AbeBooks' Reading Copy

Question – what’s the connection between this fantastic British TV advert for cream cakes and Salman Rushdie? Don’t rush off to Google. I’ll tell you. Mr Rushdie wrote the ‘Naughty. But Nice.’ tagline for this famous advertising campaign back when he was a struggling writer. This particular ad aired in 1984 and stars comedians Les [...]

The English novelist Tony Parsons is going to be writer-in-residence at Heathrow Airport. He’s been commissioned to write a collection of short stories about the workers and travelers found in this huge airport, reports The Guardian. Parsons is following in the footsteps of Alain de Botton, who wrote a book about his experiences as writer-in-residence [...]

Charles Bukowski is turning in his grave because the Book Beast website has written an article called America’s Drunkest Writer… and it’s about F Scott Fitzgerald.

I’m feeling quite proud of myself. The Guardian has an article about Rebecca West and her contribution to the Vorticist movement, and I actually know what Vorticism is because I read a massive biography of Wyndham Lewis last year. There’s an exhibition about Vorticism coming up at London’s Tate gallery that focuses on the painters [...]

The Daily Telegraph reprints the new introduction to Complete Stories by Kingsley Amis, published this week by Penguin Modern Classics. In Lucky Jim, Amis reprised the black comedy of Evelyn Waugh and reclothed it in the provincial workaday garb of the ordinary middle classes, and if in doing so he belied something of his artistic [...]

Not many authors have matched the elegant prose of Evelyn Waugh. He wrote satirical novels, travel books, revealing diaries, newspaper articles, a remarkable fictional trilogy about World War II and even a book about wine. There’s so much more to Waugh than just Brideshead Revisited (and you’ve got to love a man called Evelyn who [...]

One of the most aptly named events on the Canadian literary calendar is the annual Bloody Words mystery conference. This year, it is being held in Victoria, British Columbia (AbeBooks’ home town) on June 3-5. The guests of honour are writers Tess Gerritsen, Michael Slade and William Deverell. The Bloody Words conference began in 1999. [...]

An author’s death rarely means the end of original works from them – The Pale King by David Foster Wallace is the latest and greatest example. A dusty, forgotten manuscript found in a cardboard box soon becomes a bestseller. Sometimes the author’s talent goes unrecognized and success comes after their death. This broad selection – [...]

Laurie Lee’s vintage Corona travel typewriter is up for sale reports The Guardian. Cider with Rosie remains one of my favourite books to this day. I must read the other two books in the trilogy.

The estate of Ian Fleming is to commission a follow-up to the author’s wonderful children’s tale, Chitty Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, reports The Guardian. Sadly, most people do not know Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a book by Fleming. They just think it’s a film starring several annoying children and faux Englishman Dick Van Dyke [...]