Simon Lelic's brilliant debut novel RUPTURE (Felicity Bryan Associates) has been nominated for the CWA 2010 John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger shortlist. This award is made in memory of CWA founder John Creasey, for first books by previously unpublished writers. The shortlist was announced on the 23rd July in Harrogate during the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

The CWA Dagger Awards are the longest established literary awards in the UK and are internationally recognised as a mark of excellence and achievement. CWA Chairman Tom Harper said: "The CWA Dagger Awards have always enjoyed huge prestige among crime fiction fans and authors. The shortlists this year are incredibly strong, and that for the John Creasey has some exciting new talents, all working at the top of their game." The winner will be awarded at a televised ceremony in the Autumn, as part of the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards.

http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2010/newblood.html

Alex Preston (Johnson & Alcock) has received the special award for best first book for This Bleeding City (Faber) at this year's Spears Book Award.
The novel was also shortlisted for "Novel of the year" category.

Spear's Book Awards, in association with Citi Private Bank, celebrates the best writing talent and the books of the year - from finance to fiction. The award ceremony took place on the 5th of July. Authors and celebrity judges from the worlds of literature, finance and society were in attendance as prizes were given out in a variety of categories, including some of the most important and influential books of the year.

http://www.spearswms.com/good-life/books/19077/spears-book-awards-2010-shortlist.thtml

Congratulations to Keren David, whose gripping and funny teen debut WHEN I WAS JOE has been nominated for two awards. WHEN I WAS JOE is shortlisted for the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards (winner is announced in February 2011) and is also one of 12 books longlisted for the Young Minds Book Award 2010.

The annual Young Minds Book Award 'seeks to raise awareness and create understanding of mental health needs of children and young people. Books such as those submitted for the award can help break the isolation experienced by young people and demonstrate that their feelings and problems are not unique.'

The Shortlist is due to be announced in September. Find more about Keren here.

http://www.youngminds.org.uk/about-ym/youngminds-book-award/youngminds-book-award-2009/?searchterm=book

Undiscovered Voices winner Katie Dale is currently celebrating several book deals.

Her compelling, Jodi Picoult-style debut, SOMEONE ELSE'S FOOTPRINTS will be published in the UK by Simon & Schuster and in the US by Delacorte Press Books for Young readers - and in Germany by Droemer Knaur. At the suggestion of her UK editor, Venetia Gosling, Katie is learning how to Blog and Tweet as an author. Congratulations, Katie!

David Almond (Felicity Bryan Associates), the critically-acclaimed author of SKELLIG, has been awarded the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen medal.

The judges said Almond "captures his young readers' imagination and motivates them to read, think and be critical. His use of language is sophisticated and reaches across the ages."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/23/david-almond-hans-christian-andersen-medal

Michel Meyer has won the prestigious French prize LE LAURIER D'OR 2009 DE LA RADIO for the series adapted from his book LA CHUTE DU MUR.

ANA have placed German rights in Sara Grant's debut dystopian YA novel, DARK PARTIES, with Droemer Knaur, in a two book deal.

Timothy Sonderheusken, Sara's editor at Droemer, says:

"Finally! After months and months of reading clever (and mostly not so clever) clones of today's bestsellers, I found this one book that had me mesmerized from the first page. Sara Grant is a unique storyteller who has breathed new life into the dystopian novel. Not only does she create a consistent society nobody would like to live in (even though it sometimes raises the question: are we already?), but she populates it with cleverly constructed characters who will cast a spell on readers even though they are not vampires who sparkle in the sun. DARK PARTIES is one of the books that will linger in the back of the mind for a very long time - and the first ideas for Sara's next novel are even more exciting."

Droemer will publish DARK PARTIES in their PAN imprint in Spring 2011, which is when Little, Brown Books for Young Readers will publish the US edition. Congratulations, Sara!

We are thrilled to report that Quercus (UK) has just bought Jan-Erik Pettersson's biography of Stieg Larsson, which will be published in Sweden by Telegram Books in May 2010.

So far we have made sales to Aufbau (Germany), Marsilio (Italy), Planeta (Spain), Columna (Catalan), Wydawnictwo Czarna Owca (Poland), Lindhardt & Ringhof (Denmark) and J.M. Meulenhoff (Holland).

Congratulations to Jonathan Littell, Antony Beevor and Meg Rosoff (Felicity Bryan) who have been selected for The Times Top 100 Books of the Decade, for their respective books Les Bienveillantes, Berlin: The Downfall 1945 and How I Live Now.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_reviews/article6914181.ece

UN ROMAN FRANCAIS (Grasset) is topping the best-seller lists and has already received tremendous critical acclaim:

Yann Moix, Le Figaro Littéraire: "Frederic Beigbeder is our own contemporary and one of our best writers."

