TV Book Club 2012

Askews and Holts Library Services are now accepting pre-orders for the forthcoming “TV Book Club” which is coming to More4 and Channel 4 in January 2012.

The new series starts on January 29th and runs until 1st April every Sunday night.

The titles are subject to a strict embargo, however, you can order the 10 books now by filling in this order form

Christmas 2011

Askews and Holts Library Services will close for business at 4.15 pm on Thursday 22nd December 2011.

Our office will re-open on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th December before closing again until Tuesday 3rd January 2012.

Approvals

Approval collections will be delivered as normal up until Friday 16th December 2011 and will resume w/c 3rd January 2012.

Deliveries
Normal deliveries will continue until Thursday 22nd December and will resume on Tuesday 3rd January 2012, except for Scotland which will resume on Wednesday 4th January 2012.

If you are expecting a delivery on these days but will not be open for business please contact us as soon as possible – allcustserv@askewsandholts.com

The Bookseller launches site to oppose library closures

Article from The Bookseller...

The Bookseller has launched a campaign to oppose the "wantonly destructive cuts to the national library service".

Called 'Fight for Libraries', the campaign will be centred around a Facebook site where news about library cuts and opposition to them will be reported, and which will also function as a hub for all news, sites and information on the struggle against library cuts. The site will operate from http://bit.ly/fight4libraries and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fight4libraries

"The next few weeks are critical to the future of libraries in this country, and to the literary culture they help support. Up to 800 libraries are faxed with the axe in the coming days. The Government backed-down over Booktrust over Christmas, and its watering down of tuition fees, shows that it is not immune to pressure, whilst history has shown that local councils will back down on library closures once they realise the depth of local opposition. I don't think David Cameron wants to be remembered as the Prime Minister who closed down all the libraries," says editor-in-chief of The Bookseller Neill Denny.

The Facebook site hosts a manifesto and a set of demands, with The Bookseller supporting the calls for a national public enquiry into the library service, demanding a halt to the unfair and disproportionate targeting of libraries for cuts, and calling for the 1964 Libraries Act to be observed in letter and spirit. It also has a poll asking people to commit to supporting libraries.

"Libraries are under threat right now. A library lost today will not be re-opened tomorrow - the book trade has to take a stand," added Denny. "Please use the site to see what is going on and update it with developments in your own area. We'd like you to engage with our Facebook page, let us know who you are, give us your views and post useful links. Our campaign can offer a focal point for all interested parties and thereby form a stronger voice together."

Costa Awards 2010

Costa has announced the Costa Book Awards 2010 winners in the Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book categories.

They are.....

•Novelist and former journalist, Maggie O'Farrell, who wins her first major literary prize with her fifth novel, The Hand That First Held Mine

•Kishwar Desai who takes the First Novel Award for Witness the Night, which explores India's hidden female infanticide and the first book of a series featuring the unconventional female protagonist, Simran Singh

•Potter and ceramic artist, Edmund de Waal, who collects the Biography Award for his highly-acclaimed memoir, The Hare With Amber Eyes, which the judges called ‘a truly special book'

•Jo Shapcott who wins the Poetry Award for Of Mutability, her first new work in over a decade in part influenced by her experience of cancer

•Debut writer and web designer, Jason Wallace, who beats best-selling author Jonathan Stroud to claim the Children's Book Award for Out of Shadows

The overall winner will be announced on 25th January.

Oneworld Classics

The Oneworld Classics series includes the greatest recognized masterpieces of all time, from every literature and genre, but also tries to redefine and enrich the classics canon by promoting unjustly neglected works of enduring significance. Most of the titles in the series are provided with an extensive critical apparatus and extra reading material. With an emphasis on the production, editorial and typographical values of a book, Oneworld Classics aspires to revitalize the whole experience of reading the classics.

We have the order forms for the Evergreens and Unjustly Neglected collections.

For more details visit http://www.oneworldclassics.com/

The TV Book Club 2011

There will be a new ten-part series of the TV Book Club starting in January 2011.

The titles, which include two Man Booker shortlistees, two debuts and two non-fiction are -

Room by Emma Donoghue
The Long Song by Andrea Levy
The News Where You Are by Catherine O'Flynn
Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor
Bleed for Me by Michael Robotham
Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst
The Junior Officer's Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna
My Last Duchess by Daisy Goodwin

Email Gemma Fiorello on Gemma.Fiorello@holtjackson.co.uk with how many sets you would like to order and we’ll do the rest!

