ALWAYS THE CHILDREN at Number 13 on the non-fiction paperback chart!

Anne Watts's ALWAYS THE CHILDREN has charted at Number 13 on the non-fiction paperback list. This powerful and moving memoir of nursing in war zones worldwide was described as 'intensely moving' by the Daily Express and The Manchester Evening News called her book 'a tale of real courage and devotion to other people's children'.

On 14th March Anne also chatted with Roy Noble at BBC Radio Wales about her amazing story. Listen to the interview on the BBC iplayer. 

See here for an earlier interview on the BBC Wales site.

Extract from interview: 'Anne is now working on her second book about her experiences working with the world's first nations, including the Australian Aborigines and American Inuits. She also has a third, about the Middle East, in mind.  "As a nurse, you really get to know people," she said. "You nurse kings and Bedouins and everybody in between, and people talk to nurses. It's a wonderful profession."'

The book is published by Simon & Schuster for whom Anne is also completing a second book.

For more information, click here.

Anne has a busy year of appearances ahead, including the Royal Congress of Nursing in Liverpool, The Charles Causley Literary Festival, and various talks at Women's Institutes and the University of the Third Age.

See Anne's website for photos, a map of places around the world where she has worked and more information on her and her writing.

Praise for ALWAYS THE CHILDREN

'In reading the book, I lived with Anne Watts through her experiences, full of admiration for her grit and compassion. It's the most touching testimony to the pity of war and she is such a natural story-teller.' -- Lyndall Gordon, author of LIVES LIKE LOADED GUNS: EMILY DICKINSON AND HER FAMILY'S FEUDS

'A magnificent life story. I feel humbled by Anne Watts' experiences.' -- Jennifer Worth, author of CALL THE MIDWIFE and FAREWELL TO THE EAST END

'A vivid, humbling memoir' -- Clare Richardson, Yours

WITNESS THE NIGHT shortlisted for the Author's Club Best First Novel Award

WITNESS THE NIGHT, the striking debut by Kishwar Desai, has been nominated for the 2011 Author's Club Best First Novel Award.

The Authors' Club awards the most promising first novel of the year, written by a British author and published in the UK with this prize which includes a prize money of £2,500. It will be presented at Waterstone's Piccadilly on 14th April 2011 by this year's guest adjudicator novelist Joanne Harris. Previous winners include Anthony Quinn, Nicola Monaghan and Gilbert Adair.

WITNESS THE NIGHT was published by Beautiful Books in the UK in February 2010 and is also published in Finland by LIKE and in India by Harper Collins and in the Hindi language by Full Circle. It has won the Costa Prize for Best First Novel 2010.

Praise for WITNESS THE NIGHT:

'The novel that gets to the heart of tradition-bound India' -- The Pioneer

'It is with no surprise that we heard about Kishwar Desai winning the Costa First Novel Award 2010 earlier this week. Her novel, WITNESS THE NIGHT is a poignant and harrowing story set in a small town in India…' -- DSC South Asian Literary Festival

'Powerful' -- Hazel Larkin, Women's View on News

'Terrific' -- Toby Clements, The Telegraph

 'A powerfully-felt, shocking and moving indictment of cruelty and oppression' -- Maggie Gee, author of THE WHITE FAMILY

'Social justice campaigner Desai's debut novel is very much an issue-based book, the issue being "gendercide" and, for those girls who survive birth, oppression in Indian society. Set in Punjab, Witness the Night begins when 14-year-old Durga is found beaten and tied to a bed inside a house which contains 13 butchered corpses. Social worker Simran Singh, independent and scandalously untraditional in her behaviour, is tasked with getting the mute and traumatised girl, who is suspected of murdering her relatives, to talk. Singh finds a web of deceit and corruption as she uncovers the way in which a family has sacrificed its female members in order to preserve status. There's a bit too much theorising, but this sad and thought-provoking tale is certainly worth the read.' -- Laura Wilson, The Guardian

'Very important themes [and a] very appealing central character.' -- Jane Garvey, BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour

'Essential reading.' -- Nihal, BBC Asian Network

David Bishop selected for BBC's Write Foot Forward programme

Ten writers will take part in the six-week programme run by TV development consultant Jo Calam. Tailored to each individual writer's needs, it will provide independent development and coaching to help participants build a satisfying writing career.

