Barry Unsworth at the Tuscan Sun Festival

Barry Unsworth is to give a reading from his most recent novel, The Ruby In Her Navel, on Thursday 16th August at 3pm, as part of the the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy. The Tuscan Sun Festival is a collection of concerts performed by the world's most acclaimed musicians, exhibitions with leading visual artists, discussions with top literary figures and culinary events with some of the region's finest chefs and winemakers.

For more information and tickets, see  www.tuscansunfestival.com

A prize for Wild

Congratulations to Jay Griffiths! Her new book, Wild, has won the Orion Book Award, a new prize presented annually to a book that deepens our connection to the natural world, presents new ideas about our relationship with nature, and achieves excellence in writing. The selection committee chairperson, Scott Slovic, writes:

You can read more about Wild in a wonderful piece by Jay  here

Toby Litt is on tour

Toby Litt's Hospital Visits tour has now begun and is off to a flying start. You can keep up to date with his progress as he makes his way around the country by reading his tour blog  here

As part of the ten-stop university tour, Toby has been making this offer to any creative writing students who turn up:

'I'm going to invite them to bring their own writing, up to 2000 words, in return for buying a copy of Hospital. I will take it away and, via email, give them as much feedback as I can. At the end of the tour, I will choose whichever work I think is best and we'll put it up on the Hamish Hamilton website. I will keep in touch with the writer and, when they're ready, give something of theirs to my agent and editor.'

Though some might call this offer recklessly generous (and, indeed, some already have) we think it's an unmissable opportunity. Whether or not you have literary aspirations of your own, we hope you'll be able to make it to one of the events. Believe us, it'll be just the tonic you need.

The Inheritance of Loss is shortlisted for the Orange Prize!

We were thrilled to hear that Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss had been shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. Muriel Gray, Chair of the judges, commented on how exciting this year's shortlist is, representing 'six beautifully crafted pieces of work that are as accessible as they are fascinating. That this outstanding writing should come from such diverse sources... is doubly thrilling.'

So hurrah for Kiran! And here's hoping for more good news when the winner is announced on June 6th.

See Mohsin Hamid on the small screen

Barnes & Noble have added a wonderful interview with Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, to their website, and we thought you might like to see it. There's also a video clip that's well worth a watch. Check them out  here

There's our own interview with Mohsin right here on the Hamish Hamilton site, too, of course. And if you haven't yet got around to the novel, please don't hesitate a moment longer – you're in for a truly breathtaking read.

Dara Horn and Jonathan Safran Foer amongst the Best of Young American Novelists

Granta have just announced their Twenty Best of Young American Novelists, and we're delighted to see HH authors Jonathan Safran Foer and Dara Horn amongst them. As the Observer commented, it's a list that 'sets the literary agenda for a generation'. A high honour indeed.

You can read the full list, and have your say  here. And you can read more in the Guardian  here

Why Do People Get Ill? – the blog

Have you ever wondered why people get ill when they do, or how the mind affects the body? In their brilliant new book, Why Do People Get Ill?, Darian Leader and David Corfield explore these questions and more, with startling and thought-provoking insights into the relationship between our minds and our bodies.

Responses to the book have been coming thick and fast, and we'd strongly encourage you to take a look at David Corfield's fascinating and illuminating blog, which discusses responses to the book. Why not add your own voice to the debate?

Read David Corfield's blog here

Hamish Hamilton hits the headlines

News of Hamish Hamilton's clean sweep of this year's major literary prizes – the Whitbread, the Booker, and the Orange – has spread far and wide (shameless of us to blow our own trumpets this way – please forgive us). To celebrate such a vintage year, there have been not one, but two interviews with our very own publishing director, Simon Prosser, which we thought you might like to see. So check out the recent Bookseller and Guardian pieces here, whilst we take a moment to get our feet back on the ground and start thinking about how to live up to all this glory in 2007...

Tis the season to get merry, says Tom Hodgkinson

It is customary at this time of year to bemoan the commercial nature of the Christmas season, and to remind ourselves of the real purpose of Christmas – that is, to get drunk, have fun and avoid work (oh, and remember the birth of Christ, of course). In the phrase 'Merry Christmas' we recall the medieval idea of merriment. It was important to be merry because to the community-minded medieval man, merriment brought people together. Therefore to be merry was practically a social duty. In those days too, Christmas really did last twelve days during which time no work was permitted. Later, of course, the Puritans attacked merry-making and banned Christmas.

So it is your revolutionary task this Christmastide to lie around and do nothing except eat fine capons, drink spiced wine and dance by the fireside. And to hand out copies of How To Be Free to every one of your nearest and dearest to ensure their merriment and liberty from Christmas day forth. Hurrah!

