• Home
• Authors
• Events
• Gifts
• Offers
• Tasters
• Readers' Groups
• About Penguin
• Jobs

• Children
• Penguin Classics
• Spinebreakers
• Five Dials
• Penguin Dating
• Blog
• Podcast

From bonding to bondage, from B & Q to Belarus, along with seven smelly cats, three useless handymen, two slimy estate agents, social workers, and a bonker lady, We Are All Made Of Glue is the story of a very unlikely friendship.

On Wednesday 8th July , between 10am and 12 noon, Waterstones.com are hosting a live webchat with Marina Lewycka. You can post your questions for Marine or join in the discussion live on the day..

We Are All Made Of Glue is available in hardback July 2nd 2009.

In the ‘ones to watch’ section of The Bookseller magazine, Sarah Broadhurst picked out David Vann’s Legend of a Suicide:

‘This is my ‘One to watch’, a literary debut set in Alaska about the effects of a father’s suicide on his son. It’s stunning, beautifully written, with genuine surprises and a complexity which makes you retrace your steps, wonder what really happened and ponder over the whole scenario for days. I loved it. It’s Richard Yates, Annie Proulx territory, and highly recommended.’

Legend of a Suicide is available in paperback October 29th 2009

The book jacket has been revealed for the memoir of Britain's most successful television duo, Ant and Dec.

Ooh! What a Lovely Pair, full of behind-the-scene anecdotes filled with schoolboy pranks and off-screen antics, is a charming, funny and warm account of the TV icons.

Ooh! What a Lovely Pair is out in late September.

Spinebreakers is coming offline and travelling to Birmingham and Leeds this July!

Spinebreakers LIVE is a day of creative workshops for just £5 (lunch included) hosted by Penguin's teenage website Spinebreakers. With a choice of three workshops in creative writing, film and photography and designing graphic novels, this is an event not to be missed for any creative teenager aged 13-18. There will be opportunity to meet author Kevin Brooks in Leeds, Meg Rosoff in Birmingham and be entertained by great new live act Lion Club whilst you eat your lunch.

Tickets are limited so book now:

Spinebreakers LIVE in Leeds – Tues 21 July, 10.30-4.30 at The Carriageworks, Leeds.

Spinebreakers LIVE in Birmingham – Mon 27 July, 10.30-4.30 at The Custard Factory, Birmingham..

Penguin is to launch a music initiative in collaboration with Island Records on Spinebreakers.

Penguin announced a deal with Island Records to get the latter''s artists involved with Spinebreakers. Our team of young reviewers will give their opinions on new tracks from Island artists, while also sending the musicians books to read, and talk about in video interviews. Already on board are Florence and the Machine, Rumblestrips, Frankmusik and the King Blues. "We want to make reading sexy for this age group," says Anna Rafferty, Penguin Online marketing director.

"Breakers" will launch on July 6.

Study carried out by Penguin shows nearly two thirds of teenagers don't believe in God.

It also emerged six out of ten 10 children (59 per cent) believe that religion "has a negative influence on the world". The study of 1,000 teenagers aged 13 to 18 was carried out by Penguin to mark this week's publication of controversial novel Killing God by Kevin Brooks. The book is about a 15-year-old girl who questions the existence of God.

Kevin Brooks, the author, said: "I can't say I am surprised by the teenagers' responses.

Find out what our Spinebreakers thought of Killing God.

A literary, music and comedy festival all rolled into one and situated at Napoleon's "most beautiful place in England".

Port Eliot Festival is this summer’s most original, inspirational and downright decadent garden party. With a host of top authors, cabaret acts, comedians and more live music and DJs than ever before – not to mention the prospect of wild swimming, moonwatching, tree walks and dancing – this year’s festival is shaping up to be the best yet, promising to offer an experience like no other. Tom Hodgkinson, author of the Idle Parent, and Joe Dunthorne, author of the fantastic Submarine will be apppearing at the festival.

Visit www.porteliotfestival.com for more information.

Only 2% of the world's paper is turned into books, and while we're proud of all our books here at Penguin, we are mindful that trees have to become paper, some of which will eventually become books.

Penguin's managing director and chair of the Publisher's Association, Helen Fraser, has teamed up with the Bookseller's association to create a green guidance site to promote awareness and help the environment. Find out more about the Environment Action Group at http://www.green4books.org.uk/index.htmlJustice

To find out more about what Penguin are doing to reduce our effects on the environment, check out our Green Penguin site www.greenpenguin.co.uk

Prof Michael Sandel considers the expansion and moral limits of markets.

Listen to the first of four Reith Lectures 2009, and hear Michael Sandel, Harvard Professor of Government, delivering four lectures about the prospects of a new politics of the common good.

Is killing sometimes morally required? Is the free market fair? It is sometimes wrong to tell the truth? What is justice, and what does it mean? These and other questions are at the heart of Michael Sandel's Justice, published 24 September 2009.

Visit Selfridges for your chance to meet Sebastian Faulks, writing as Ian Fleming, signing his book Devil May Care on Thursday 4 June. As Penguin’s fastest selling hardback ever, take part in the launch signing of the paperback!

The publication of Devil May Care was the biggest literary event of 2008 with unprecedented coverage of the launch across the TV networks, radio and press. It spent 5 weeks at No. 1, 3 months in the Top 10, has sold over 300,000 copies to date - and is set to be the biggest paperback of 2009!

On the eve of the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction awards ceremony, the six members of the Orange Prize youth panel have chosen Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo as their overall winner.

Lily Dessau (16), said, "Blonde Roots is emotive, moving and thought-provoking. It has everything we were asked to look for – accessibility, originality and excellence – and more."

Max Elsworth (19), added, "Blonde Roots has opened new literary doors for me – it's a truly remarkable read." The Orange Prize for Fiction Shadow Judging Panel is made up of six Spinebreakers teen editors aged between 16 - 19. The meeting was facilitated by Kate Mosse, author and Honorary Director of the Orange Prize and after months of intense reading for the prize, the six panel members will all be invited to the Orange Prize Awards Ceremony on 3rd June.

Find out more at www.spinebreakers.co.uk

Guardian writer Lucy Mangan rediscovers her childhood love of Puffin books in the Penguin Archive at Rugby, Warwickshire.

Read how she is reminded of some of her happiest hours, curled up in the corner of the sofa. Visit www.guardian.co.uk/ to read the article.

Edinburgh student, Jen Campbell, has won the 2009 Penguin Orange Readers’ Group Prize.With her entry, she proved to judges that by running two online book clubs and a 'book tree' with over 100 topics for discussion and over 5000 replies, her efforts to make reading social were worthy of the £1000 prize. She will also receive a pair of tickets to the Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 awards ceremony in London on 3rd June.

In response to winning the prize, Jen said: “I'm definitely going to use some of the prize money to run a competition where members can email about why they love reading to win book tokens. Thank you again, I'm over the moon.”

This year, individuals were asked to demonstrate how they had made reading social and the competition was hosted on www.spinebreakers.co.uk. The shortlist was selected by the Orange Prize for Fiction Shadow Judging Panel made up of six of the Spinebreakers teen editors before handing over to author Kate Mosse who chose Jen Campbell as the overall winner.