Promotional material is available from the Reading Agency website using this link.

Christmas Opening Hours 2010

Holt Jackson will close for business at 5.00 pm on Wednesday 22nd December 2010.

Our office will re-open on Wednesday 29th and Thursday 30th December before closing again until Tuesday 4th January 2011.

Approvals
Approval collections will be delivered as normal up until Friday 17th December 2010 and will resume w/c 4th January 2011.

Deliveries
Normal deliveries will continue until Wednesday 22nd December and will resume on Wednesday 5th January 2011.

If you are expecting a delivery on these days but will not be open for business please contact us as soon as possible – customerservices@holtjackson.co.uk

01 December 2010.

Costa Book Awards Announced

Indie publishers have scored highly on the shortlists for this year's Costa Book Awards, with three titles from Faber, plus Beautiful Books, Quartet and Welsh publisher Gomer in the running.

The First Novel Award category for the prize, which is for the “most enjoyable” books published between between 1st November 2009 and 31st October 2010, is dominated by indies with Kishwar Desai's Witness the Night (Beautiful Books), Nikesh Shukla's Coconut Unlimited (Quartet Books), Simon Thirsk's Not Quite White (Gomer Press) and Aatish Taseer's The Temple-Goers (Viking) in the running.

Paul Murray's Man Booker-longlisted Skippy Dies (Hamish Hamilton) is in the running for the 2010 Costa Novel of the Year Award, alongside Louise Doughty for Whatever You Love (Faber), Nigel Farndale's The Blasphemer (Doubleday) and The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell (Headline Review).

The First Novel Award category is dominated by indies with Kishwar Desai's Witness the Night (Beautiful Books), Nikesh Shukla for Coconut Unlimited (Quartet Books), Aatish Taseer for The Temple-Goers (Viking) and Simon Thirsk's Not Quite White (Gomer Press) in the shortlist.

The Costa Biography Award shortlist comprises Sarah Bakewell for How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer (Chatto), Michael Frayn for My Father’s Fortune (Faber) and Edmund de Waal for The Hare with Amber Eyes (also Chatto)


Jo Shapcott's collection Of Mutability (Faber) has made the poetry category, alongside Roy Fisher's Standard Midland (Bloodaxe), Robin Robertson's The Wrecking Light (Picador), and Sam Willetts' New Light for the Old Dark (Cape Poetry).

And in the children's category, two titles from Andersen Press, Sharon Dogar's Annexed and Jason Wallace's Out of Shadows are in the shortlist, alongside Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud (Doubleday) and Lucy Christopher's Flyaway (the Chicken House).

Galaxy National Book Awards Winners 2010

The winners of the Galaxy National Book Awards 2010, a celebration of the best of British publishing, have now been revealed at a star-studded awards ceremony at London's prestigious BBC Studios.

The winners are

TESCO BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR

The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry (Penguin Group)


TESCO FOOD & DRINK BOOK OF THE YEAR

Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi (Random House)


NATIONAL BOOK TOKENS NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR

The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal (Random House)


MORE4 NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

The Making Of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr (Pan Macmillan)


SAINSBURY'S POPULAR FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

One Day by David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)


WATERSTONE'S UK AUTHOR OF THE YEAR

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Harper Collins)


GALAXY INTERNATIONAL AUTHOR OF THE YEAR

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (Harper Collins)


WH SMITH CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE YEAR

Zog by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler (Scholastic)


OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Terry Pratchett


OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Martin Amis

Customer Announcement November 2010

The Holt Jackson Book Company Ltd
Customer Announcement November 2010

As our business continues to expand, our holding company The Little Group, has taken the decision to further strengthen our standing in the library supply market with the merger of The Holt Jackson Book Company Ltd and Askews Library Services Ltd. From March 1st 2011 the combined company, will be Askews and Holts Library Services Ltd, continuing to operate from Preston with staff from both companies coming together as one team.

In a time of budget constraints and spending reviews, this merger will have a positive effect for both Holt Jackson and Askews customers, with the enhanced combination of services, efficiencies and security that this merger offers. Our decision will bring together two specialist library supply companies that enjoy first class reputation for innovation and for exceeding customer expectations. The Directors and Senior Management of both companies are keen to start working closely together and to continue moving the business forward and drive the agenda in library supply. David Fisher and Andy Holland, supported by fellow directors Kathryn Pattinson, Jaqui Holborn and Tim Cotterall, will shortly be visiting all customers and taking the opportunity over the next few weeks and months to outline details of merging the two companies.

