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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."

After the closure of long-term BBC Radio 4 science programme 'Material World', we are pleased to announce that Adam Rutherford, author of Creation, has been chosen as the voice of science on Radio 4 for the new weekly programme 'Inside Science', with Lucie Green, author of 15 Million Degrees taking on some of the hosting duties later on in the year. The first programme will air tomorrow. Follow this link for more information.

Gianmarco Milesi and Matteo Civaschi, the masterminds behind the H-57 Creative Station, have been awarded a Bronze Lion Award in the Design/ Books category of the Cannes International Festival of Creativity. Life In Five Seconds is a collection of over 200 visual snapshots that depict extraordinary lives, films and cultural icons in witty designs that can be deciphered in under five seconds. Please follow this link for more information.

C.E. Smith has been announced as the winner of the Shakespeare & Company ?Paris Literary Prize? 2013 for his novella Body Electric, just published in a limited edition by Shakespeare & Co in conjunction with The White Review. We are delighted to have taken him on as a client. Please follow this link for more information.

Charles Cumming and Derek B. Miller will both be attending this year's Bristol CrimeFest on the 1 & 2 June. Charles Cumming will be discussing the spy novel with Michael Ridpath, while Derek B. Miller will present his debut novel Norwegian by Night, and what it is like being an American novelist living in Oslo. Visit http://www.crimefest.com/ for the full line up.

This month Elly Griffiths, author of the brilliant Ruth Galloway series, joins Martin Walker and Colin Cotterill at book signings and festivals across the country as part of the Location Location Location 30 day Crime Tour. Catch them in London, Bristol, Nottingham, Ely or Norwich and follow Elly on twitter @ellygriffiths for further information. This tour coincides with the announcement that Elly has been short-listed for the 2013 ?Dagger in the Library? prize. The winner will be announced on 15 July, and more information can be found here.

Gavin Corbett has won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for his novel, This is the Way. The prize - the largest monetary award for fiction available solely to Irish authors - was announced last night at Listowel Writers? Week. Joining Gavin on the short-list were Lucy Caldwell, Claire Kilroy, Kathleen MacMahon and Thomas O?Malley. Frank Hayes, Director of Corporate Affairs for Kerry Group, said: "This year's short-list included five exceptionally talented Irish writers whose work showcases the breadth of literary talent in Ireland ".

Charles Cumming has been long-listed for this year's Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Now in its ninth year, the award was created to celebrate the very best in crime writing and is open to British and Irish authors.The short-list will be announced on the 6th June.

It has just been announced that Adam Marek, winner of the 2011 Arts Foundation Short Story Fellowship, has been short-listed for this year?s Edge Hill Prize. Now in its seventh year, the Edge Hill Prize is the only UK award that recognises excellence in a published collection of short stories. Among the finalists for the ?5,000 prize are Irish writer Kevin Barry, Jon McGregor, Emma Donoghue and Jane Rogers. The judging panel includes award-winning writer Sarah Hall, Scottish author and literary critic Lesley McDowell and Jim Lee, Regional Buyer at Waterstones.

Last night Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair was one of twenty titles to have 25,000 copies gifted out across England and Ireland for World Book Night 2013. World Book Night is a yearly celebration of reading and books, that encourages tens of thousands of passionate volunteers to share their love of reading within their communities by handing out free copies of specially chosen and printed books. Follow this think to find out more, and get involved.

Gavin Corbett is one of 5 short-listed authors for the 2013 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award announced last night at Dublin?s Mansion House. The award was adjudicated this year by Robert McCrum, Observer Associate Editor and former editor-in-chief of Faber & Faber, together with poet and playwright, Rita Ann Higgins. Gavin Corbett was born in the west of Ireland and grew up in Dublin, where he studied History at Trinity College. This is the Way, his second novel, was published earlier this year by Fourth Estate in the UK and Faber in the US.

Xiaolu Guo and Sunjeev Sahota have been selected for Granta?s prestigious Best Of Young British Novelists. Published every ten years, the issue collects new work by twenty writers who represent the future of literature in Britain. The magazine is out now. For three consecutive decades, Granta has had an astonishing high strike rate for predicting which young novelists will take a permanent place in the literary firmament ? past selections have included Martin Amis, Pat Barker, Julian Barnes, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Rose Tremain, Alan Hollinghurst, A.L. Kennedy, Will Self, Helen Simpson, Jeanette Winterson, David Mitchell and Zadie Smith. This year is no different. Sahota?s extract, described by Salman Rushdie as ?strong, fresh and true?, is taken from his forthcoming novel, THE YEAR OF THE RUNAWAYS, that will be published by Picador next year. And Guo, one of the twelve female writers dominating this year?s selection, will have the full version of her novel, CHINA, published by Random House in 2015. For more information please visit the Granta website.

Visit Cambridge Wordfest on 12/13/14 April and immerse yourself in a literary world filled with everything from fiction to history, science to philosophy and travel to current affairs. Tim Radford will be taking to the stage with Richard Fortey, to talk about Richard's book,The Earth,for The Guardian Science Book Club. There will also be workshops from Olivia Laing and Alok Jha, and a d?but author panel event by Jack Wolf. Follow this link for more information.