The Bookseller is currently shortlisting articles for the Diagram Prize for the oddest book title of the year. Previous winners include “Proceedings of the second international workshop on nude mice”, “American bottom archaeology”, and “Versailles: the view from Sweden”. Current entries include “Killing the Buddha on the Appalachian Trail”, “How to dungeon master parenting”, “Looking through the speculum”, and “The philosopher fish: Sturgeon, caviar, and the geography of desire”.

#BookTok, the corner of TikTok devoted to reading, has clocked up some 9.6bn views to date, and has been described as the last wholesome place on the internet. Users – predominantly young women – post short videos inspired by the books they love. BookTok has been credited with launching the careers of a number of new authors, such as Colleen Hoover and Jennifer L. Armentrout. It has also been beneficial for established writers such as […]

This month sees the 175th anniversary of the birth of Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of Little Lord Flauntleroy, A Little Princess, and the Secret Garden. Although she spent part of her life living in the US, the last of these books was written when she was renting Great Maytham Hall in Kent and found a walled garden in the grounds. The garden is now open to the public at certain time of the year under […]

There is some irony in Miranda Hart’s book entitled ‘I haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You’ sitting alongside Boris Johnson’s memoirs in the Sunday Times bestsellers charts. Miranda’s book charts her decades long sickness with Lyme’s disease. It is a heartfelt, sometimes amusing story of a woman at the height of her career who falls victim to a mysterious illness and is unable to work. This week it is number two on the Sunday Times […]