The merged company will be formally announced in Spring 2011 with a series of country wide road shows, which will highlight our combined services portfolio on offer, including the rollout of our eBook service.

If you have any questions or concerns in the meantime with regard to your current business, please contact your Sales Manager directly who will be happy to discuss them with you.

Kathryn Pattinson
Managing Director

November 2010

Quick Reads 2011

A brand new set of Quick Reads has been announced for World Book Day on Thursday 3rd March 2011

Adults' Quick Reads, 10 TITLES (nil discount plus normal servicing charges)

Children's WBD Titles, 11 TITLES (6 BOOKS) (nil discount plus normal servicing charges or a jacket only at a cost of 25p per book).

To guarantee prompt arrival of titles in time for World Book Day, orders placed using the form below will be prioritised at all stages.

To place your order, please complete this form and return to Gemma Fiorello by Friday 17th December 2010.

ANY ORDERS RECEIVED AFTER THIS DATE WILL BE TREATED AS STANDARD.

For more information on Quick Reads and other World Book Day initiatives, please click here

Please note - we will not be supplying promotional material. You can obtain free promotional packs from the Quick Reads website.

Guardian First Book Award Shortlist

Books that challenge orthodoxy and readers' expectations dominate the shortlist for this year's Guardian first book award, which includes a novel influenced by the African tradition of sung history, and a study of error that argues we should celebrate our ability to get things wrong.

Three novels and two non-fiction works are vying for the £10,000 prize.

The shortlist is as follows

Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto, by Maile Chapman (Jonathan Cape);

Black Mamba Boy, by Nadifa Mohamed (HarperCollins);

Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, by Kathryn Schulz (Portobello Books);

Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper by Alexandra Harris (Thames & Hudson)

Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman (Sceptre)

The winner of the prize will be announced on 1 December.

National Book Awards Announced

National Book Awards Announced

Former prime minister Tony Blair is among the contenders for the inaugural Galaxy National Book Awards.

Blair will compete alongside the Duchess of Devonshire and Lord Alan Sugar for the Tesco Biography of the year. Jamie Oliver's Jamie's 30 Minute Meals will be up against Nigel Slater and Nigella Lawson for the Tesco Food & Drink Book of the Year, while Jilly Cooper is in the running for Sainbury's Popular Fiction Book of the Year.

2010 Man Booker shortlistees including Tom McCarthy, David Mitchell and last year's winner, Hilary Mantel, are also up for a gong as part of what Amanda Ross, m.d. of Cactus, which is behind the event, described as the “cream of British publishing”.

The winners of the eight categories will be awarded on 10th November. The ceremony will be broadcast on More4 on 13th November, followed by five further tie-in shows in the run-up to Christmas.

The shortlists in full:

Sainsbury's Popular Fiction Book of the Year

Dead Like You Peter James (Macmillan)
The Ice Cream Girls Dorothy Koomson (Sphere)
Jump! Jilly Cooper (Bantam Press)
One Day David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Red Queen Philippa Gregory (Simon & Schuster)
Worth Dying For Lee Child (Bantam Press)

Non-Fiction Book of the Year

Alex's Adventures in Numberland Alex Bellos (Bloomsbury)
At Home Bill Bryson (Doubleday)
D-Day Antony Beevor (Viking)
The Making Of Modern Britain Andrew Marr (Pan)
Must You Go? Antonia Fraser (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Operation Mincemeat Ben MacIntyre (Bloomsbury)

National Book Tokens New Writer of the Year

Patrick Barkham The Butterfly Isles (Granta Books)
Edmund de Waal The Hare with Amber Eyes (Chatto & Windus)
Katherine Webb The Legacy (Orion)
Rebecca Hunt Mr Chartwell (Fig Tree)
Natasha Solomons Mr Rosenblum's List (Sceptre)
Simon Lelic Rupture (Picador)

WH Smith Children's Book of the Year

The Great Hamster Massacre Katie Davies, illus Hannah Shaw (Simon and Schuster)
Monsters of Men Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Mr Stink David Walliams (HarperCollins Childrens Books)
Shadow Michael Morpurgo (HarperCollins Childrens Books)
TimeRiders Alex Scarrow (Puffin)
Zog Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler (Alison Green Books)