Kate Mosse commented:
"Congratulations to Jen Campbell on winning the 2009 Penguin Orange Readers' Group Prize. It's a great achievement to run such a well supported and vibrant online Book Club and succeed in attracting such a huge number of international book lovers. There's no doubting her commitment to making reading, often a private passion, as social and community-based as possible."

For more information visit:www.spinebreakers.co.uk

Young Bond's adventures take him all over the world. To celebrate the paperback edition of Young Bond: By Royal Command by Charlie Higson, we are offering you the chance to win a fantastic holiday in Jamaica for you and your family!

We've teamed up with Absolute Radio and Beaches Luxury Included® Resorts to give away an adventure packed with incredible water park rides, gaming at the Xbox® Game Garage, as well as a Scratch DJ Academy for teens. For mum and dad there'll be gourmet meals, golf, scuba-diving and much much more on offer.

Listen live to Absolute at 105.8FM from 10am on Saturday 30 May or visit Absolute's website for your chance to win!

Young Bond: By Royal Command by Charlie Higson being published in paperback on May 28.

Good Luck!

Penguin Group on the Google Settlement

To Our Authors:

You may have questions about the tentative class-action settlement reached between Google and book publishers and the Authors Guild in the USA. Penguin Group (USA) (“Penguin USA”) was one of the named publisher plaintiffs in the lawsuit and participated actively in the settlement negotiations. Penguin Group accordingly supports the settlement and will not opt out or file objections.

The settlement still needs final court approval. If that happens, we intend to register with the settlement-established not-for-profit Book Rights Registry as the rightsholder for those books that we believe we control under the settlement. The settlement allows registered book rightsholders to prohibit outright Google’s display of those books, or, alternatively, to control the manner in which Google may display. There is no need at this time to make final decisions about what uses we might permit Google to make of any of our books, and of course when we do make those decisions, we will give careful consideration to whether any particular Google use will be in the best overall interest of a book.

If Google has scanned a book covered by the settlement before the deadline for opting out of the settlement and if the settlement is finally approved, then a cash payment (on average approximately $60) for the scanning will be due from Google to the Registry to be paid to the registered rightsholders of that book. (But if more than one book has the same basic “principal work” content, e.g. different editions of the same textbook, only one scanning payment will be made for that content.)

Any such scanning cash payments for an In-Print book claimed by us, and any payments by Google for uses of an In-Print book (if those are allowed by us), will be paid to us by the Registry to be shared with the authors of that book equally. (Note: Prior editions of a commercially available In-Print book are also considered to be In-Print.)

Any scanning payments for an Out-of-Print book for which we are a rightsholder, and any payments by Google for any uses of such an Out-of-Print book that are allowed under the settlement, will be divided and paid by the Registry directly to us as the rightsholder publisher, and to any author rightsholders who have separately registered their claims, in percentage shares stated in the settlement.

It is not necessary for authors to take action under the settlement in order for Penguin Group to make claims and exercise control over Google’s possible uses under the settlement for the books we control. But authors also have the right to register separately as rightsholders under the settlement with respect to their copyright interests in their books, whether In-Print or Out-of-Print. And registration of Out-of-Print books by authors is necessary for them to receive directly from the Registry their shares of any payments made by Google for those books, as mentioned above. (If all rights to a book have been reverted by us to an author, the author will be responsible for claiming that book, and so only the author or a new publisher authorized by the author will be able to register a claim for that book.)

Congratulations to Steve Toltz, author of A Fraction of the Whole, who has been shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction.

The winner of the prize will receive quantities of vintage champagne, a set of PG Wodehouse books, and a locally-bred Gloucestershire Old Spot pig named after the triumphant novel.

Past winners of the award include the Penguin authors Marina Lewycka and Jonathan Coe.

Four reading groups from across the UK have been shortlisted for the 2009 Penguin Orange Readers’ Group Prize; the UK’s only annual award for reading groups.

This year the prize was hosted on www.spinebreakers.co.uk and the shortlist was selected by the Orange Prize for Fiction Shadow Judging Panel made up of six of the Spinebreakers teen editors.

Author Kate Mosse will judge the shortlist and choose a winner to be announced on 27th May 2009.

The winner will receive a cheque for £1,000 and a pair of tickets to the Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 awards ceremony in London on 3rd June. Runners up will receive sets of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 shortlisted books.

Congratulations to Sathnam Sanghera who has won the Mind book award for his memoir The Boy with the Topknot

The book has been praised for its emotional honesty and for raising awareness of mental illness issues. Blake Morrison, one of the judging panel for the award has said "Sanghera’s is a loyal and loving book, which couldn’t have been written without the support of his family. Uncovering the secrets in his family requires him, at the end, to disclose some awkward truths about himself.”

The Orange Prize for Fiction Shadow Judging Panel is made up of six Spinebreakers teen editors aged between 16-19. Earlier this month they met up to discuss the longlist of 20 books they had all been reading and commenting on in the Spinebreakers forum.

Author Kate Mosse facilitated the shortlisting meeting and was impressed with the passion and commitment the Spinebreakers teens showed as judges:

“The quality of the youth panel challenges the often negative news stories put out in the media about teenagers and reading,” commented Kate Mosse. “There was outstanding analysis, energy for the task in hand, commitment and an openness and determination to judge each book on its own merits - it was a privilege to eavesdrop on their deliberations.”

The shortlist chosen by the youth panel is strikingly very different from the official judges' list providing a fascinating comparison of a literary prize list from the youth perspective :

- Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold, Tindal Street Press
- Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo, Hamish Hamilton
- The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser, Chatto & Windus
- A Mercy by Toni Morrison, Chatto & Windus
- The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight by Gina Oscher, Portobello Books
- The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews, Faber and Faber

World Rights for a photographic book by Take That have been acquired by Rowland White at Michael Joseph from Eugenie Furniss and Sol Parker at William Morris and Jonathan Wild at 10 Management.

The book is to be published in two volumes and will celebrate the remarkable Take That story, from the formation of the band in 1990 right up to the present day.

The images will include personal pictures, previously unseen images from the Take That archive, as well as specially commissioned, stunning new photography. The accompanying text will be written by the band.

Jonathan Wild, on behalf of the band commented, “The guys have wanted to do a book for a long time, but it was important that the timing, as well as the creative idea was right. They’re really looking forward to producing what will be a fantastic collector’s piece featuring imagery spanning almost two decades along with comment which is both honest and personal”.

White says: ‘The inspiring return of Take That has been pop’s biggest and best good news story. And nothing short of astonishing. I’m very proud indeed that Penguin will be collaborating with the nation’s favourite band on this ground- breaking and enormously exciting project.’

The book will be published in October 2009 following the band’s record-breaking summer tour.

Congratulations to Ross Raisin who won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award for God's Own Country.

Ross Raisin has also been nominated for the Author’s Club First Novel award, the Guardian First Book Award, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Portico Prize.