To read more from Tom Hodgkinson on merriment  click here

Hamish Hamilton to publish a major new book by Jonathan Safran Foer

Hamish Hamilton are delighted to announce the acquisition of a major new non-fiction project by Jonathan Safran Foer: Eating Animals, an exposure and examination of our relationship – both practical and ethical – with meat. The book will present the gut-wrenching truth about the price paid by the environment, the government, the Third World, and the animals themselves in order to put meat on our tables more cheaply and conveniently than ever before. Passionate, informative, rational, convincing and entertaining, Eating Animals will be a Fast Food Nation for anyone who cares about the way we eat now. Simon Prosser bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Nicole Aragi via Abner Stein, and Hamish Hamilton will publish in Spring 2009.

Simon Prosser comments: 'As Jonathan says, we are approaching a tipping point with eating – and this book should play an important role in pushing the culture over. Britain is the modern home of ethical eating, with the number of vegetarians, and of those who consider the relevant issues, increasing all the time. This is a book for them: an accessible and beautifully written appeal for a meat-free way of life.'

To view a video narrated by Jonathan Safran Foer addressing some of these issues  click here

The Saltire Society Book of the Year Awards – short lists announced

Big congratulations this month to two of our Scottish writers, Alison Miller and James Robertson, who have been nominated for The Saltire Society's Scottish Book of the Year Award. Alison Miller's edgy and exciting debut novel Demo has been praised for its uncompromising exploration of gender, class, sex and the anti-war movement, and as a result has been shorlisted for Best First Book. The Testament of Gideon Mack, James Robertson's most ambitious novel to date, is wonderfully lyrical, tightly paced and richly imaginative, and we're delighted that it's been shortlisted for Best Book. Hats off to the authors, and fingers crossed for the announcement of the winners on November 30th.

Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss wins the Man Booker Prize 2006!

Big congratulations to Kiran Desai who last night was named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and has become the youngest woman ever to win the prestigious prize.

Chair of the judges, Hermione Lee, made the announcement at the awards dinner at the Guildhall, London, which was broadcast live on the BBC 10 O'Clock News.

Hermione Lee comments, 'We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Man Booker Prize for 2006 is Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, a magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness. The winner was chosen, after a long, passionate and generous debate, from a shortlist of five other strong and original voices.'

Congratulations Kiran!

Chomsky better than Superman, declares Venezuelan President

In a spirited address to the United Nations, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela did our job better than we ever could, by pitching Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival to the entire assembly, and sending it sky-rocketing up the Amazon bestseller charts in the process. Holding up a copy of the book, and waving it before the host of world leaders in front of him, Chavez respectfully invited one and all to read it, saying: 'It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the twentieth century, and what's happening now'. Chavez not only went on to declare that Americans should be reading Chomsky's book rather than watching Superman movies, which 'make people stupid', but also expressed deep regret at never having had the opportunity to meet Chomsky before his death...

Chomsky is, in fact, still very much alive – and when he's made it through the 10,000-plus emails he's received since rumours of his demise spread like wildfire around the globe, he'll be writing away once again. We publish his latest oeuvre, Perilous Power, in March.

See Hugo Chavez recommend Chomsky to the UN here

Kiran Desai in Booker shortlist excitement!

Wonderful news here at Hamish Hamilton! Kiran Desai's beautiful novel The Inheritance of Loss has made the cut for the 2006 Man Booker Prize shortlist. Many congratulations to Kiran – we will all be crossing our fingers when the winner is announced on Tuesday 10th October.

In Memoriam: Roger Deakin

It was with enormous sadness that I heard the news that Roger Deakin had left us. I had been up to see him at his home in Suffolk a week before he died, and while prematurely aged as a result of his illness his eyes still twinkled. As he sat up in his armchair eating watercress soup I kept thinking that he might yet make a miracle recovery. After all, only two weeks before that he had been swimming in his local pond. The illness when it took grip, however, did so with terrible speed, taking away from us one of the most vital and life-embracing men I have ever met.

To know Roger was to love him. His enthusiasm, curiosity, generosity and humour were unbounded. And the free spiritedness with which he led his life – outdoor swimming in the depths of winter, building his own home, sleeping al fresco wherever and whenever – was an inspiration. Moreover, he was a writer of great and original talent, combining memoir, history, literature and nature writing in his classic first book Waterlog and in the manuscript of Wildwood, delivered some months before he died, which we will publish at Hamish Hamilton in June 2007. It is indescribably sad to think that there will be no more words to come from Roger, who still had so much ahead of him, having started book-writing relatively late in life.

