Enid Blyton for Grown-Ups

It’s been a while – some fifty years in fact – since Enid Blyton took her most famous troupe The Famous Five for one last bicycle ride to that hidden shoreline cove, where doubtless they would’ve happened upon some casual piracy, ship wrecking or kidnapping. In a manner that would certainly intrigue modern social services, the Five righted wrongs and brought all manner of dastardly villains to heel.

Now the Five are back in the biggest humour hit series of the season. Riding on the nostalgia-shredding coat-tails of Ladybird for Grown-Ups, the must-have gift from last year, our friends at Quercus present Enid Blyton for Grown-Ups, the hilarious continued adventures of everyone’s favourite over-zealous do-gooders. It’s the Five, all right, but it’s the Five now armed with driving licences and children, fully grown and completely at odds with a baffling modern world.

Althorp Literary Festival

The 13th Althorp Literary Festival will take place on four days - from Thursday 30th June to Sunday 3rd July, inclusive. Building on the success of Festivals past, the 13th Althorp Literary Festival promises to once again be an impressive event, with sessions from renowned historians, novelists, comedians, politicians, sportsmen, screenwriters, biographers and broadcasters.

It remains a unique and intimate celebration of the written word, taking place against the backdrop of one of England’s most beautiful, private, historic houses. This year’s line-up includes; Bill Bryson, Joan Bakewell, Loyd Grossman, Paula Byrne, Tom Bower, Hollie McNish, John Suchet, Sir Richard Eyre, Henrietta Knight, Paul Gambaccini, Suzannah Lipscomb, James Naughtie, Sara Pascoe, and Brian Blessed. We look forward to seeing you there.

Modern fiction: Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Sebastian Faulks' powerful novel, set in France before and during the First World War, received huge acclaim and achieved both literary and popular international success when it was published in 1993. 

It was deemed extraordinary for a writer as young as Faulks to treat both the period and the subject with such understanding, depth, scholarship and sensitivity. 

 

Modern Fiction: Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

The literary output of Juan Rulfo, the highly esteemed Mexican novelist, short story writer and photographer, adds up to just 300 pages and yet he has been a. major influence on Spanish American writing and on the development of magical realism in fiction worldwide.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez cites Pedro Pdramo as a masterpiece which influenced his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. Rulfo's work was considered revolutionary in the Mexican canon, writing as he did with confused chronology, short sentences, a confection of fantasy and reality; and non-judgmental characterizations.

Man Booker Prize longlist 2015

The longlist for this year's Man Booker Prize has been announced. This year’s list of 13 books was selected by a panel of five judges chaired by Michael Wood, who said: “The range of different performances and forms of these novels is amazing. All of them do something exciting with the language they have chosen to use.” The judges considered 156 books for this year’s prize and, first awarded in 1969, it is the second year in which it has been open to any writer, writing originally in English and published in the UK, irrespective of nationality.

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2015 is chaired by Michael Wood. The judges are: Ellah Allfrey, John Burnside, Sam Leith and Frances Osborne.