Devil May Care, Sebastian Faulk's re-working of Bond, one of the big hits of last year, has been rewarded with the Sainsbury's Popular Fiction Award.

Other titles shortlisted for the Sainsbury's award included two Penguin titles, Things I Want my Daughters to Knowby Elizabeth Noble and This Charming Man by Marian Keyes.

The awards were announced at the Galaxy British Book Awards ceremony last night.

The chosen book for the 2009 Dublin: One City, One Book is Dracula by Dublin author Bram Stoker.

During April 2009 there will be Dracula-themed events taking place all across Dublin, encouraging everyone to read and discuss this classic horror novel.

Visit www.dublinonecityonebook.ie for more information.

Click here for the reading guide

Penguin and Orange are offering £1000 cash prize plus two tickets to the Orange Prize for Fiction awards ceremony as a reward to the person who can convince the judges that they have done the most to make reading social. Two runners up will receive a set of Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 shortlisted books.

If you love getting people chatting about books, why not enter? You might have started a group on Facebook, run a book group in your college or maintain a bookish blog – whatever it is that you do to get people talking about reading, tell us about it and you could be in with a chance of winning.

To enter, fill out the form at www.spinebreakers.co.uk

Members of the online teen book community Spinebreakers, have been invited to form a Shadow Judging Panel for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2009.

The six members of the panel are currently reading the same books as the official judges for the prize. As they are reading, they will be posting their comments and opinions in an allocated area of the Spinebreakers forum. The panel will meet up to decide on a shortlist from the 20 books on the Orange Prize longlist, and subsequently will choose a winner from that shortlist to be announced at the awards ceremony on June 3 at the Royal Festival Hall to which each of the shadow panel members will be invited.

This is a fantastic opportunity and a great honour for the teenagers involved. Their choices and opinions will provide a refreshing take on the literary prize with the panel being of mixed gender and all under 20 years old. Their decisions will have no impact on the ultimate selection of shortlist and winner by the official panel of judges but it will be fascinating to be able to compare and contrast their opinions with the official judging panel.

Hamish Hamilton author James Kelman, author of Kieron Smith, boy is among the 14 authors to have made it onto the judges’ List of Contenders for this year’s Man Booker International Prize.

Celebrated writers Peter Carey, V S Naipaul, Antonio Tabucchi, Mario Vargas Llosa and Joyce Carol Oates have also been nominated for the prize, which is awarded biannually, and worth £60,000.

Evan Connell, Mahasweta Devi, E L Doctorow, Arnošt Lustig, Alice Munro, Ngugi Wa Thiong’O, Dubravka Ugresic and Ludmila Ulitskaya make up the remaining nominees. The writers come from 12 countries and seven are writers in translation.

The winner will be chosen solely at the discretion of the judging panel: no submissions from publishers are invited. The announcement will be made in May.

Congratulations to Bernadine Evaristo, author of Blonde Roots, who has been nominated for the longlist for the Orange Prize for fiction.

The shortlist for this year's Orange prize, worth £30,000, will be announced on April 21, and the winner of the prize will be announced on June 3rd.

Don't be stuck for ideas this Mother's Day, we've put together an inspired collection with Mum in mind.

We have heart warming stories from Marian Keyes and Lesley Pearse, books to pamper such as Twiggy's Guide to Looking and feeling Fabulous after 40, beautifully designed, leather bound Amberg classics and many, many more!

Still stuck? Why not browse our Gift Pages, or look at our specially designed PenguinSets.

5 Penguins Shortlisted for The Galaxy British Book Awards (Nibbies)!

Eoin Colfer is nominated for the WHSmith Children's Book Of The Year for Artemis Fowl & the Time Paradox, Niall Ferguson is nominated for the Play.com Popular Non-Fiction Award for The Ascent of Money and three out of the six books nominated in the Sainsbury's Popular Fiction Category are Devil May Care, Things I Want My Daughter to Knowand This Charming Man!

In order to win we need your votes!

Vote for your favourite at http://www.bookmarketing.co.uk/surveys/awardsvote2009.htm and you may win £200 worth of book tokens!

The winners of the Nibbies will be announced on Sunday April 5th.

In what promises to be one of the biggest events in the publishing calendar this year, Penguin is publishing Eoin Colfer’s specially commissioned sequel to Douglas Adams’s remarkable Hitchhiker series, And Another Thing...

Publication is timed for 12 October, which marks the 30th Anniversary of the first publication of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Douglas Adams's so-called trilogy, which in fact ran to five volumes, became one of the biggest cult literary successes of the 20th century. Over the last thirty years, 16 million readers around the world have enjoyed the adventures of Arthur Dent, Trillian, Zaphod Beeblebox and Ford Prefect.

This autumn, Penguin is joining forces with Douglas Adams’s paperback publisher, Pan Macmillan to create huge combined Hitchhiker excitement; bringing together the two vast armies of fans: those of the original Hitchhiker books and the many millions of Eoin Colfer fans. (Colfer’s Artemis Fowl titles have sold more than 18 million copies globally.)

The sales, marketing, publicity and online teams are working closely to create a joined-up campaign that leads readers from the original titles – which are all being beautifully repackaged by Pan with new introductions – and then onto the new book. Starting in early September, the campaign will then run in store, online and in the media through the autumn and right up until Christmas.

Penguin is hosting an event for the trade on the evening of Monday 9th March, with Pan Macmillan in attendance, at which early plans will be discussed and the jackets of And Another Thing... and the backlist will be unveiled.

Penguin is also working with BBC Audiobooks to ensure that the original audio recordings have a place in the anniversary celebrations. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase was voted as the public’s number one audio title in a Guardian poll last year, thirty years after the first BBC radio broadcast in 1978.

Penguin Marketing and Publicity Director, Joanna Prior, said, "Working with Pan Macmillan in this unique way will create an even greater sense of excitement for the consumer and for the retailer this autumn. We’ve already had some very fruitful early discussions to work out how we can both celebrate the extraordinary creative genius of Douglas Adams and bring a new generation of readers, those myriad number of Artemis Fowl fans, to the Hitchhiker books for the first time.”

Geoff Duffield, Pan Macmillan's Group Sales & Marketing Director said: “This is event publishing. Working together will create more excitement, more media and retail space, and more sales, culminating in the 30th Anniversary of Douglas's brilliant and iconic creation.”

We’ve teamed up with Alibi, the new crime drama channel, to offer you the chance to attend this year’s ThrillerFest in New York!

ThrillerFest is the premier event for thriller writers, readers, fans and industry professionals and one lucky winner will be flown out with a guest to New York to attend the festival and the ThrillerFest Awards Banquet on Saturday 10th July. You’ll walk the red carpet and dine with today’s most famous literati plus you’ll be put up for 5 nights in a 4* New York Hotel.

To enter this ‘thrilling’ competition, you need to sharpen your detective skills...there’s been a murder and we need you to crack the case!

To enter visit http://uktv.co.uk/alibi/competition/aid/610902

Alibi is the only channel dedicated to crime drama with shows ranging from the cutting edge crime teams of Waking The Dead and Silent Witness to the more traditional investigations of Taggart and classic sleuths like Miss Marple, plus the new and exclusive series of Murdoch Mysteries.

