Carole Blake wins Pandora award

Blake Friedmann co-founder Carole Blake has won the Women in Publishing 2013 Pandora Award. The Pandora Award is presented annually to a woman who has made a "significant and sustained contribution to the publishing industry".

Other nominees this year were Reading Agency director Miranda McKearney, Osprey Group c.e.o. Rebecca Smart and Penguin Digital m.d. Anna Rafferty. Previous winners include bookcareers.com founder Suzanne Collier and Pearson CEO Dame Marjorie Scardino.  The Award is a beautiful, antique writing box, which the winner keeps for a year, passing it on to the next recipient of the award.

This year Carole celebrated 50 years in the book industry, during which time she has been President of the Association of Authors Agents, and chairman of the Society of Bookman, as well as a lifelong patron and former chairman and president of the Book Trade Charity (BTBS).  

She says she “couldn’t be more surprised or honoured” to receive the award and that it was a “great honour to be on shortlist with those amazing women”.

Rachel Hirons' POWDER ROOM in cinemas tomorrow

"A smart and savvy comedy delve into the notion of sisterhood set largely in the confines of a London nightclub and its women’s toilet, the pacy and enjoyably racy Powder Room is a low-budget delight, brimming with terrific performances (especially from lead Sheridan Smith) and scintillating dialogue." - Mark Adams, Screen Daily

Everyone's talking about Rachel Hirons' new feature, POWDER ROOM - starring Sheridan Smith (featured on Broadcast Magazine's Hot 100 list), Jaime Winstone, Oona Chaplin and Kate Nash.

The film is being hailed as 'the British BRIDESMAIDS', though it's not just a film about women: 

"The odd, rather terrific thing is that even though – or perhaps because – the film is all about women, it becomes much more about people than a film doing the more usual thing of looking at the relationships between the sexes could ever manage." - Deborah Orr, The Guardian

Directed by MJ Delaney, POWDER ROOM is set in the women's toilets of a nightclub, and concerns the increasingly complex exploits of Sam (Sheridan Smith), a somewhat 'uncool' young woman desperate to fit in and gain the respect of her peers. Inspired by unguarded conversations heard by writer Rachel Hirons in Soho nightclub loos, it's a frank and honest look at the personal crises faced by its young characters. There's a strong connection with music too, as the film features fictional all-female rock band 'Fake Club', and co-stars Kate Nash who is best known for her pop music career.

The movie's already critically acclaimed; to quote but a few:

"...a striking piece of work. It's very funny and very fresh..." - DigitalSpy

"...a riotous new Britflick... a candid — sometimes funny, sometimes sordid — take on a London night out, with all the sex and drugs and rock ’n’ roll that implies." - Evening Standard

"One suspects that it would be more fun to go to the film with a crowd of friends, then talk about it, than it would be to go to the nightclub." - Deborah Orr, The Guardian

High praise indeed, and we think Deborah's right. See it in cinemas from tomorrow (6th December).

Follow @PowderRoomMovie on Twitter for more news and updates.

Four Blake Friedmann authors nominated for Sainsbury’s Best Ebook 2013

Four of Blake Friedmann’s authors have books nominated for Sainsbury’s Ebook of the Year competition.

In the Adult category, Peter James’ DEAD MAN’S TIME, Paul Finch’s SACRIFICE and Anne De Courcy’s THE FISHING FLEET have all been nominated.

In the Young Adult category, Alex Scarrow’s TIMERIDERS series are nominated, and his Doctor Who novel SPORE is nominated in the Children’s category.

For the complete list of nominees and to vote for the winner, with a chance to win a copy of each nominated book, please go here to pick your favourite. 

Troy Blacklaws wins Lire Magazine award for the “Best Discovery in Foreign Fiction”

Troy Blacklaws has won the Lire Magazine award for Best Discovery in Foreign Fiction 2013 for his novel CRUEL CRAZY BEAUTIFUL WORLD, published in France by Flammarion, and translated by Pierre Guglielmina. Other winners of the award this year include Pierre LeMaitre for Best French Novel and Joyce Carol Oates for Best Foreign Novel. Lire Magazine also recognised Troy’s debut novel KAROO BOY with an award in 2006.

CRUEL CRAZY BEAUTIFUL WORLD is set in South Africa in 2004. Jerusalem (half Muslim, half Jew) is a young student with poetic leanings. Jabulani loses his teaching job for making a satirical remark about Mugabe and flees his native Zimbabwe. As the two men's lives merge, their stories reveal the paradoxes of the Southern African experience.

Troy Blacklaws is a South African writer, photographer, and English teacher, who currently lives in Luxembourg. He is also author of the semi-autobiographical BLOOD ORANGE and his prize-winning debut novel KAROO BOY. KAROO BOY was shortlisted for the South African Sunday Times Fiction Prize 2005, and the Prix Femina for foreign fiction 2006, the year of his previous Lire accolade. In Germany KAROO BOY was longlisted for the International Literature Award 2009, given by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin.                                                                                                               

Praise for Troy Blacklaws:

‘With his supple and inventive use of the language, Blacklaws creates fully realized characters and vivid imagery that shimmers against a stark backdrop.’ -- John Berendt, author of MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL

‘Troy Blacklaws effortlessly conjures up the sights, sounds and rhythms of the South African landscape.’ -- Vikas Swarup, author of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

 Praise for CRUEL CRAZY BEAUTIFUL WORLD:

‘Mesmerising and evocative.’ -- Deon Meyer, author of TRACKERS

‘A sense of metaphor breathes poetic dimension into the novel that lifts its writing to a higher plane.  [...] one of those books which manage to bewitch the reader from the very first paragraphs, as much by the storyline as by the realism of the lands painted therein.’ -- Alexis Brunet, La Cause Littéraire

‘Astonishingly rich…A fresh and vivid depiction of South Africa…Similes and metaphors leap off the page, landscape and inner feelings are described in ways I have not experienced before which allow one to see and experience the familiar as something strange and exotic.’  -- Hazel Barnes, The Witness

Mick Martin & Hull Truck's FLAME HAIRED DYNAMO opens

This Christmas, Hull Truck invites you to join Chris on a hilarious and heartfelt journey - part Back to the Future, part A Christmas Carol, all brilliantly unhinged - from Mick Martin, the writer of 2012 Northern Soul smash Once Upon a Time in Wigan.

The play, directed by Nick Lane, has opened in newly-announced City of Culture 2017, Hull and will run until 11th January:

Chris McCann's life is going nowhere. He's out of work, out of money and out of luck. His kids don't understand him and his wife's at her wits' end. Worst of all, it's Christmas.

Is Chris in the mood for mistletoe and wine? No. He can't afford them for a start! He's blown what cash he had on old Christmas Annuals so he can revisit the world of his boyhood heroes, especially Titch McCreavie, the Flame-Haired Dynamo - a superstar footballer, 1970s style!

As Christmas Day approaches, Chris withdraws into the cartoon world of perfect goals, perfect girls, flared jeans and fondue parties - with some rather surprising results!

Click here to buy tickets, click here to see the actor Dave Maccreedy (Titch McCreavie) talking about the play, and here to see photos from the play's rehearsals.