Pages & Proofs

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is a modern classic, right? One of the great anti-war novels of modern times? It’s a must-read for any student of literature? Agreed? In 1973, an English teacher at Drake High School in North Dakota decided to use the novel in his classes.  However, the head of the Drake High school […]

The BBC writes about Leonard Woolf’s forgotten Sri Lankan novel, The Village in the Jungle, saying it has been unjustly ignored. Virginia’s husband published the book in  1913 and it is notable because it is the first novel in English literature to be written from the indigenous point of view rather than that of the […]

Ray Bradbury’s former home in Los Angeles is for sale at $1,495,000. The three-bedroom house was built in 1937. Bradbury died in 2012 at the age of 91. The author wrote in the basement of the home but also kept an office in Beverly Hills where he also wrote. I flicked through the slideshow of […]

The bestselling author of the Merlin series, Mary Stewart, has died at the grand, old age of 97. The five books in the Merlin series, sometimes called Merlin Chronicles, were published between 1970 and 1995 – they are The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment, The Wicked Day, and The Prince and the […]

Posh supermarket chain Waitrose has turned to poetry in its latest bid to win over Britain’s shoppers. The Guardian reports Waitrose plans to display “poetry throughout its stores as part of a year-long campaign which, it says, is aimed at reducing the drudgery of the regular shop. Amen to that! I can tell you horror […]

The biggest prize in the cookbook genre was announced yesterday and a book describing the long and complex legacy of British cuisine has picked up the main award. The James Beard Foundation Book Awards named Historic Heston by English chef Heston Blumenthal as cookbook of the year. Blumenthal, owner of The Fat Duck, details the identity […]

Famous fictional secret agents and spies abound, from 007  and Simon ‘The Saint’ Templar to Jason Bourne, but John le Carré’s wonderful creation George Smiley might just be the best of them all. Our most expensive sale last month was a signed first edition of Call for the Dead, the author’s debut novel from 1961. […]

Scottish author Iain Banks left more than £3.5 million in his will, it was reported this week. Banks died from gall bladder cancer in June last year aged 59. Papers from the Glasgow Sheriff Court show that Banks’ estate was worth £3,640,011 including £2.1 million in royalties. His assets also included an archive of his […]