In the meantime, we must be grateful for the words we do have – and for the memories of Roger recounted by his many friends. You can find some of them in the obituaries and appreciations below, including those of his great friends and fellow-writers Terence Blacker and Robert Macfarlane. If anyone else would like to add to this archive, please do e-mail me c/o hamish@hamishhamilton.co.uk

Simon Prosser
Publishing Director, Hamish Hamilton

 Terence Blacker in the Independent

 The Telegraph

 The Guardian

You can also listen to Jane Little in conversation with Terence Blacker and Robert Macfarlane on BBC Radio 4's The Last Word here

Zadie Smith wins Orange Prize

Our hearty congratulations go to Zadie Smith for her success in the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel On Beauty.

The Chair of Judges Martha Kearney presented Zadie with the eleventh Orange Prize, along with the bronze 'Bessie' statuette, and had this to say: 'This is a book which combines extraordinary characterisation with skilful and seemingly effortless plotting. It ranges from exposing the intimacies of family life to broader themes of aesthetics, ethics and the vagaries of academe in a literary tour de force'. High praise indeed, and very well deserved – once again, well done Zadie!

Ali Smith's latest literary prize: a rooster!

Ali Smith's The Accidental has won accolades galore – it's the Whitbread Novel of the Year, and has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Saltire Prize. All dazzling, yet none can claim to bestow quite so unique a prize as the 2006 Tournament of Books, awarded by online magazine The Morning News, which promises the winner a real live rooster.

Sadly – or not, we suppose, depending upon your point of view – The Morning News have been unable to find any legal way to ship live poultry to the UK (nor have they quite been able to fathom how to fit a live rooster into a FedEx carton). So they have decided to donate $100 (the equivalent of five flocks of chicks) to the Heifer Foundation in The Accidental's heroine's name.

Here's Ali's response to the news: 'I am cock-a-hoop! I have NEVER won a prize of which I've been more delighted and proud. If you tell me how to go about it, I will donate another $100 worth of chickens in my euphoria. Thank you and The Morning News for this great, great honour.' We couldn't agree more.
In case you haven't heard about the 2006 Tournament of Books, you can read all about it here

The future's still bright for the Smiths

The announcement of this year's Orange Prize shortlist sparked much excitement here at HH, when we heard that both Zadie Smith's On Beauty and Ali Smith's The Accidental were on the list. As we're sure you know, both books were shortlisted for the Booker Prize towards the end of last year, and if you're yet to read one or both of them, wait no longer: glorious riches are in store. Here's to both Zadie and Ali, and to June 6th, when the winner will be announced – we can hardly wait.

The book that helped to win a battle

We are delighted with the result of the House of Commons vote which has accepted the House of Lords amendments to the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. A triumph for English PEN, the result follows their vigorous campaign against a Bill which would have 'criminalised' religious hatred and seriously curtailed the freedom of writers, artists and performers. With the House of Lords amendments now in place, the Bill fills the tiny loophole in the law that it was intended to fill, making incitement of hatred against Muslims on the grounds of their religion a criminal act, while defending our basic right to debate any aspect of religion or religious practice.

Freedom of Expression is No Offence, edited by Lisa Appignanesi and published by Penguin in association with English PEN, was a vital part of the campaign against the Bill. With contributions by Rowan Atkinson, Philip Pullman, Salman Rushdie, Monica Ali, Hanif Kureishi and Nicholas Hytner, as well as our very own Hari Kunzru and Adam Phillips, the book highlights the issues at stake and makes quite clear why freedom of expression is everyone's fundamental right.

The Whitbread Book of the Year, brought to you by Hamish Hamilton

We couldn't be happier to announce that Hilary Spurling's Matisse the Master has been crowned Whitbread Book of the Year at a star studded awards ceremony held at The Brewery in London. The judges praised the way in which the book reads like a great story, immersing the reader in Matisse's world – his art, his travels and right to the heart of the man himself. Our very own Ali Smith, who won the Whitbread Novel of the Year award, said: 'There are books which are a pinnacle of what books are there for and this is one.'

So it's three cheers for Hilary Spurling – here at Hamish Hamilton, we'll be beaming for days. If you've read the book you will be too, and if not then look no further...
Read more about Matisse the Master

More celebrations at HH HQ

The new year is already off to a glittering start with the announcement of the Whitbread Book Awards, and here at Hamish Hamilton we're ecstatic that two of our very own authors are amongst the winners. Ali Smith has scooped the Novel of the Year award for her bounteous treasure of a book, The Accidental, which 'inspired both laughter and sadness' in the judges, all of whom said they found it impossible to stop reading. Hilary Spurling's Matisse the Master was named Biography of the Year, and hailed as 'a masterpiece – one of the landmark biographies of the last few years, which has already changed the history of art.' Our most jubilant congratulations go to both, and here's to the announcement of the overall winner on January 24th...

