Bob Fowke kicked off a new series of YouCaxton Literary Lectures in Shrewsbury last night. His theme was ‘The History of Self-Publishing from the Ten Commandments to Kindle E-Books‘. Further lectures will include Paul Binding on Scandinavian crime fiction, Toby Green on the development of trans-Atlantic trade and cultural patterns, Adrian Bailey on Evolution and Christianity and Dr. Anthony Lempert on religion and medicine.
Birmingham Public Library owns a rare copy, one of only 228 copies in existence, of the First Folio of Shakepeare’s works, published 1623. The book will be on display – for the first time – in the Shakespeare Memorial Room at the library, on 5th April as part of an exhibition ‘Library of Cultures’ that will also include an edition of Audubon’s Birds of America, 39 by 26 inches and perhaps the most beautiful of all illustrated bird books.
The National Archives have announced the availability of their first tranche of First-World-War diaries, there’s a piece in the Guardian. The National Archives have digitised around 1.5 million pages of war diaries and will be releasing them throughout this year as part of their First-World-War centenary programme. This first batch of ‘unit war diaries’ are from the first three cavalry (WO 95/1096 to WO 95/1156) and the first seven infantry divisions (WO 95/1227 to WO 95/1670), part of the first wave of British troops deployed in France and Flanders. The diaries cover the entire period of the units’ involvement in the war, from their arrival on the front to their departure at the end of the war.
YouCaxton will be starting a monthly book clinic in Birmingham from February 2014. This will provide local writers with the opportunity to discuss their projects in person with one of our editorial staff. We are particularly interested in hearing from writers of books with connections to the West Midlands Region.
Peter Francis launched Shropshire War Memorials at Shrewsbury Library on 27 October at a well-attended talk.
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.
Interesting article in Guardian books mapping the locations of Man-Booker-prize novels, written by Nick Sidwell, digital publishing manager at Guardian Books. Given that all entrants for the prize must come from Commonwealth countries there’s a curiously nostalgic character to the map.