Tesco Food & Drink Book of the Year

The Flavour Thesaurus Niki Segnit (Bloomsbury)
Jamie's 30 Minute Meals Jamie Oliver (Michael Joseph)
Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home Nigella Lawson (Chatto & Windus)
Kitchenella Rose Prince (Fourth Estate)
Plenty Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Press)
Tender II Nigel Slater (Fourth Estate)

Tesco Biography of the Year

Coco Chanel, The Legend And The Life Justine Picardie (Harper NonFiction)
Decline and Fall: Diaries 2005-2010 Chris Mullin (Profile Books)
The Fry Chronicles Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph)
A Journey Tony Blair (Hutchinson)
Wait For Me Duchess of Devonshire (John Murray)
What You See Is What You Get Alan Sugar (Macmillan)

International Author of the Year

Colm Toibin Brooklyn (Penguin)
Jonathan Franzen Freedom (Fourth Estate)
Stieg Larsson The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Quercus/MacLehose Press)
Kathryn Stockett The Help (Fig Tree)
Emma Donoghue Room (Picador)
Christos Tsiolkas The Slap (Tuskar Rock Press)

Waterstone's UK Author of the Year

Tom McCarthy C (Jonathan Cape)
Maggie O'Farrell The Hand That First Held Mine (Headline Review)
Kate Atkinson Started Early, Took My Dog (Doubleday)
David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Sceptre)
Rose Tremain Trespass (Chatto & Windus)
Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate)

William Hill Winner Announced!

The shortlist for the 22nd William Hill Sports Book of the Year, worth a record £22,000, a £2000 free bet and a day at the races to the winner, has been unveiled -

Open by Andre Agassi
Trautmann's Journey by Catrine Clay
A Last English Summer by Duncan Hamilton
Blood Knots by Luke Jennings
Beware of the Dog by Brain Moore
Bounce by Matthew Syed

The winner will be announced on 30th November. Who's your winner?

For more details on the titles visit the COTW subject lists.

Howard Jacobson wins the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2010

Howard Jacobson is named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The Finkler Question.

London author and columnist Howard Jacobson has been longlisted twice for the prize, in 2006 for Kalooki Nights and in 2002 for Who's Sorry Now, but has never before been shortlisted.

Sir Andrew Motion, Chair of the judges comments ‘The Finkler Question is a marvellous book: very funny, of course, but also very clever, very sad and very subtle. It is all that it seems to be and much more than it seems to be. A completely worthy winner of this great prize.'

Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel

Mario Vargas Llosa's publisher at Faber has hailed the 2010 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature as "a writer of enormous range, passion and insight".

The Nobel foundation awarded the prize to Llosa "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".

New 'on-line' Richard and Judy Book Club Launched

The eight titles selected for the book club are -

Sister by Rosamund Lupton

A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

The Wilding by Maria McCann

No and Me by Delphine de Vigan

Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk

The Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha

Operation Mincemeat by Ben MacIntyre

The Richard and Judy Book Club will launch across W H Smith stores from tomorrow (2nd September).

The pair will review one book every fortnight and post their reviews online at www.whsmith.co.uk/richardandjudy. On the website there will also be live interviews with authors and reviews from other readers.

Libraries must not be a 'soft touch' for cuts - The Bookseller Article

Article from The Bookseller...

The Reading Agency has said libraries should "not be a soft target for cuts" after statistics released last week showed a continued decline in library visitors. The stats have led to a media blitz on the issue of libraries, with some campaigners suggesting that up to 1,000 libraries could be under threat from local government cuts.

Last week, the Department for Culture, Media and Sports' (DCMS) Taking Part: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport report showed a 1.7% decrease in the number of library goers last year. But the agency said that digging deeper into the statistics showed that there was not just a "straightforward picture of a decline in public interest and take up". It said instead that children and young people's use was steady, with children's book borrowing rising for five years in a row.

The Reading Agency also said the best libraries offered a range of groups, activities and services to deliver added value. It said "the social consequences of this more active approach are profound".

The agency singled out the Summer Reading Challenge for children, and the Six Book Challenge for emergent adult readers as two initiatives which have had a positive response from the public. The Summer Reading Challenge saw 725,000 children take part in 2009, an increase of 5% on the 2008 total. This year it is estimated more than 750,000 children will take part. For the Six Book Challenge 13,500 adults registered this year - up 50% on 2009.

In a statement the agency said: "In tough financial times, we cannot afford to undercut libraries' ability to create a nation of readers, our literacy skills deficit is already too large. The scale of cuts means the library network is unlikely to survive in its current shape, so prioritizing and innovating will be key."