V&A recognise the incredible talents of Jonathan Safran Foer

We were thrilled to bursting last week, when Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close not only won the Book Illustration category but was also crowned the overall winner at the V&A Illustration Awards 2005. Judge Alan Hollinghurst praised the book's 'clever combination of word and image, which has the effect of drawing one in imaginatively'.

Jonathan himself was delighted to hear the news, and sent us the following speech to read out on his behalf:

'I'd like to thank Jesus Christ. No, just kidding, I'm Jewish. But in all seriousness, this is a very unexpected honor, and one that is tremendously meaningful to me. There is no award, at least not that I am aware of, for painters who incorporate text into their paintings. There's no need for one, as the boundaries of painting were broken down more than fifty years ago. But when novelists bring images into their books, it's still often considered either a gimmick, or some expression of the failure of language. Which is as silly as saying that the dancers in a ballet are a gimmick, or a statement about the failure of music. To get this kind of generous acknowledgement, from this institution, is hugely encouraging to me. Thank you.'
Read more on Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Chomsky is crowned Public Intellectual #1

We're delighted to announce that Noam Chomsky has been voted the world's number one intellectual in a poll conducted by Prospect magazine. Chomsky heads an eminent list of noted thinkers, politicians and philosophers, supassing luminaries from all over the globe, including Richard Dawkins, Umberto Eco, Mario Vargas Llosa, Francis Fukiyama and Eric Hobsbawn. You can see the full results in the November issue of Prospect. Editor David Goodhart was full of praise: 'Chomsky has an authority granted by brilliance.'

Chomsky turns his attention to the post-9/11 world in a collection of absorbing and considered interviews, Imperial Ambitions: Conversations with Noam Chomsky, which will be published by Hamish Hamilton on 20 October.
Read more here

Smiths still smiling as Booker is announced

All our congratulations go to John Banville, this year's winner of the Man Booker Prize. We couldn't be more proud that Ali Smith's The Accidental and Zadie Smith's On Beauty both made it onto the shortlist this year. A hearty well done should also go to Dan Jacobson, whose novel All For Love appeared on the longlist. Roll on next year!

Smith and Smith in best ever Booker shortlist

We were over the moon to hear that two Hamish Hamilton authors had been shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize, a list that many see as the richest assortment of contemporary British fiction since its launch in 1969. Ali Smith's exquisite and experimental new novel The Accidental and Zadie Smith's sassy and sublime third novel On Beauty have survived the cut to make the last six. Congratulations to them both. The winner will be announced on Monday 10th October, and we're not sure we can wait that long...
Read more about The Accidental here                                                      Read more about On Beauty here

Hurrah for The Farm

We're delighted that The Farm, by Richard Benson, has been longlisted for this year's Guardian First Book Award, along with nine other hopefuls. As always, candidates include a wide-ranging mixture of fiction, poetry, memoir and current affairs. This year, the list is more diverse – both in topic and ethnic origin – than it's ever been since the award started in 1999, with themes and locations ranging from Bombay to Yorkshire, and everything in between.

The Farm is as unsentimental as it is moving, humorous and thought provoking, and if you haven't read it yet you really must. Since it was published in May, the book has caused a consistent stir amongst reviewers, and news of its longlisting for this much-coveted prize is the icing on our cake. We've got high hopes for the shortlist, which will be announced on November 3.
Richard Benson on the sad conclusion to his family's farming life and an extract from The Farm can be found here

Hamish Hamilton takes the Booker Prize longlist by storm

We've been beaming from ear to ear since hearing the news that not one, not two, but three Hamish Hamilton authors have been longlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize. The books themselves are Ali Smith's dizzying, dazzling, endlessly inventive new novel, The Accidental, the yet-to-be-published third novel from Zadie Smith, On Beauty, which is as irrepressibly funny, wise and tragi-comic as anything she's ever written, and Dan Jacobson's scandalous, sumptuous treat of a novel, All for Love, his first in twelve years. Here's to all three, and to the announcement of the shortlist on 8 September.