Etienne van Heerden at the Time of the Writer Festival

Etienne van Heerden, whose latest novel 30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM was launched in English by Penguin South Africa this month, is attending the 14th Time of the Writer International Writer's Festival in Durban, along with writers like Caryl Phillips, Njabulo Ndebele, Marie Darrieussecq, Sahar El Mougy, Lauren Beukes and Petina Gappah.

Twenty-one prominent writers from a dozen different countries, will converge on Durban for a thought-provoking week of literary dialogue and exchange of ideas at the Time of the Writer international writers festival from 14 to 19 March. Hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of Kwa-Zulu Natal) and with principal funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, this 14th edition of the festival, presents a packed programme of both day and evening activities. 'Freedom of Expression' will feature as an underlying thread within the festival and audiences can expect to hear the opinions of leading writers on creative processes which inform their writing as well as on the enabling or constraining forces of political, social and environmental contexts within which they write.

The festival's Opening Night Keynote Address will be delivered by the recently retired Constitutional Court judge, esteemed writer and cultural activist, Justice Albie Sachs. The award-winning author of a number of books, including Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter and Justice in South Africa, Sachs was instrumental in the process of writing the constitution of South Africa and is therefore eminently qualified to speak on the festival theme of Freedom of Expression.

Etienne van Heerden's 30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM, which won the University of Johannesburg Award, 2008, the WA Hofmeyr Award for Afrikaans literature 2009 and the M-Net Literary Awards 2009, was first published in Afrikaans by Tafelberg in 2008. Translation rights have been sold to Podium in Holland and to Jumava in Latvia.

Dutch publisher Joost Nijsen of Podium says:
'30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM combines all qualities one might demand of contemporary literature of international importance. The writing is amazing and Zan is a classic character, one to fall in love with. It's a wonderful, moving, poignant story and thanks to the ingenious plot, gradually revealing many striking family secrets, it's also a real page-turner. Finally, this novel succeeds in showing the big picture through a specific human story. 30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM is not only a story about family disintegration, but also a mirror of the cultural and political developments in recent South African history, interwoven with the scenes set in Amsterdam.'

Fiona Snyckers has featured the book and discussed the process of translation with Etienne van Heerden in The Times in South Africa, calling it already 'a modern classic.'

PRAISE for Etienne van Heerden

'As writers like Marquez gave a rich artistic depth to South America - and Alasdair Gray defined the imaginative landscape of Scotland in Lanark - so van Heerden has created an 'artistic map' of South Africa.' -- Mark Stanton, The Scotsman

'His exploration of personal relations and private lives under the pressure of historical and political forces makes him an eloquent witness of profound social change.' -- Andre Brink

'He combines popular readability with literary excellence and profound issues in a manner accomplished by few writers of any nationality.' -- Shaun de Waal, Mail and Guardian

HERO.COM 4: CHAOS EFFECT and VILLAIN.NET 4: COLLISION COURSE long-listed for Southampton's Favourite Book Award 2011

The latest instalments in Andy Brigg's HERO.COM and VILLAIN.NET series' have made it on the long-list of the Southampton's Favourite Book Award 2011 in the ten to twelve year old category. This list was compiled by recommendations from children in schools across Southampton and by the Schools and Children's Librarians.    

The main aim of this award is to encourage children in Southampton to recommend their favourite reads first published in 2010 by British Authors. The children will now be involved in reading these titles and voting for their favourite. The top five titles will become the shortlist which will be announced on Monday 1st June 2011.

PRAISE for ANDY BRIGGS

'Tweens and younger teens who have wished for super powers will be drawn to this interesting concept, and there will be plenty of action to keep them reading.' -- Booklist

'Any Briggs vision of a world with super-hero's and super-villain's is a very original one and has been very well realised. These books are superbly written, the story sets off at a high pace and never once slows down...I have been well and truly hooked on this novel from start to finish, it is so close to being a super-villain film in book form, I personally cannot wait till the next volume and highly reccomend this book.' -- Antony, ScienceFictionandfantasy.co.uk

'My eloquent 13 year-old son, an avid reader, just cannot get enough of these books. They are exciting, stimulating and hold his attention even if I put his favourite dinner under his nose!! He would rather re-read all the books by Andy Briggs while he waits for the next book to be published than waste his time with other less able writers' efforts...' -- Amazon Review