Mr Darcy Portrait up for Auction

A portrait of actor Colin Firth as Mr Darcy is to go under the hammer at Bonham's London auction house on 21 January, according to the Arts and Entertainment section of BBC news online.

Together with a signed letter from the star, the portrait is expected to raise about seven thousand pounds for charity. The letter alone sounds as if it is worth the money, because it amusingly describes the editing of the portrait to achieve heart-throb suitability.

It started as a painted copy of a rather terrible photograph, which pictured Firth "as a shabby, insubstantial, derelict looking actor." Everyone, including the actor himself, hated it intensely.

"A very talented production designer managed to take him on a transformative journey into something bearable ... and eventually into someone who could actually pass the audition."

Firth himself was long past the audition stage by then. The painting features in the fourth episode of the hugely popular series, which was watched by over ten million people when first broadcast in 1995.

Vampires out-sell Wizards

Stephenie Meyer (pictured) sold over 15 million books in the US in 2008, and that's just in outlets tracked by Nielsen Bookscan, where various editions of her books claimed 9 of the top 50 spots for the year.

That total sale is millions of copies more than JK Rowling's tracked sales from books in the top 50 last year, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows tracked 7,740,000, and two other titles on the list gave her sales of 8.6 million copies. (NB, that doesn't include other backlist editions that did not sell enough to make the top 50.)

Meyer occupies 6 of the top 15 slots, as books for children (at least in part) dominated the top of the list. Christopher Paolini and JK Rowling both made the top ten, and two of Jeff Kinney's "wimpy kid" books made the top 20.

Banana republics and capitalistic terrorism

A couple of weeks ago, browsing through the tables of leftovers from the Wellington Public Library book sale, I found a book by a favorite writer, Julian Rathbone, which I hadn't read. Hugely delighted, I paid over a one-dollar coin and bore it triumphantly home. I had first discovered Rathbone through his brilliantly written thrillers set in Turkey. The setting of this one couldn't be more different -- Zdt is set in Costa Rica, on the central American isthmus, a little country squeezed between Nicaragua and Panama that sounds (in 1986, at any rate) like a botanical paradise and remarkably well run and peaceable, compared to its contentious neighbors.

In the story, a huge international fruit conglomerate called Associated Foods International is determined to destroy this paradise, callously wiping out anyone or anything that stands in their way. Humans are stalked by hired killers, and coffee and maize plantations run by peasant cooperatives are sprayed with toxins from above. The operation, in this case, is to maintain a monoculture of maize, as monocultures reap profits more quickly. A gripping and thought-provoking scenario, embellished with striking characters, black humor, and wonderful descriptions of the primeval forest, makes this book a compelling read. If you haven't read it, hunt it down.

Coincidences happen. In Huffington Post, Johann Hari, a columnist for the London Independent, raves about a "brilliant history," Dan Koeppel's Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World. It could have been the inspiration for Rathbone's thriller, only it deals with bananas instead of maize. Until 150 years ago, there were many varieties of banana, a lush product of nature that was eaten locally. Then a corporation named United Fruit took one banana variety, the Gros Michael, and mass produced it. How? By finding a poor, weak country, putting an amenable dictator in control, burning down the rainforest, and planting thousands of acres of Gros Michael. Any flicker of rebellion from the peasantry was swiftly and viciously put down, just as in Rathbone's Zdt. This is how poor, weak countries came to be called Banana Republics.

Then came a fungus. It's called "Panama Disease." It turns Gros Michael bananas brick red and inedible. So the corporation dumped thousands of tons of chemicals on hundreds of vast plantations, which proved to be a fruitless exercise. So they turned to another variety, which wasn't quite as good for your average lunchbox, being rather bruisable, but what the hell, the consumer takes what he or she can get. And guess what happened. Yup, that Panama Disease adapted. And so the quiet contest goes on, aided and abetted by the servile dictatorships. Rathbone's thriller, come to life. I can't wait to read it.

Costa Book Award nominees announced

The shortlist for the Costa Books Award (formerly the Whibread) has been revealed.

Unusually, all five names are already winners, in individual categories. It is only the overall prize that is yet to be announced, a big event that will come about on 27 January.

Sebastian Barry -- who missed out on the Man Booker -- has seized the prize in the novel category for The Secret Scripture. Described by the judges as an "exquisitely written love story," The Secret Scripture is the bookmakers' favourite to win.

Diana Athill -- at the age of 91 the oldest category winner in the history of the awards -- won the biography category with her memoir Towards the End. The judges described this one as a "perfect memoir of old age ... beautifully, beautifully written."

Michelle Magorian took the children's book award with Just Henry, considered by the panel to be a "soaring, uplifting warm bath of a book."

Sadie Jones won the first novel award for her "assured" debut, The Outcast, and Adam Foulds took the poetry prize with The Broken Word, a "delicate and powerful" work that details a young man's experiences with the Mau Mau uprisings in Kenya.

How bizarre can huge book advances be in hard economic times?

In today's Wall Street Journal, a story by Anita Elberse, "Blockbuster or Bust - Why struggling publishers will keep placing outrageous bids on new books," describes how publishers continue to fall back on their old business model of paying large advances for blockbusters, even in these difficult economic times.

Says Richard Spilman, of OldSaltBlog, "It brought to mind the cliché about generals that are always preparing to fight the last war. That is exactly what the publishing industry seems to be doing now."

Read the rest of his pungent and very interesting commentary in Huffington Post.

Richard and Judy release their book list

Ten books have been chosen by digital TV hosts Richard and Judy for their book club discussion list, 2009.



It is the sixth time they have done this, a move that has a dramatic impact on book sales in the UK. Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse, was chosen in 2006, and went on to become the all-time fastest selling paperback. Celia Ahern's PS, I Love You, unveiled in 2004, was turned into a film.