Dave Eggers and Jonathan Safran Foer in town for Book Slam

'Someone just told me they'd dropped an E' joked Patrick Neate to the crowd sitting before him – most of them cross-legged on the floor, and the rest sunk into the huge leather armchairs dotted around the room. For one night only, Patrick Neate's monthly literary club night moved from its usual home at hip-but-scruffy Notting Hill nightspot Cherry Jam to the sleeker surroundings of the Great Eastern Hotel. Book Slam East starred two very special Hamish Hamilton authors: Jonathan Safran Foer and Dave Eggers, each over from the States for a whirlingly hectic week. After Patrick's introduction, Jonathan was first on stage, reading the opening chapter from his new novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. His reading, like the book itself, was hilarious and heart-stopping by turns, and was punctuated by some witty asides (he thanked us for laughing harder at a joke about Shakespeare than we did when he said the word 'anus' – apparently it's been the other way round on his American tour). Later on, Dave Eggers had the whole room in stitches as he read out letters written to US CEOs in the guise of a dog named Steven. He then told us how he'd been waylaid by the US State Security Department after leaving one of his notebooks on an aeroplane. Let that be a lesson to all of us not to have the names of political leaders written next to giant monster doodles in our hand luggage...
Read more about Book Slam at Cherry Jam, the monthly mix of readings, performance poetry, DJs, bands and more

Another Hamish Hamilton winner

Cheers rang out at Hamish Hamilton when we heard that Hari Kunzru had won the decibel Writer of the Year award at the 2005 British Book Awards. As you might know, decibel are an Arts Council initiative that promotes and supports cultural diversity in the arts, and the prize is awarded to the writer of African, Caribbean or Asian descent who has had the greatest impact upon the literary year. Hari's second novel, Transmission, is a dazzling one, and if you've not read it yet you're in for a treat – a vibrant comic satire on technology and the homogenisation of culture, a heady cocktail of London, Bollywood and Silicon Valley and a brilliant, funny take on life at the mercy of a computer mouse. Look out for it in Penguin paperback next month.
Read more on Hari Kunzru

A new vision for the ICA

Ekow Eshun is about to become the new director of London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, better known, of course, as the ICA. When news of the appointment was announced the papers were full of him, and no doubt the same will be true when he steps into his new shoes on May 3rd. Meanwhile, though, we have other things on our minds as his memoir, Black Gold of the Sun, comes out exactly one month later.

With a cover design by Chris Ofili and a story that even shocked its author (you'll have to read it to find out how), Black Gold of the Sun will be an event in itself. It's a quest for roots, family and the meaning of blackness, perfectly balancing the personal with the political, the past with the present, London with Ghana, and hip hop with Hegel. Something for everyone, then . . .

Armchair Psychoanalysis

If you’ve ever wondered how psychoanalysis can be turned into entertaining television, then tune in to the South Bank Show on Sunday 6th March.  Adam Phillips will be holding forth on how sanity can find its place in our ever busier, ever more chaotic lives, and generally giving free rein to his erudition, originality and charm.

And if this leaves you wanting more, then you can always buy the book that spawned the programme – Adam Phillips’s Going Sane, just published by us and out in the shops now. 

Or, if telly’s not your thing, just buy the book. Read more on Going Sane

Chomsky hits home with his new book

Continuing in the same subversive vein as Hegemony or Survival, Noam Chomsky's Failed States, due out from Hamish Hamilton in 2006, will turn its back on America's obsession with global dominance and instead shine a spotlight on its considerable failings back home.

In Chomsky's own words: 'America is a failed state, and as such a danger to its own people . . . Americans can choose between major-party candidates who were born to wealth and political power, attended the same elite university, joined the same secret society that instructs members in the style and manners of the rulers, and are able to run because they are funded by the same corporate powers . . . The inescapable irony is that the United States, long involved in "democracy-building" adventures around the world, desperately needs to revitalize the democratic process at home.'

The Hamish Hamilton Almanac is born

January 2005 sees the first-ever Hamish Hamilton Almanac come into the world. This is no conventional catalogue, and it's certainly not the place to go looking for useful information. Instead, it's a kind of behind-the-scenes look at what we're publishing this year, with space for the authors to talk about their books, photographs which you won't see in the books themselves, and extracts to introduce you to books you didn't know you wanted to read. And to make it even more special, we're only printing a limited number. We have 20 copies to give away to the first hamishhamilton.co.uk subscribers, so if you'd like a copy, get in touch...

Be Idle, says Hamish Hamilton

Back on a sunny September day, Hamish Hamilton took to the streets waving banners and inciting Londoners to change their lives. Idleness was our cause, and in Tom Hodgkinson, author of the inspirational How to be Idle, we had found our leader.

Our revolutionary zeal was, of course, tempered by the need to take things easy, and once we felt our work was done, we retired to Clerkenwell Green to celebrate the fine tradition of idleness and drink to our success in spreading the word. Read more on How to be Idle