Associates. Follow this link for more information.

At 19.00 this evening, at Southwark Cathedral, Sir John Eliot Gardiner will be hosting a night of music and discussion to coincide with the launch of his definitive biography of Johann Sebastian Bach. TIckets are ?10.00, plus booking fee and can be purchased from www.johneliotgardiner.eventbrite.co.uk.

Doctor and writer Gabriel Weston, whose debut novel Dirty Work was published to huge acclaim in the summer, is to co-present a new BBC TV health show 'Trust Me I'm a Doctor'. The first programme airs on 10 October at 8 pm on BBC 2.

The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones, by Jack Wolf, has been shortlisted for the third annual Polari First Book Prize. The prize, for a first book which explores the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender experience, this year carries prize money of ?1,000, courtesy of sponsor Societe Generale UK LGBT Network. Wolf is joined on the five-strong shortlist by Kerry Hudson Mari Hannah, Mark O'Connell and Rebecca Idris. The judges were writers Paul Burston, Bidisha, Rachel Holmes and V G Lee, as well as literary critic Suzi Feay, and books buyer Joe Storey-Scott. Feay said: "The judges were delighted to see a growth in submissions this year, particularly from new female authors. From such a strong longlist, it was difficult to narrow down the choices to the final five, but we feel they represent the strongest individual voices with the most engaging tales to tell . . . "These are books to dazzle, amuse and beguile." The winner will be announced on 13th November.

Norwegian by Night, published this week in paperback, has not only been picked as the first title in Waterstones Autumn Book Club, but has been nominated to join Malkom Mackay, Hanna Jameson and Thomas Mogford on the shortlist for this year's CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award.The Judges said: ?Tension, humour and tragedy are combined in this beautifully-written contribution to Nordic noir with a twist from an English-speaking author. With a central character who is original, wonderfully humane and convincing, this debut novel cleverly avoids many the genre's clich?s and pitfalls and emerges triumphant as a fully-dimensional gem.? Norwegian by Night has also recently been reviewed by Chris White as part of the Radio 2 Arts Show Summer Season: ?The standard of writing soars above that of most debuts, and makes this one of the most enjoyable books of the year.?

"Lyrical, comic and packed with piercing descriptions of the natural world..." Brian Kimberling's debut, Snapper, has been chosen as the Observer Paperback Pick of the Week. "At the same time as being down-to-earth and humorous, Snapper is suffused with a certain melancholy, and it is Kimberling's expert balancing of all these elements that allows the novel's insights ? into who we are and where we come from ? to hit home." Not to mention stand-out reviews in both the Times and the Sunday Times this week.

Xiaolu Guo, whose new novel I Am China will be published by Chatto & Windus in 2014, continues to attract attention and accolade in her other life as a director and screenwriter. Her highly acclaimed feature film 'UFO In Her Eyes' will be awarded the Premio Citt? di Venezia at the Venice Biennale on 7 September. Meanwhile, her most recent documentary 'Late at Night: voices of ordinary madness, interviews with and observations of the dispossessed of London?s East End', has been selected for the London Film Festival.

A stream of amazing reviews for Olivia Laing?s The Trip to Echo Spring, published by Canongate on 1 August: ?Brilliant and original?, says John Carey in The Sunday Times. In The Times, John Sutherland writes, ?Laing?s analysis of the complex addiction is consistently shrewd. But what makes The Trip to Echo Spring truly worthwhile is that she, like those she writes about, is a terrific writer. Cheers, Olivia.? ?Laing?s prose is lucid and exuberant,? writes Alice Sprawls in the Financial Times. ?She rejects the opportunities for humour, although some of the stories are very funny indeed; and traces rather than interrogates her subjects. She knows them intimately and the result is a thoughtful study, part literary biography, part travel memoir.? David Sexton in the Evening Standard agrees: ?Laing writes so well, so seductively in fact, that this deconstructed way of pursuing a story works brilliantly.? The Economist says: ?In Ms Laing?s hands these famously complicated men become fragile, and terribly human.? And the last word goes to Sebastian Shakespeare in Tatler: ?Why read it? For its intoxicating prose and maverick spirit.?

Listen out for Lucy Hawking on Radio 4 on Friday as she explores the history of synthesizing speech over the last 200 years. Dennis Klatt was an American pioneer of text to speech devices, enabling those without the ability to speak to have a voice. Before Klatt died in 1988, he produced the definitive history of speech synthesis, which included recordings he archived charting the progress of the technology in the 20th century. Using Klatt's extensive research as her cornerstone, Hawking will take us from the first electronic device produced by Homer Dudley in the 1930's up to current research, which suggests people are disturbed by hearing artificial speech which is too human. We'll also hear from Klatt's daughter Laura Fine, who worked with her father, as well as colleagues and researchers in the field of speech synthesis, and raid the archives of the Acoustical Society of America (much of which was archived by Klatt) for recordings of the wonderful and sometimes weird speech synthesizers. Follow this link to listen in: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03775fy

On January 1, 2014, Sir John Eliot Gardiner will become President of the Bach Archive Foundation. The function of Foundation president is a newly created one aimed at underscoring the internationally leading role of the Bach Archive and developing it further. Leipzig?s mayor, Burkhard Jung, succeeded in winning over Sir John Eliot - one of the world?s leading interpreters of eighteenth-century music - for this task during Bachfest Leipzig 2013. His profound academic knowledge of the life and work of Bach make him predestined for the function of Foundation president and by extension an internationally respected ambassador of Bach research in Leipzig. On the announcement of the news on Friday, Sir John Eliot Gardiner commented: "It is a special honour for me to have been offered the post of President of the Bach Archive Leipzig by the Mayor of Leipzig. I am delighted to have the most prominent Bach expert by my side in the shape of Peter Wollny and thank my friend Christoph Wolff for the tremendous work that he has done for the Bach Archive. Underlying my work as a conductor and writer is the Bach research done in Leipzig. With the fine recent track record of the research team led by Peter Wollny and their sixth sense of knowing where to locate hitherto undetected source material, it is my strong belief that we can look forward over the next few years to exciting fresh evidence coming to light that will enrich our portrait of Bach and our understanding of his oeuvre and environment. It will be my privilege to support and encourage this research and to blast a trumpet internationally for the work and achievements of the Bach Archive in Leipzig."