Author Frank McCourt dies

Frank McCourt was an Irish-American raconteur and memoirist whose abilities gained a world-wide audience only after entering retirement. Prior to springing to international acclaim, Frank had been a public school teacher for 30 years and was fondly regarded as a jovial and...

Indian author Aravind Adiga wins Man Booker Prize 2008

Beating predictions by bookies and others, debutant Indian novelist 33-year-old Aravind Adiga's book "The White Tiger" was on Wednesday declared the winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction for 2008.Adiga beat favourite Sebastian Barry to take the 50,000 pound...

Vidal: Bush ended US as a republic

"Vidal: Bush ended US as a republic Press TV Saturday, June 28, 2008 Gore Vidal, US novelist, historian and social critic says the Bush regime has killed all of the constitutional links that made the US a republic. On...

Death Needs A Mop

"In his top-of-the-heap book, Markus Zusak gives all you would expect in a novel about wartime Germany. But his trick is to make Death his narrator, writes Marianne Brace HOW do you write a fresh story about the Holocaust? Australian novelist Markus Zusak has cracked it with...

Cheshire hero set to conquer Hollywood

"Cheshire hero set to conquer Hollywood Dan McMullanTHE life of a legendary mountaineer who was raised in Cheshire and died on the slopes of Everest looks likely to be turned into a Hollywood blockbuster. Mobberley-born George Mallory is thought by some to have been the first...

Literature Is Theft

"On the literary Dow Jones, glittering prizes go together with charges of plagiarism like bull markets and the Serious Fraud Office. Ian McEwan, the most successful novelist of his generation, has been dogged by imputations of fraudulence. He is not alone. In the past several...

Debut novelist Iain Hollingshead wins Bad Sex prize

"First-time author Iain Hollingshead scooped a dubious literary honour last night, winning the Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction award for his novel Twenty Something. Hollingshead beat established writers including Irvine Welsh, Will Self, David Mitchell and American...

Islamic fears kill off children's thriller--Censorship Alert

"A LEADING children's publisher has dumped a novel because of political sensitivity over Islamic issues. Scholastic Australia pulled the plug on the Army of the Pure after booksellers and librarians said they would not stock the adventure thriller for younger readers because...