"The public faith in the Book Club is overwhelming, and I take that very seriously," said Amanda Ross, who heads the four-person team that chooses the books. "As consumer confidence dips with the credit crunch, we hope to help people not to waste their time or money."



RICHARD & JUDY BOOK LIST 2009

Kate Atkinson, When Will There Be Good News?
Beatrice Colin, The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite
Andrew Davidson, The Gargoyle
David Ebershoff, The 19th Wife
Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo
Jesse Kellerman, The Brutal Art
Joseph O'Neill, Netherland
Frances Osbourne, The Bolter
Kate Summerscale, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
Elizabeth H Winthrop, December

The Paparazzi President

Well, talking about "ordinary" people on the covers of popular magazines, it seems that an extraordinary politician has made that leap already.

According to Daniel Libit and Jeffrey Ressner in the internet magazine politico, ABC's Jake Tapper predicted this week that Barack Obama will be "the Britney Spears of 2009."

It is a sea-change in the area of political news reporting, and newspaper publishers are taking note.

It all began when a resourceful paparazzi sneaked some beefcake shots of Barack on the beach, and sold them to the mainstream media. "FIT FOR OFFICE: Buff Bam is Hawaii Hunk," headlined the New York Post. Even the analytical political internet sites succumbed, with Huffington Post running one of the swimsuit photos prominently on its homepage. Politico itself ran stories about the pix.

As media critic Jeff Jarvis observes, that the Washington press agreed not to photograph the president-elect on holiday and the paparazzi cashed in changes the rules of the game. "If one person breaks away from the pack, there is no pack." Barack Obama is suddenly going to have a lot less privacy than he might have expected, and the coverage of the presidency is going to change in unprecedented ways.

Is going to trivialize the presidency? You bet. Is it going to be a good thing? Democratic strategist Chris Lehane believes so. "The number of eyeballs that read People magazine are enormous compared to political publications," he says. "If you're able to communicate through those outlets, you're able to reach more people more quickly, without your message being 'translated' by the historic gatekeepers."

If it means that the ordinary reader gets important economic or foreign policy tidings along with revelations about Michelle Obama's dining table settings and the school the girls attend, thenit will be not a bad outcome at all.

But will it also trivialize mainstream reporting of the presidency? And leave the real political commentators battling for the newspaper space that was theirs by right, in the past? That, I predict, will be the problem.

Can the future of books and publishing be predicted from public trends?

Richard Watson (pictured) is a futurist -- a predictor of trends, that is, not an astrologer -- who foresees ten shifts in public sentiment this year.

To sum them up briefly:

1. Greenies will become unpopular, as people rebel against being told how to think.

2. Businesses will become more businesslike.

3. Real friends will replace internet connections.

4. Being in debt will no longer be trendy.

5. Wrinkles are in, botox is out.

6. People will support local enterprise vs. global brands.

7. Families and neighborhoods are in, lavish parties are out.

8. Children's treats won't be delivered on demand.

9. Bankers and executives will bottom out in popularity.

10. People will become nastier as anger takes charge.

Richard Watson has already had a stab at predicting future trends in newspapers, but what about publishing and books in general? What ideas can be gleaned from his predictions of public trends?

Well, this is the way I see it. Books on hobbies and handcrafts will take off as people find their own useful things to do at home. Quilting, knitting, and dressmaking magazines with easy-to-follow guides will find a good market, and women's magazines will feature recipes and homemaking tips, and have "ordinary" people on the covers.

Those fancy cooking books with glossy pictures and recipes that one just might follow if one was putting on a special dinner party will be replaced by homely books containing recipes for twenty-five ways with hamburger mince, and little iced cakes for all those family visits and neighborhood get-togethers.

And gardening! There was never a better time to produce a vegetable gardening guide, with a section for every season.

And because hobbies, like gardens, differ from area to area, and region to region, local - meaning small - presses will flourish.

Am I right? Would Richard Watson agree with me? Only the future will tell.

Titanic letters to be auctioned

Letters from Titanic passengers up for auction

Two letters from Titanic passengers are to be auctioned in New York this month, one of them featuring an excited description of the doomed ship just moments before setting sail.

Letters on White Star Lines stationery inscribed with "On board RMS Titanic"are "extremely rare and are among the most prized artefacts from the disaster," said Robert Litzenberger, a specialist at Spink Smythe auction house. The sale will be held on January 16, and the letters are expected to sell for between ten thousand and twenty thousand dollars each.

One is a hurried note scribbled by businessman Adolphe Saalfeld to his wife just before the Titanic left Southampton on her 1912 maiden voyage. "I just had an hours roaming abt on this wonderful boat," he wrote. He approved highly of his cabin, which was "like a bed-sitting room and rather large."

Saalfeld survived the sinking in lifeboat number three, which was crammed mostly with women and children.

The other letter was written by George Graham, a department store salesman,who perished. In a brief letter sent just before embarking, he apologized to a business associate that he had been too busy to make contact earlier, and added, "I hope that you will accept my good wishes now even if they are a bit late. I hope to see you next year."

Terry Pratchett Knighted

Terrific news -- the BBC reports that author Terry Pratchett, whose novels have sold millions of copies worldwide, has been created a knight in the New Year Honours list, for services to literature.

As previously reported, Sir Terry received the terrible news earlier this year that his erratic memory has been diagnosed as a symptom of Altzheimer's disease. He has since campaigned vigorously to raise public awareness of the condition.

He is known throughout the world for the 36-volume Discworld series, which has been translated into thirty-three languages. The first, The Colour of Magic (1983) appeared as a truly colorful television film last year, and was enjoyed by an audience of thousands down here in New Zealand, where we know what to look for, New Zealand being the home of special effects.