It added: "We must not lose sight of libraries' radical social purpose ... They should not be a soft target for cuts."

James Tait Black Memorial Prizes - Winners Announced

Novelist A S Byatt and literary critic John Carey have been crowned winners of Britain’s oldest literary awards, the £10,000 James Tait Black Memorial Prizes.

Byatt was awarded the fiction prize for her Man Booker-shortlisted The Children’s Book at the ceremony on Friday (20th August), while Carey took home the biography prize for his book William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies. Golding himself took home the prize in 1979.

The prizes, founded in 1919, are for the best work of fiction and the best biography published during the previous 12 months. They are the only major British book awards judged by scholars and students.

Finalists revealed for Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2010.

The Dagger finalists are -

CWA GOLD DAGGER 2010
Blacklands - Belinda Bauer
Blood Harvest - S J Bolton
Shadowplay - Karen Campbell
The Way Home - George Pelecanos

CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER 2010, SPONSORED BY IAN FLEMING PUBLICATIONS LTD
A Loyal Spy - Simon Conway
Innocent - Scott Turow
The Dying Light - Henry Porter
The Gentlemen's Hour - Don Winslow

CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER 2010
Acts of Violence - Ryan David Jahn

Rupture - Simon Lelic
The Holy Thief - William Ryan
The Pull of the Moon - Diane Janes

The winners will be announced on the 8th October at a ceremony broadcast on ITV3 on 12th October.

Heinemann Library & Raintree join forces

In 2008, Heinemann Library & Raintree was purchased by Capstone Publishers, a market leading company of school and library materials in the US.

In January 2010, the company rebranded as Raintree - incorporating Heinemann Library and Raintree under one banner.

'By combing all our publishing under one respected imprint we hope to reduce confusion and build a strong identity with resources that captivate all readers. Raintree will continue to publish for struggling or reluctant readers, recognising that every library and classroom includes readers at a range of levels.' - Raintree

The TV Book Club 'Summer Reads'

Following on from the success of the first series earlier in the year, the TV Book Club returns for a new series, which will be broadcast from 27 June to 15 August. The series will run for 8 weeks, and each episode will be 30-minutes long.

The promotion will run in libraries from the end of June until August 2010.

The full list of selected titles will be announced next week so watch this space!

Email Jim Bickerstaffe on james.bickerstaffe@holtjackson.co.uk with how many sets you would like to order and we’ll do the rest!

Orange Award for New Writers 2010 - Shortlist

Launched in 2005 in partnership with Arts Council England, the Orange Award for New Writers celebrates emerging female literary talent. and potential.

The shortlisted titles are:

The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale (9780007305735)

The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini (9780340918814)

After the Fire, a Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld (9780224088879)

The winner will receive a £10,000 bursary.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - An Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyer

Atom has announced that it will release the first new title from Stephenie Meyer in nearly 2 years.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is a novella told from the point of view of Bree, a character originally featured in Eclipse. The novella will be released onSaturday 5th June 2010 and is priced at £11.99 in hardback.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is the riveting story of Bree Tanner, a newborn vampire first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the world she inhabits. The novella chronicles the newborn vampire army’s journey as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, following their encounter to its unforgettable conclusion.

This is a title not to be missed –

Orange Prize for Fiction - Longlist

Now in its 15th year, the Orange Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing.

This years Longlist is as follows -

Rosie Alison - The Very Thought of You
Eleanor Catton - The Rehearsal

Clare Clark - Savage Lands

Amanda Craig - Hearts and Minds

Roopa Farooki - The Way Things Look to Me

Rebecca Gowers - The Twisted Heart
M.J. Hyland - This is How

Sadie Jones - Small Wars
Barbara Kingsolver - The Lacuna
Laila Lalami - Secret Son

Andrea Levy - The Long Song
Attica Locke - Black Water Rising

Maria McCann - The Wilding
Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall

Nadifa Mohamed - Black Mamba Boy
Lorrie Moore - A Gate at the Stairs
Monique Roffey - The White Woman on the Green Bicycle

Amy Sackville - The Still Point
Kathryn Stockett - The Help

Sarah Waters - The Little Stranger

The shortlist will be revealed on 20 April, with the winner announced at a ceremony on 9 June, where the prize of £30,000 will be presented.

