- Edwin Morgan contends that the literary traditions of Scotland and England “have increasingly diverged, and are likely to continue to do so.”
- Nadine Gordimer “dismisses the value of writing programs,” and Toni Morrison discounts the notion that writing has therapeutic value for the writer.
- Jonathan Coe traces his obsession with Billy Wilder’s Sherlock Holmes. (For a brief appreciation of Coe, go here.)
- Publishers, realizing
suckersbook collectors will plunk down cash for ever-more-elaborate hardbacks, sell “deluxe versions” of new novels in mainstream U.K. bookstores.
- A debut novel written by Esquire editor Adrienne Miller garners accolades at the Village Voice.
- Transita, a new publisher targeting books to U.K. women aged 45 and older, causes a ruckus on BBC Radio 4 and beyond.
- For the Boston Globe, Jessica Keener considers the potential impact of book blogs in today’s publishing environment.
- Left Behind mastermind Tim LaHaye declines to respond to the news of Michael Standaert’s forthcoming Skipping Toward Armageddon: The Politics and Propaganda of the Left Behind Novels and the LaHaye Empire. (Thanks to Richard for the link.)