Three quite different stories from the world of writing today:
1. The winners of the 2013 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals were announced on Wednesday at a ceremony at the Natural History Museum in London. The U.K.'s most prestigious prizes for children's books were won by Sally Gardner for Maggot Moon (Hot Key Books) and Levi Pinfold for Black Dog (Templar) respectively. The winners join a distinguished roll call of authors and illustrators dating back to 1936 for the Carnegie Medal, and 1955 for the Kate Greenaway Medal, including such authors as Arthur Ransome, C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman and Patrick Ness, and such illustrators as Edward Ardizzone, Quentin Blake, John Burningham, Anthony Browne and Emily Gravett. Each winner will receive £500 worth of books to donate to their local library as well as the coveted gold medals. Since 2000, the winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal has also been awarded the £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize.
2. The final novel 'The Quarry' written by Iain Banks is released today, 11 days after his death.Banks announced in April that he had been diagnosed with gall bladder cancer and had just months to live. He died on June 9, aged 59.The best-selling author asked his publishers, Little, Brown, to bring forward the release date of The Quarry after telling fans about his illness.The book details the physical and emotional strain of cancer and describes the final days of a man with terminal cancer, as seen through the eyes of his son.Critics have described it as "sad" due to the subject matter and the fact it is Banks' last novel, but it has also been praised for being "written with the life-enhancing verve characteristic of his best work".
And then to the ridiculous,
3. Katie Price has revealed she is planning to release her fifth autobiography later this year (just in time for Christmas, surprise surprise) - at the age of just 35. (So one volume for the first six years+ of her life, the next till she was twelve and so on?) The glamour model, who has been through a divorce and tied the knot for a third time since her last volume, said it would be "quite an emotional" book.She spoke about the the forthcoming memoir on ITV's Daybreak as she plugged the latest novel to which she has put her name, He's The One, and marks her 49th publication. (I used to work in WH Smiths and when females came in to buy her novels I often used to point out the copyright page which had two names, Katie Price and the person who actually wrote it.)