Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ Producers Developing Jonathan Lee’s High Dive
Pulse Films and Addictive Pictures have acquired the film rights to the Margaret Thatcher assassination thriller
THE LONEY named Book of the Year and Debut Fiction of the Year at the British Book Awards
In the shrewdly competitive world of publishing and publicity, the story behind a novel is often as important as the story between its covers. Like superheroes, modern writers stalk through the media trailing their origin myths behind them: think of JK Rowling scribbling away in an Edinburgh café at the Harry Potter books, or […]
Brix Smith Start: ‘Mark E Smith? He’s complicated’
Ex-Fall guitarist Brix Smith Start endured wild and colourful marriages with both Mark E Smith and Nigel Kennedy. Now she’s written her memoir… In May 1983, Brix Smith, then aged 20, arrived in Manchester. A Californian by birth and disposition, her first impressions of the city were not favourable. The buildings, she writes in her […]
Take two chapters, daily – how to prescribe fiction
GPs are to going to give books to help teenagers with mental health issues. It’s a great idea – but not a new one. Aitken Alexander Authors Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin discuss the power of novels-as-therapy
Sara Baume talks dogs, art and Spill Simmer Falter Wither
Before she was a writer, Sara Baume set out to be a visual artist. “First and foremost I see; I see the world and then I describe it …” she says. “I don’t know another way to write. I always anchor everything in an image.” Baume’s process works — a review in The Irish Times called her debut […]
Two Aitken Alexander authors picked for Waterstones’ books to read this month
Read more about The Other Mrs Walker by Mary Paulson-Ellis, and Anatomy Of A Soldier by Harry Parker here
How Phil Lynott Became Rock’s Most Notorious Hellraiser
Rock star Phil Lynott was recording his second solo album in a studio in Soho and, as usual, the control room was overflowing with hangers-on. Lynott made a show of conducting a headcount – 12 people. Gazing at the expectant entourage, he carefully prepared 12 lines of cocaine. And then he snorted them all himself. “He […]
Film adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s Lean on Pete will shoot this summer
Lean on Pete will be adapted and directed by Andrew Haigh whose last film, 45 Years, starred Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling.
The Button Box by Lynn Knight – The Guardian review
Do you have a happy relationship with your clothes?
Dark waters: faith and death in The Loney by Andrew Hurley
Inspired by the nature writing of Robert Macfarlane and gothic yarns in which the wild Lancashire coast features prominently, The Loney pitches modern pilgrims into a desolate landscape.