Books in the news

Three books reviewed in The Scotsman by Matt Qvortrup:

Scottish Independence: Yes or No? by Alan Cochrane and George Kerevan, The History Press, £7.99

Arts of Independence, by Alexander Moffat and Alan Riach, Luath Press, £9.99

Yes: the Radical Case for Scottish Independence, James Foley and Pete Ramand, Pluto Press, £12

To which might be added: Referendums and Ethnic Conflict by Matt Qvortrup himself, published by University of Pennsylvania Press, for a more scholarly take on these matters.

We have just published a new edition of Why Darwin Matters to Christians, Adrian Bailey’s take on the appropriate response of Christians to the scientific revolution and to Darwinism in particular. Adrian is Chaplain of the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry. This well-argued book has proved to be of interest to many, both Christian and non-Christian.

The obituary of Sue Townsend in the Independent describes how Richmal Crompton’s William became the inspiration for Adrian Mole.

For anyone interested in memoir, there’s an excellent review by Paul Binding in the Spectator of the third volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s six-volume autobiographical trilogy, Boyhood Island. (Translation of the last three volumes into English is not yet complete.) Knausgaard’s Proustian take on the nature of memory holds a warning for anyone embarking on a memoir. It is: ‘pragmatic, sly and artful’.

Shropshire War Memorial, Sites of Remembrance by Peter Francis will be launched on 27 October at Shrewsbury Library. A complete gazetteer of all Shropshire war memorials with a wealth of historical and anecdotal background, we have been delighted to be associated with this very worthwhile project.

The Man Booker Prize for Commonwealth novels, won previously by Commonwealth writers  such as Salman Rushdie, is about to open its doors to include American writers. This appears to be, at least partially, in response to the new Folio Prize which is open to all writing in the English language and starts next year. There is an article in the Independent which explains in further detail.

The former archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has added his voice to a campaign for organ donation. In a 19-line poem”Host Organism”, described on the Guardian website,  Williams – now master of Magdalene College, Cambridge – takes an oblique line on transplants, imagining surgeons as gardeners and donors as “unnamed birds”. The poem is intended to assist National Transplant Week, running until 14 July.