Publishing house Penguin will celebrate 30 years in publishing with a bevy of activities at the Jaipur Literature Festival. Penguin was established in 1985, and publishing began in 1987, with six books. Keep Reading, a campaign to promote reading anywhere, anytime, and the launch of a range of Penguin collectibles and merchandise, are among the activities planned. Penguin will also unveil its Penguin30 titles, a selection of Indian writing in English published over the last 30 years. Some of these books include Kalidasa’s
Kumarasambhavam , Jawaharlal Nehru’s
An Autobiography , Vikram Seth’s
The Golden Gate , Amitav Ghosh’s
Sea of Poppies and Jhumpa Lahiri’s
Unaccustomed Earth , among others. A microsite,
www.penguin30.com , will also be launched.
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Leading bookseller Crossword Bookstores has entered the publishing market with The Write Place, which will focus only on Indian authors. The share of Indian authors at Crossword sales is 45%, and has grown by 25-27% in the past eight years. “Indian authors are in demand and we look forward to telling some wonderful stories,” said Kinjal Shah, chief executive of Crossword Bookstores. About 300 titles will be released over the next three years. The Write Place has already published 25 titles, including
Around India in 40 Doodles by Humming Whale,
The Indian Garden by Rathi Varma, and
Challenging Destiny by Medha Deshmukh-Bhaskaran.
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Britain’s Prince Charles has co-authored a book on the challenges and possible solutions to climate change.
Climate Change: A Ladybird Expert Book , like other books in the Ladybird series, will be 48 pages long and has illustrations by Ruth Palmer in the old-fashioned style. Ladybird produced a series of books for children in the 60s and 70s and has recently launched a range of humorous books for adults. The climate change book, co-authored by former Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper and climate scientist Emily Shuckburgh, will be released on January 26.
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London-based publishing house Head of Zeus has bought a new science-fiction novel by author and blogger Cory Doctorow. The book, titled
Walkaway , has been described as “a multi-generational sci-fi thriller about the momentous changes coming in the next hundred years” and an “epic tale of revolution, love, war and the end of death”. It will be released in April.
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BBC is creating the first onscreen adaptation of author John Le Carre’s spy classic
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold . The team behind the BBC1 hit series
The Night Manager will handle the show. Le Carre’s book is set during the Cold War, just months after the Berlin Wall was built. Simon Beaufoy, writer of
Slumdog Millionaire and
The Full Monty , has been enlisted to adapt the series.
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British multinational publishing and education company Pearson will sell its 47% stake in publishing firm Penguin Random House and issue an exit notice to its joint venture partner Bertelsmann, a German media conglomerate. Bertelsmann has said it is open to increasing its share in the publishing group if the “financial terms are fair”.
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Writer and author Anita Nair has set up a publishing start-up called Attic Books. It is a joint venture between Anita’s Attic, the author’s writing and mentorship programme, and Logos Books. Attic Books will feature writers from around the world writing in English or whose books have been translated into English. The first set of authors include Andres Neumann (Argentina/ Spain), Bei Tong (China) and Evald Flisar (Slovenia).