That's not all! Check the all-new NicciFrench.co.ukwith new blog!

Marian has teamed up with Women's Aid and '2009's hottest new musical talent', VV Brown, to release an incredible cover of The Smiths 'This Charming Man'.

The single is out on 2nd March as a double A side with VV's new single 'Leave', 10p from every download will go to Women's Aid.

Watch Marian and V V Brown chat about their joint project, and hear clips of V V's new single.

Find out more about the book, This Charming Man.

To celebrate this exciting collaboration there will be an EXCLUSIVE LONDON EVENT where Marian and VV will be appearing at Borders Bookshop, Oxford Street at 1pm, Thursday March 5th. The event will include ‘in conversation’, Marian reading from This Charming Man and a live set from VV including her debut performance of This Charming Man!

Entrance Free. Borders, 203 Oxford Street, London W1D 2LE

Take to the skies with Puffin's new game...

Visit puffin.co.uk to start playing Puffin pilot and other fantastically fun Puffin games.

You won't be able to stop playing for hours!

For your viewing and listening pleasure over the next seven days...

Thursday 26th February, 10.30pm: Newsnight - interview with Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid

Saturday 28th February: Frost Over the World', Al Jazeera English - interview with James Lovelock, author of The Face of Gaia

Sunday March 1st, repeated throughout the day: BBC World Service 'The Forum' - interview with James Lovelock, author of The Face of Gaia

Monday 2nd March, 9.30am: BBC Radio 4 'Start the Week' - interview with Richard Wilkinson, author of The Spirit Level

Monday 2nd March, 8.30pm: Al Jazeera English - interview with Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid

Tuesday 3rd March, Noon: The Daily Politics Show - interview with Dambisa Moyo author of Dead Aid

Wednesday 4th March,9.15pm: BBC Radio 3 'Night Waves' - interview with Richard Wilkinson, author of The Spirit Level

Congratulations to Naomi Klein who won the first Warwick Prize for Writing last night for her book The Shock Doctrine.

The Shock Doctrine is Klein's investigation into disaster capitalism, the idea that a free market economy is built on capitalisation on catastrophes. Bestselling author China Miéville, who chaired the judging panel, described The Shock Doctrine as a "brilliant, provocative, outstandingly written investigation into some of the great outrages of our time.”

The Warwick Prize for Writing, worth £50,000, is open biennially to works of no specific genre but with a unifying theme. This year’s theme was ‘Complexity’. The theme chosen for the 2010 prize is ‘Colour’.

To celebrate the new look Spot books published in January we are launching a competition to find the best Spot dancer.

So if your kids love having a boogie-woogie and spend hours bopping around with friends this is the competition for them. To be in with a chance of winning a Spot tea party at your home, simply video their moves and upload the footage on to www.funwithspot.com

Don’t forget to ask all your friends and family to cast their votes online!

The Hugo Young Papers: Thirty Years of British Politics – Off the Record last night won the Channel 4 Political Book of the Year Award.

Edited by Ion Trewin and with forewords by Harold Evans and Alan Rusbridger, the book was published by Allen Lane on 20 November 2008.

Hugo Young was one of the most influential journalists of his generation. His columns, first in the Sunday Times and then for nearly two decades in the Guardian until his death in 2003, were essential reading for all who took politics seriously.

Young’s records from conversations conducted over thirty years amounted to a million and a half words. From this extraordinary archive Ion Trewin, who knew Young since they were colleagues in the 1960s, has made a selection which presents a unique record of what many of the leading figures in British political and public life were thinking, frankly and without distortions of hindsight, for more than three decades. The result – created with the consent of Young’s living contacts - is one of the most gripping and informative books about British politics for many years.

Dambisa Moyo's analysis of the history of economic development over the last fifty years and her argument that Aid is crippling Africa's economies, is inspiring many. Following the publication of Dead Aid, her advice is now being sought by the Presidents of Rwanda and Iceland, The Director-General of UNIDO, the Commons Select Committee on International Development, and she has been asked to be a spokesperson for African economics by the BBC World Service, BBC News 24 and Radio 5 amongst others.

Find out more why extreme poverty is not inevitable here.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth.

Darwin Day is a global celebration of science and reason held on or around Feb. 12, the birthday anniversary of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin.

You can read up on Darwin with On the Origin of Species, an exciting anniversary edition that has a new introduction and scholarly references by William Bynum, and the cover design is by Damien Hirst. It replaces our existing 1968 edition.

For more information on Darwin Day visit Darwin Day Celebration.

Discover the man and the revolutionary theory that changed our understanding of the world and our place within it.

This exhibition is a celebration of Charles Darwin’s ideas and their impact, giving new insight into the achievements of this brilliant observer of nature. Find out what made Darwin’s theory so threatening, and why it still inspires our scientists at the Natural History Museum in their groundbreaking work.

The Darwin exhibition is showing until 19 April 2009 and we have 5 pairs of entrance tickets to give away. To be in with a chance of winning, just email penguinclassics@penguin.co.uk

Terms & Conditions

The closing date is 28 February 2009.

Eastercon is the 60th British National Science Fiction Convention (10th to 13th April 09)

It will take place at the Cedar Court Hotel, Mayo Avenue, Bradford on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th April 09 to talk to fans about his new book, the sixth novel in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, And Another Thing, as well as participating elsewhere at the convention.

For more information email info@lx2009.com or visit www.lx2009.com.

You may have seen a full page Public Announcement in The Times today, and wondered what all the fuss is about.

Who is Mr Toppit? What is The Hayseed Foundation? Why does Penguin seem to be in trouble for publishing 'an inaccurate and offensive travesty'? What on earth is going on? Have a look at the Big Blog of Hayseed and you'll find some of the answers. Actually you'll find a whole lot more than just answers. And as for Mr Toppit - he can be found here.

We all at Hamish Hamilton are deeply saddened by the passing of John Updike. We loved his writing, adored publishing his books and liked him enormously as a person. We will miss greatly not just his books but also his elegant, gracious and frequently witty cards and letters, always typed with a manual typewriter, signed with a fountain pen then stamped with his address in blue ink.