Mills & Boon price changes

As from March 2010 the Mills & Boon titles will be priced as follows –

Hardback

Romance
16 titles per month @ £13.50 (was £12.99)

Medical
4 titles per month @ £13.50 (was £12.99)

Historical
3 titles per month @ £13.99 (was £13.50)

Large Print

Romance
8 titles per month @ £13.99 (was £13.50)

Medical
6 titles per month @ £13.99 (was £13.50)

Historical
3 titles per month @ £14.50 (was £13.99)

Desire
1 title per month @ £13.99 (was £13.50)

Special Edition
1 title per month @ £13.50 (was £13.99)

Intrigue
1 title per month @ £14.50 (was £13.99)

If you have any queries please contact Bev Jaundrill on 01772 298028 or bev.jaundrill@holtjackson.co.uk

The Reading Agency – Spotlight

The Reading Agency's 'Spotlight' aims to introduce children to the best new writing and expand their reading horizons, help parents make informed reading choices for their children, and enhance libraries' promotion of current children's literature.

We'll be promoting the monthly titles through the Holt Junior website and you can order promotional material via the The Reading Agency website. Visit www.readingagency.org.uk/children/spotlight

The TV Book Club

From the team behind the hugely successful Richard & Judy Book Club comes a brand-new book show called The TV Book Club. The show will be broadcast from 17 January 2010 on Sunday evenings on More4 and repeated on Mondays during the day on Channel 4. The series will run for 10 weeks, and each episode will be 30-minutes long.

The selected titles will be announced at the end of December, but you can get your orders in now!

Email Jim Bickerstaffe on james.bickerstaffe@holtjackson.co.uk with how many sets you would like to order and we’ll do the rest!

Promotional material is available from the Reading Agency website using this link.

*The TV Book Club replaces the now obsolete Richard and Judy Book Club. However, old Richard and Judy orders will be deleted and TV Book Club orders will need to be placed as above.*

Mueller Nobel Prize for Literature

German author Herta Mueller has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature, the academy in Stockholm has announced.

The Romanian-born writer follows last year's French winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, while British writer Doris Lessing won in 2007.

Mueller, born in 1953, is renowned for her depiction of the harsh conditions under Nicolae Ceausescu's regime.

Man Booker Prize for Fiction Winner

Hilary Mantel has been named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for Wolf Hall.

Wolf Hall has been the bookies' favourite since the longlist was announced in July 2009.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel was picked from a shortlist of six titles. A.S. Byatt, J.M. Coetzee, Adam Foulds, Simon Mawer and Sarah Waters were all shortlisted for this year's prize.

James Naughtie, comments ‘Hilary Mantel has given us a thoroughly modern novel set in the 16th century. Wolf Hall has a vast narrative sweep that gleams on every page with luminous and mesmerising detail."

Was Wolf Hall your winner?

Hodge suggests "Amazon-style" home delivery service

Culture minister Margaret Hodge has said that libraries should think of selling books as well as lending them. However publication of the full DCMS Library Review and the results of the Wirral Inquiry are to be delayed yet further.

Speaking at the Public Library Authorities (PLA) conference in Brighton, Hodge gave advance hints of the Review's findings, confirming earlier press reports that she was considering an "Amazon-style" home delivery service for libraries, with readers ordering books online and paying "a small fee" to have it delivered to their home. She also suggested that libraries should sell as well as lend: "How about a tie in with Amazon: 'You've borrowed the book, now send a brand new copy to a friend'".

A library ticket for every new born baby to last them through life was also on the cards, as are loyalty cards rewarding book reads with free DVD hires. "We need to offer young people something new and distinctive."

As librarians do you think this could work?

Joint Academic Consortia Book Agreement

Holt Jackson is pleased to announce success in our bid for the Joint Academic Consortia Book Agreement for the supply of English Language Materials.

Contract Manger, Jaqui Holborn comments "The Joint Academic Consortia is a welcome addition to our academic portfolio and we are developing our existing web services and 'shelf ready' offering to ensure we provide a first class service that is second to none".

Samuel Johnson Prize - Winner Announced

Leviathan by Philip Hoare was announced as the winner of the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize 2009.

It's the story of a man's obsession with whales, which takes him on a personal, historical and biographical journey - from his childhood to his fascination with Moby-Dick and his excursions whale-watching.

The award celebrates diverse and thought-provoking writing in non-fiction, including current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. The award has now been running for 11 years and is the world's most valuable non-fiction prize, worth £30,000 to the winner.