Loose Leaves: Book news from around the world
'Speckled People' on Heinemann shortlist
Irish writer Hugo Hamilton is one of four writers on a strong shortlist for this year's Royal Society of Literature Heinemann Prize. Hamilton's memoir of an extraordinary childhood as the son of a German mother and nationalist Irish father, The Speckled People, features alongside John Clare: a Biography, a life of the somewhat neglected English poet by Jonathan Bate; Stasiland, Anna Funder's investigation into the continuing legacy of the former secret police in East Germany; and Power and Glory: Jacobean England and the Making of the King James Bible, by Adam Nicolson, a look at the people and the environment of scholarship that produced the 1611 English Bible. The £5,000 (€7,460) prize will be announced by Michael Holroyd, president of the Royal Society of Literature, on June 10th. Previous Irish winners include Thomas Kilroy, William Trevor, Brian Moore and Paul Durcan.
Delighted with Potter
Hats off to New Island for catching the Zeitgeist and deciding to capture between covers some of the outpouring of memories and affection for Maureen Potter (pictured on stage in 1967, below) that followed her recent death. A theatrical legend if ever there was one, it seemed once as if there was hardly a man, woman or child in the country that hadn't seen her tread the boards. Now Deirdre Purcell will edit and compile a tribute, to be published in the autumn. Filled with anecdotes, recollections and reflections by those who knew her on stage and off, the provisional title, Be Delighted, is taken from what was Potter's lifelong motto. For each volume sold a contribution will be made to one of her favourite charities, the DSPCA .
Little Nobel for Waddell
Martin Waddell, the children's writer from Newcastle, Co Down, has won the Hans Christian Andersen Author Award. Waddell, who was born in 1941 during a bombing raid on Belfast, is the prolific author of such titles as Starry Night and Tango's Baby. The awards are made every two years by the International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY), for a body of work that has made a lasting contribution to children's literature (they are often referred to as the Little Nobel Prizes). The illustrators' award went to Max Velthuijs, from the Netherlands.
The jury's citation on Waddell, who was selected from a list of 26 authors, praised particularly his ability to articulate the complexities of ordinary lives and the compassion and warmth of his work. He will receive a gold medal and diploma at IBBY's congress in Cape Town in September.
Joyce on the move
Who is that familiar figure, hat on head, cane in hand, that jumps out of a large ad in the current issue of the New York Review of Books? James Joyce, of course. The cultural division of the Department of Foreign Affairs is flagging the venues worldwide for its touring exhibition, International Joyce, which may now go to even more locations. Additional destinations in prospect include Addis Ababa, Lillehammer, Nicosia, São Paolo, San Francisco - and, most appropriately, Zurich, where Joyce is buried in Fluntern Cemetery.
Comma chameleon
The repercussions of writing a book about commas and colons that became the surprise bestseller of last Christmas continue. Still riding high on the success of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, Lynne Truss can now look forward to the reissue by Profile Books of the four novels she wrote earlier in her career: With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed (1994); Making the Cat Laugh (1995); Tennyson's Gift (1996); and Going Loco (1999).
Probably correctly, the publisher assumes that the public will now grab anything they can by Truss. The UK edition of Eats, Shoots & Leaves sold 850,000 copies while the book hit No 1 on amazon.com on the day of its US publication. Profile is launching the novels with gusto: advertising on the Tube, three-for- two book offers and a book tour that will include Ireland are scheduled around the time of publication on July 1st. Here's hoping all those commas are in the right place, as these early works are likely to be scrutinised for punctuation as well as for literary merit.