He was perhaps the contemporary author most admired by his fellow writers as the following comments lovingly show:

'Our time's greatest man of letters - as brilliant a literary critic and essayist as he was a novelist and short-story writer. His death constitutes a loss to our literature that is immeasurable' Philip Roth

'In America we almost seemed to take him for granted. As if there might be another writer like John come along in time. Well, there won't be' Richard Ford

'John Updike must have been possessed of a purer energy than any writer since DH Lawrence. He is certainly one of the great American novelists of the 20th century' Martin Amis

'It's a serious, serious loss, and a void in American literature' Toni Morrison

'Updike's example seemed the model of a real writer's life, in that this was an existence spent not in talking about writing, promising to write, boasting of having written or telling other people how they should write, but simply in the act of writing, every day, for decades. On top of that, he was a generous, intelligent reader who produced criticism that emphasised the intimate joys of reading, free of the usual dogma and cant. He had an almost sacred, illuminated sense of our little community of writers and readers and his death is a great loss.' Zadie Smith

'He was a modern master, a colossal figure in American letters, the finest writer working in English. He dazzled us with his interests and intellectual curiosity, and he turned a beautiful sentence. Religion, sex, science, urban decay, small-town life, the life of the heart, the betrayals - who can follow him? Updike gave the impression he had a lot more writing to do. We are all the poorer now.' Ian McEwan

'Expressions of dismay leap to the lips with awful smoothness on the death of an artist of the calibre of John Updike, but in this case the dismay is real. He was one of the great modern-day prose stylists in the English language, and if his style on occasion outstripped his content, so what? - the pleasure of reading Updike was always intense' John Banville

'He was an extraordinarily felicitious writer. He had great fluency and capacity for highly textured prose, and of course he was prolific. A really classic man of letters, in that he wrote novels and stories and criticism and reviews. He was a conscientious reviewer of contemporary work, he had a keen interest in art, which he wrote about regularly. That's what he was: a prodigious, classic man of letters; a chronicler of the American everyman' EL Doctorow

'John Updike was one of the great stars in the constellation of post-war American fiction, up there with Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer and Philip Roth. Above all, Updike was extravagantly gifted as a prose stylist, coining new metaphors and similes with apparently effortless ease, making us see, on page after page, the everyday world as if for the first time' David Lodge

The UK's only online book community for teenagers invites you to get creative @ The Sage Gateshead on Tuesday 17th February 2009.

Sign up for one of these workshops:

- Create your own book jacket: learn book jacket design skills with a professional designer
- Make a mini-film: produce multi-media content for your favourite book - videos, soundtracks & photo stories
- Write a great short story: create a short story - practical tips on creative writing with an experienced editor

Plus hear Joe Dunthorne, bestselling debut author of Submarine, reading from his book and discussing life, the universe and everything.

Tickets £5
9.45 arrival for a 10am start till 4.30
Tickets are limited so BOOK ONLINE NOW at http://www.thesagegateshead.org/
or Ticket office: 0191 443 4661
13-18's only

Also visit www.Spinebreakers.co.uk for more information.

Don't miss your chance to read the The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, before you watch it at the cinema ( it's only 30 pages long!).

To find out more, visit: http://www.oscar.com/nominees/?pn=nominees

As the world watched Obama yesterday afternoon, parallels with Abraham Lincoln reached fever pitch. Obama's train journey to Washington, his speech, even his inaugural lunch - all are drawn from Lincoln's famous day nearly 200 years ago.

In the run-up to Viking's publication of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (on sale 6th Feb), media coverage of the Obama-Lincoln connection has been immense. Everyone wants to know the lessons from this great leader and how he's inspired Obama. The Sunday Telegraph devoted 4 pages of its News Review to the Lincoln journey.

Last night our author Doris Kearns Goodwin was interviewed on Channel 4 News, with repeated mentions of the book as she gave her personal impressions of Obama. Watch again at http://www.channel4.com/news/watchlisten/

Also see Jon Snow's blog.

By now you will have heard the sad news that Sir John Mortimer passed away this morning. Below is a statement by John's editor, Tony Lacey, which outlines his relationship with Penguin.

Penguin and John Mortimer

John Mortimer's relationship with Penguin did not begin with the Lady Chatterley trial, though many assumed that it did: only last year he was invited by a literary festival to talk about his role in the case, and I suspect he was amused enough to feel half-inclined to go along with it. So strongly was he associated in the public mind with the causes of freedom of speech and publication that John's name was linked automatically with Penguin and Lady Chatterley's Lover, though he played no role in it.

The relationship actually began with the publication of his first book of Rumpole stories in 1978. It was the first of many - more than a dozen - and right up to his death he was producing one a year. Even his most ardent admirers wouldn't claim that the most recent books were up to the standards of the magnificent earlier ones, but never mind: they gave John the opportunity to sound off on a series of contentious issues of the day. He would announce to me on the phone that he thought he ought to 'do a Rumpole' on ASBOs or Weapons of Mass Destruction, or some similar topic about which he felt particularly strongly. Rumpole and John became increasingly fused.

In time the Rumpole books fulfilled John's wish when he conceived the character that they should provide a kind of pension, and the English-speaking public around the world - from New York and Toronto to Sydney and Auckland - continued to lap them up. To John's delight one Californian fan produced an encyclopaedia of the books: characters, dates, plot details, etc. It proved an invaluable tool when we sat down to go through the latest manuscript - John would have it beside him and gleefully check an arcane detail like whether he'd given Hilda a second cousin back in 1978 - he couldn't quite remember but the encyclopaedia would put him right. It saved many a howler.

I don't think he much liked being edited, though he liked the idea of it. I'd arrive midmorning at the house near Stonor, to be warmly greeted with the offer of a cup of coffee 'with a splash of brandy', and we'd spend an agreeable few hours going through the text. He'd make notes in the margin, in an absolutely indecipherable handwriting, and just a week later a revised manuscript would arrive in my office - a few sentences added, a few removed, a couple of phrases changed, but no wider issues addressed. John, who worked incredibly hard at everything he did, was eager to move on to the next thing: a film script, a radio play, an idea for a new Rumpole.

Continue reading here

The film, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, has been nominated for several awards.

The nominations include:
Best Film
Director
Adapted Screenplay
Music
Cinematography
Editing
Production Design
Costume Design
Special Visual Effects
Make up & Hair

To find out more, visit: http://www.bafta.org/awards/film/

Do you own an amazing object with a great story to tell?

DK, our sister company, are producing a unique book of things that makes human existence so special, and you have the opportunity to be a part of it.

Tell us about an object you own that brings something extraordinary to human existence, or tells a wonderful tale, and the most unique will win a place within the book when it's published.

Find out how you can take part at www.AllThisBook.com

According to the BBC Sports blog, Peter Moores has turned to Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers: The Story of Success' which offers superb advice on team management success.

As the BBC sports editor Mihir Bose suggests, perhaps Moores would do better to read 'The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference'.

The Offer inlcudes the new box set The World of Peter Rabbit. Each book is bound in the same colour of cloth used for their original publication almost 100 years ago, and the set comes with audiobook CDs.

It's also 3 for 2 on Beatrix Potter Original Tales!

Join in on a live webchat with Niall after the broadcast of the last programme of his Channel 4 series, on Monday 22nd December at 9pm.

You can join the live chat at:

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/A/ascent-of-money/forum.html

It follows that, if you're going to be investing in expensive classics, the sales are a very good place to start. I wrote in The Shops about how I despised sales - all the stuff nobody wanted all year, just for you - but I am prepared to make an exception for everlasting, classic pieces, which are seasonless. The crucial thing about sales shopping, as with all bargain hunting, is not to get swayed into believing that something is nice simply because it is discounted. It is discounted for a reason, and the total must-have hotness of the item in question is never it. However, fashion houses do have to clear out their stock every now and then, and if the stock is reliably good, then it is indeed possible to pick up a bargain.