Victor Pouvhet, Le Magazine Littéraire: "Beigbeder's humorous and skilfully written prose echoes with a human voice."

Marc Lambron, Le Point: "A night-owl delivers his best book to date."

Following D-DAY and before he writes his next battle book for Viking Penguin, Antony Beevor is to write a one-volume history of the Second World War for Weidenfeld & Nicolson, for provisional publication in 2012. Little, Brown and Company is to publish in the United States. All translation rights are with ANA Ltd.

Weidenfeld & Nicolson has published Beevor before, most recently The Battle for Spain, his brilliant account of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War. Alan Samson, Publisher of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, commented: "This is a thrilling acquisition for Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Antony Beevor combines the narrative ability and insight of a great novelist with a masterly ability to synthesise complex material. A one-volume biography of the Second World War is the book he was born to write".

William Heinemann, an imprint of the Random House Group, has re-issued Michael Jackson's one and only autobiography MOONWALK in the UK.

The new edition of the book was published on 13th October and includes a new introduction from Berry Gordy and an afterword from publisher Shaye Areheart who was, along with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Michael's original editor at Doubleday.

Areheart's Harmony imprint at Random House will reissue the book in the US. Rights have also been sold in France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Spain.

Sony have negotiated an 18-month option for a film of David Peace's RED RIDING QUARTET (Serpent's Tail). Ridley Scott will direct.

Congratulations to Professor of Classics Mary Beard, who has won the Wolfson History Prize 2008 for her book Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town.

The Wolfson History Prizes were established in 1972 and are awarded annually to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public.

http://www.wolfson.org.uk/historyprize.htm

Congratulations to Fabrice Humbert, who has been awarded the Orange Prize in France for his extraordinary and compelling novel, L'ORIGINE DE LA VIOLENCE.

http://prix-orange-du-livre.event.orange.fr/

Youssef Ziedan's Azazel has just been published by Neri Pozza in Italy.

The novel, set in fifth-century Egypt and Syria and dealing with the early history of Christianity, won the prize despite being the subject of religious attacks in its native country.
Translation rights have been sold to Atlantic Books (World English rights), Neri Pozza (Italy), Random House (Germany), Livanis (Greece), Trei (Romania), Ljevak (Croatia), Ljevak (Bosnia) and Serambi (Indonesia).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/16/youssef-ziedan-arabic-booker

Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) and Martin Cruz Smith are the first and the second respectively and Donald Westlake has won the German Crime Award (Deutscher Krimi Preis).

http://www.deutscher-krimipreis.de/

Judges: "This book's portrayal of pain makes it a riveting and heartbreaking read - it's rare for a first novel to be this assured."

The Outcast was also shortlisted for the 2009 Galaxy British Book Awards and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/05/costabookaward-awardsandprizes

The International Award is an acknowledgement for "lives devoted to literature".

Premio Grinzane Cavour was established in 1982 to encourage young people to read books outside the school curriculum.

The International Prize has previously been awarded Julien Green, Günter Grass, Czeslaw Milosz, Carlos Fuentes, Bohumil Hrabal, Oe Kenzaburo, Yves Bonnefoy, Jean Starobinski, V. S. Naipaul, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Doris Lessing and this year to Don DeLillo.

BEFORE I DIE by Jenny Downham (in association with Felicity Bryan Literary Agency) has won this prestigious award for the most promising book for seven year-olds and upwards by a first-time novelist. It is a joint award between the author and her editor, David Fickling.

BEFORE I DIE was also longlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.

http://www.branfordboase.org

Meg Rosoff has won the prestigious prize in the best young adult novel category for her novel JUST IN CASE (in association with Felicity Bryan Ltd).
The German Youth Literature Prizes 2008 were awarded on October 17, 2008, at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

"A superbly designed game with changing identities, an ego maniacally circuiting around the self; with esprit and speed Meg Rosoff shapes a coming-of-age novel. This humorous story is translated into German with skill and originality by Brigitte Jakobeit."

Praise for JUST IN CASE:

"Funny, ironic, magically real; stunning." Kirkus Review

"A highly original and gripping coming-of-age tale" Financial Times Magazine

Profile author Raja Shehadeh has been awarded the prestigious Orwell Prize for political writing for his acclaimed book, PALESTINIAN WALKS: NOTES ON A VANISHING LANDSCAPE (in association with Profile Books).

The book describes over two decades of turmoil and change in the Middle East, steered via the history-soaked landscape of Palestine, and was published to critical acclaim last year:

'Raja Shehadeh's Palestinian Walks provides a rare historical insight into the tragic changes taking place in Palestine.' Jimmy Carter

Andrew Franklin, MD of Profile books, said: 'We are thrilled that the judges of this prize recognised the book's special qualities - which I am sure George Orwell would have admired too.