Watch the sales like a hawk and attend them with single-minded devotion. If you have your eye on a black cashmere coat, don't get distracted and buy armfuls of last summer's maxi-dress just because they seem insanely cheap. They're insanely cheap because they're over.

The first day of the sales may yield some bargains, but the last will yield better ones - and remember that the bigger shops often put out new stock every day. It is worth signing up for some of the bigger stores' account cards - even if you don't actually ever use the card to shop and even though this is a mild hassle - because they often have sale previews for favoured customers (in London, Liberty's are legendary) and these are by far the most civilized way of bagging yourself a bargain. So do fill in the annoying little form by the till, because it'll come in handy one day.

Your other option is to be told every time there is a designer sale - in London, this happens about once a month. Sign up to www.dailycandy.com and you'll get a free daily email telling you about cool new stuff, from shops (resist!) to restaurants (ditto), and including a slew of useful information about upcoming designer sales, where you can pick up incredible bargains.

From:The Thrift Book by India Knight

Having parties yourself is much easier than relying on other people and costs a fraction of the price of an ordinary night out. I'm not talking about giant parties - though those are nice too - but about all kinds of parties: brunch parties, lunch parties, tea parties, drinks parties, children's parties, karaoke parties, dinner parties, the lot. Here are some general tips:

If you just want to get together with some friends, ask everyone to bring something to eat and make punch. There's something rather Desperate Housewives about the idea of people turning up with rice salad in a Tupperware box, but don't knock it. You get an instant meal without having lifted a finger and quench your thirst by spending less money than it costs to buy a round of drinks in a bar. The other thing about getting people to bring stuff is that it immediately makes them a participant, not an observer, which is what you want at parties.

If you want to go rather more sophisticated, make cocktails. Eight of you could drink themselves into a stupor for the price of a bottle of vodka and a couple of mixers, which works out at about £2 a head, £3 if you want to go really mad and fall into an alcoholic coma. There are hundreds of cocktail recipes online. Tip: pick one and stick with it - you will feel like death the next day if you mix and match.

Brunch parties are jolly and brilliantly cheap: newspapers, omelettes or pancakes, Marys Bloody or Virgin, the EastEnders omnibus. Perfect Sunday, really.

Tea parties: make a cake, make some scones (takes 10 minutes), make some tea. Serve on/in pretty china. Cost: minimal. Feels very grown-up and is an excellent way of seeing people for a finite amount of time, if it's work rather than pleasure, say - unlike at other parties, people leave when tea is over, plus, in a thrifty double-whammy, you're usually too stuffed to want supper that night.

Karaoke parties: you can hire karaoke machines, but I feel that buying them is a sound investment - mine has given me years of pleasure. It's called the Magic Sing and it's just a mike that you load up with different song chips: i.e. it's tiny and doesn't take up any space (see www.magicsingkaraoke.co.uk). You then plug the mike into your telly and bellow away for hours on end, bringing joy to your neighbours. I am also a great fan of SingStar, especially SingStar 80s, which works on my children's PlayStation 2. Note that karaoke parties need alcohol.

Sleepover parties: not just for children. If you have a spare room, or if you can persuade your children to bunk up together for a couple of nights, you can have adults to stay too. Long boozy dinner on Friday night, brunch on Saturday, a bracing walk, a fire and more drinks and a cosy supper, a trip to the movies, perhaps, or an exhibition on Sunday morning - it can be really enjoyable. I used to rent a country house and have vast numbers of people to stay every weekend, and when I had to give it up (couldn't afford it any more, natch), I continued the weekend guest tradition in my London house. You don't need a country cottage to have house parties.

A note on decorating for parties: if you want to be thrifty, keep it simple. I find it's mostly to do with lighting - you don't want too much unflattering brightness. Dim the lights, stick nightlights in jam jars and candles in candlesticks, buy some flowers (you don't have to have very many: individual flowers in individual glasses or jars, or even cans, look beautiful) and you're done.

From:The Thrift Book by India Knight

Tomorrow:Sale bargains

Some people sort of exude luxe, even if they're wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and some people can spend a fortune on their clothes and make-up and still look somehow scruffy, or like they're playing at dressing up (I'm one of the latter. I like to think it's by choice). I've been interested in this since I was about twelve - what is it that makes X look so polished and Y look so rough, even though X's disposable income is a fraction of Y's, who has regular facials and weekly manicures? These are my conclusions:

Very important point to grasp: looking expensive doesn't have anything to do with looking sexy. It has to do with looking clean (of course, some people find clean = sexy, just to confuse matters). So, no bed hair, no obvious lipstick, no smoky eyes, no clothes that suggest you might have walked home in them first thing this morning. Nothing obviously tight, no dangly earrings or statement jewellery, no fishnets. Shoes: small heels or flats.

Looking expensive is mostly to do with good skin

It's therefore also a question of make-up. Looking expensive means immaculate, impeccably applied (as in invisible) foundation: you want to be smooth, even, tiny-pored. Your face needs to look clean and like you're not wearing anything on it. Minimal blusher, long shiny eyelashes, bit of lip gloss, nothing shouty.

It's also to do with eyebrows, which need to be perfectly tweezed. Too thin is common, too bushy is scruffy, too arched is draggy.

You need to be perfectly groomed Shiny, clean hair, which isn't doing anything too elaborate. Short, squoval nails, au naturel or with neutral polish, on hands and feet. No body hair - stubbly legs don't look expensive and the curlicued armpit is repulsivo in any context. Depilate within an inch of your life.

You need to be quite shiny. Matt looks poor rather than luxey - chalky rather than blooming. Moisturize. Drink water. Use a dab of illuminating cream on your cheekbones and round the edges of your face.

Clothes: less is more. Wear really well-cut basics in neutral shades, with the odd pop of colour (my problem is that I dress like a parrot). Neutral colours - biscuity-coloured things, navy, white, deep black - look expensive even if they're cheap in a way that reds and pinks do not. Wear graphic prints rather than flowery or mad ones.

Beware the 100 per cent man-made fibre. There's nothing chic about giving off static.

Your hair mustn't look obviously dyed, which is easy if you are blonde, less so if you are dark. Hair dyed black makes everything look cheap - go for lighter-than-your-natural-hair-colour streaks that could look as though the sun has lightened parts of your hair.

TEETH! Very important. Grotty teeth are a complete no-no. You may not be able to afford home-bleaching kits or trips to the laser clinic, but you can ensure your teeth are sparkling white. If you smoke or drink tea or red wine, the best way of doing this is by using an electric toothbrush. For my money, the Philips Sonicare range is impossible to beat - they lighten your teeth by a couple of shades and make you look like you live at the hygienist. They are not cheap, but they last forever and I personally feel they are essential. Spread the cost: any number of people can use them - just buy extra heads.

From:The Thrift Book by India Knight

Tomorrow:Parties

Remember the weird rule about food and numbers, which is, the more people you have, the less food you need. I don't really understand how this works, but it's absolutely true. Every year I go and do my giant Christmas shop with my friend Sophia, and every year she says, 'That's a ridiculous amount of potatoes/sprouts/parsnips/cranberries.' Every year I roll my eyes and say, 'But there are twenty of us!' And every year she is proved right (last year we had too many roast potatoes, a thing I'd have found unimaginable if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes). Trust your butcher re turkey size and trust the size of your plate for the rest. Remember that it is physically impossible to fit giant amounts of turkey, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, roast potatoes, sprouts 'n' pancetta, roast parsnips, stuffings and pigs in blankets on an ordinary-sized dinner plate. Bear this in mind by visualizing the plate when you're shopping (and cooking), and you'll save yourself a packet and not produce much waste.

The Soil Association reckons that a typical Christmas dinner can rack up 49,000 miles in imported ingredients, which is equivalent to two journeys around the world. Christmas is stressful enough without giving yourself a guilty conscience, so take this fact and make of it what you will - but remember that air miles are obviated by buying seasonal and local.

Don't scrimp on the turkey. Just don't. Buy the poshest, most Bronzy, most organic turkey you can. There is no point or pleasure in eating battery death-bird on Christmas Day (or any other day).

If you're buying the wine yourself, read up on the inevitable Christmas wine round-ups before you shop. Remember that some supermarket own-brand champagnes and sparkling wines regularly come out top, or near the top, in blind tastings; the same is true of affordable wine. Most people cannot really tell the difference between a £6 and a £16 bottle anyway, is the truth of it, no matter how expert they may consider themselves. And don't forget mulled wine - an excellent way of making cheap red go a long way. Ensure that you have headache pills in the house for the inevitable hangover.

Doing the Christmas food shop online, with a carefully compiled list, will save you from all those impulse buys and save you many a quid. You don't need a family-sized tin of factory-produced biscuits which is marked up because it has robins on it. Make your own - cheaporama and nicely festive-feeling.

From:The Thrift Book by India Knight

Monday:How to look expensive

Up a bit from slapping on stuff that you normally reserve for the rocket, make your own products. I know this sounds like taking thrift too far, but I've been making some myself in the name of research and do you know, they work. Well, I say 'making' - they're really simple. This is what I've done:

This is when I was trying to copy a sugar scrub that cost £30 a pot. Get into the shower with some sugar in a plastic bowl. Same principle, except you mix your sugar into a stiffish paste with a bit of olive oil so it doesn't just fall off; I added a drop of geranium oil, so it smelled nice. Scrub, rinse, result: you're all soft again.

I've also tried the same principle with salt, both normal and Epsom, and it works very well. I slightly believe in the magical powers of Epsom salts, which are magnesium sulphate - apart from anything else, if you have an Epsom salts bath you come out weighing less; in my experience, the salts appear to temporarily draw out bloat. It's not especially good for you, I don't imagine, but it's mighty handy every now and then if the dress you want to wear is on the tight side and you have to leave the house in half an hour.

Apple cider vinegar makes your hair shiny. I don't know why. I just put a couple of glugs on my hair after conditioning but before rinsing.

Smearing your face with good-quality honey and leaving it on for about fifteen minutes gives you even, super-soft skin.

Smearing it with yogurt (which contains lactic acid, which is like AHAs) works well if you need to exfoliate.

You are going to thank me so much for this one. It's not for dry or sensitive skin, but if you're oily or combo or even acne-prone, rejoice. It's the aspirin mask, which I discovered years ago while browsing on the utterly genius www.makeupalley.com, one of my favourite sites of all time. MUA is a repository of everything to do with beauty and has tens of thousands of online reviews of products, from skincare to scent. These reviews tell it like it is: always try and have a read before buying the new so-called must-have potion. But anyway, the aspirin mask. The idea is that aspirin contains salicylic acid, aka BHA, or beta hydroxy acid, which is the main component of all of those majorly expensive designer exfoliators/creams, as well as of many an acne treatment. Cost of said products: upwards of £40. Cost of aspirin mask: pence. Get six aspirins - plain, uncoated aspirins. Crush them with the back of a spoon. Mix with a bit of water to make a paste. Put the paste on your face. Leave it there for ten minutes. Rinse off, massaging to exfoliate as you go. For God's sake keep your mouth and eyes shut. Pat face dry. Open eyes. Look! Your skin looks about a million times better and your blemishes are dying. Note, though, that BHA is strong and you can't go slapping it on willy-nilly. Use once a week, twice in an emergency. Exfoliated skin is sensitized: use sunscreen. Use a mini-version of the aspirin mask on isolated spots. They will die, and it's a lot cheaper than spot cream.

From:The Thrift Book by India Knight

Tomorrow:Christmas food and drink

This is really worth doing - it can revitalize your entire wardrobe, especially the stuff you are too emotionally attached to to get rid of but are nevertheless reluctant to wear. You can learn to love it by:

Altering clothes so that they fit impeccably. If you don't feel confident enough to do this yourself, take the item to the dry-cleaner's or to a tailor, should you be lucky enough to know of such a thing - it's still cheaper than buying a new frock. I rely on people working in the windows of dry-cleaner's in grotty areas - that sounds a bit blunt, but there's no point in going to the poshest one in the poshest area. Also look online and in the back of your local newspapers for seamstresses - there are often people who are brilliant at sewing and work from home for extra money.

Turning them into something that you will wear. For instance, when I had the moth, rather than throw away half my dresses, I chopped them off just above the moth holes, hemmed them and, voila, slightly shorter/sleeveless versions of my old favourites given an instant new twist.

Changing the buttons and/or the trimming. Mother of pearl buttons, or whatever kind you like, make everything a great deal more exciting, and typically you only need four or six buttons, so it's cheap. An old cardi can be transformed by an organdie trim or a bit of judicious ribbon.

Finding a local haberdashery and using it wisely. It will supply you with expensive-looking trimmings, corsages, feathers, fake flowers, sequins - all the stuff you need to turn a blah high street dress into a hot little number. In London, try VV Rouleaux (www.vvrouleaux.com) for a selection of exquisite ribbons and trimmings.

Polishing your shoes. Obvious, but makes a huge difference. And don't buy new ones: make use of your cobbler and get things reheeled. A good cobbler can also stretch shoes and boots so that they stop giving you blisters/making your calves look bulgy (if they're really bulgy, try www.duoboots.com and www.vivaladiva.com for good styles in wide calf fittings). They can also mend, or even dye, that expensive handbag you used to love (and please don't buy expensive high-fashion handbags: the It bag is dead, anyway, and it ages incredibly badly). If you're in London, Classic Shoes (23-25 Brecknock Road, London N7 0BL: tel: 0207 485 5275) is the best there is - every single high-end shoe designer uses them. They can perform miracles, plus it's a family business and they're lovely. (By the way, if you like these location-specific tips, which I'm not doing too many of at the risk of becoming useless to anyone who doesn't live in London, check out and contribute to www.tipped.co.uk and http://trustedplaces.com - both are online nationwide communities of people tipping other people about their great finds).

Using dye. When I still used to go to a French school (in London), which is to say when my English wasn't great, we used to drive past a certain dry-cleaner's in Baker Street every morning. They had a big sign in their window saying WE WILL DYE FOR YOU. I thought it was the most ingenious wordplay I'd ever seen and marvelled at it every day. The dry-cleaner's is still there; a few months ago, as we were driving past, one of my children said, 'WE WILL DYE FOR YOU - that's quite clever,' which immediately took me back to being ten or eleven. Anyway, as I was saying, dyeing stuff. Cold-water dyeing just needs a bucket and some salt; doing it in the washing machine is even easier. Dyeing works best on natural fabrics (synthetics dye too, but you can't be as sure of the colour - pink can go purple and so on, depending on the material). It is completely marvellous for rejuvenating grotty-looking underwear - from grubby grey-white to vermilion, from that horrible 'natural' colour to turquoise - but also for T-shirts, old shirts, socks - anything, really. Old white towels past their prime respond especially well.

From:The Thrift Book by India Knight

Tomorrow:Home-made beauty products

Marmalade

This is a fresh-tasting, sharp marmalade, not too dark or bitter.

Makes 8 small/6 medium jars

2kg Seville oranges

3 lemons

4kg preserving sugar

1. Put all the fruit into a preserving pan or large saucepan and cover with water, then put a plate inside the pan to stop them bobbing up. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1½ hours. Take them out of the water and cool. You can do this the day before if you like.

2. Measure out the orangey water so that you have around 3 litres (this is not that important, as if you have too much water you can just evaporate it later).

3. Cut the oranges and lemons in half. Scoop out the pips and pulp, placing them in the orangey water, and boil for about 15 minutes. While you are doing that, cut the peel into shreds the size and shape you like.

4. Sieve the boiled orange water, pips and pulp into a bowl. Pour the liquid back into the preserving pan. Add the sugar and peel, and bring to a boil. Boil for 15 minutes, after which you can start testing for a set.

5. Testing for a set is not as complicated as it sounds. If you have a suitable thermometer, put it in the middle of the pan. You should have a set when it reads 105°C (220°F). If you don't have a thermometer, put a saucer into the freezer to cool down. When you think the marmalade is ready, take the saucer out and put about ½ teaspoon of marmalade on to the plate. Allow it to cool. Push your finger through the marmalade: if it wrinkles, you've got a set. If not, boil for a further 5 minutes and test again. Sometimes it takes 17 minutes to set, sometimes 25.

6. While the marmalade is still hot, bottle in sterilized jars (run them through the dishwasher when it's full anyway).

From:The Thrift Book by India Knight

Tomorrow:Customizing and refashioning clothes

Embellish and decorate cheapo hairgrips and box them up nicely (unless you have huge sausage fingers - it's quite fiddly).

Frame a special photograph (as a student, my ex-husband used to do this with photos of himself in full 1980s fashion student rig). I always stock up on frames at pound shops and Ikea (from 50p) for this eventuality. If the frames are ugly, paint or decorate them. If you're in a hurry, paint with clear-setting PVA glue and dip in glitter. When dry and set, paint another layer of glue on top, or varnish.

For special occasions - anniversaries, weddings, birthdays, celebrations - make a really personalized photo album using your photo software. On a Mac, this looks just fantastically beautiful and professional, plus you can add text. Depending on the number of pages, it costs anywhere upwards of £20 and is always met with squeals of delight - all for less money than a vaguely OK photo album would cost, without prints.

Excellent freebie presents: your time. Offer to babysit for a new mum, to give someone a manicure, a piano lesson, a massage, a tidy-up of their house, to cook them a meal, to walk their dog for a week, to collect their kids from school, to sort out their weeding (note that's weeding, not wedding. Don't offer to sort out anyone's wedding, because you'll end up in a straitjacket), etc., etc.

Give home-made beauty products. Again, these have escaped the shackles of their hippie past: the posher lines, especially the organic ones, now try and emulate the home-made feel, and charge a premium for it. Now's the time to explore beauty recipes. There's a nice sugar body scrub at www.recipezaar.com/92027, and a whole load of similar ideas online - try www.mybeautyrecipes.com or www.essortment.com/all/homemadebeaut_rigm.htm, or www.treehuggingfamily.com/tag/homemadebeauty-products

If a girlfriend has always admired, say, a bracelet you're tiring of, polish it, wrap it prettily and make it her next birthday present. This doesn't come across as cheap, or stingy, or a bit desperate - it comes across as really lovely. There is nothing nicer than a present with meaning or with a bit of emotional subtext.

Keep a present box, if you don't already - recycle unwanted gifts, but stick a note on said unwanted gift reminding you who it's from, so you don't give it back to them (v. embarrassing), or give it to someone else in their presence (worse).

From:The Thrift Book by India Knight

Tomorrow: A recipe for home-made marmalade

Let's start with the easiest presents of all: food. Here are some ideas. All of them are even nicer if you give them with nicely embellished and decorated (and written) labels - 'The damson jam I made for lovely Jane with my own fair hands, 2008' is nicer than 'Damson jam'.

Home-made jam or marmalade.

Home-made chutney or pickle.

Home-made preserves.

Home-grown plants in pretty pots (paint some), either flowering plants or edible ones. A friend of mine was disproportionately delighted the other day when I gave her some nasturtiums in an old watering can (cost: about £1).

Perishable food works too - if you're going to someone's house for supper, for example, you could take them some home-made cheese and a loaf of good bread (which you might also have made yourself); or a cake; or some home-made truffles (pathetically easy - newborns could do it); or a little jar of home-made pesto. All of these things are cheaper than a random bottle of wine and ought to be greeted rapturously, not just because they're nice in themselves, but because people have come to really appreciate and love the idea of home-made presents.

You can knit a simple, chunky, short-ish scarf in an evening.

You can crochet a hat or a corsage in an evening

You can also rustle up knitted toys fairly speedily (don't add buttons or anything swallowable if for small children - embroider eyes etc. instead), as well as knitted cupcakes, flowers and other charming things. Have a look at http://littlecottonrabbits.typepad.co.uk for inspiration.

You can make a cushion cover in much less than an evening.

Sew a felt purse.

Make a fabric scarf.

Make a book bag or a pen holder.

Decorate a cheap blank book inside and out, and turn it into a beautiful journal.

Paint a tiny canvas(with words, if you can't paint, except that everyone can paint a bit - even stick or Weeble-style people look sweet if they're doing something funny or appropriate to your giftee).

From:The Thrift Book by India Knight

Monday: Homemade Gifts 2

Start shopping early, like six months ahead, and try and do as much of it as possible online. Not only does this cut down on stress levels, but it spreads the cost. The nightmare of Christmas has a lot to do with the shocking credit card bills you get in January. If you spread out your expenses over the previous months, you don't get the huge bill, ergo you don't start the New Year feeling sick at how much you've spent.

If you physically have to hit the shops, go shopping on the 23rd, when the shops are quieter. If you have nerves of steel, the 24th is better still. The 21st and 22nd are hopeless - everywhere is packed.

If you've left everything late and feel panicky, head to Argos, which opens early, closes late and has extremely competitive prices, and where it is possible to find pretty much something for everyone. It does involve wading through a certain amount of dross, admittedly, but the choice is massive.

Avoid the obvious places - whatever your local equivalent of Oxford Street is - and shop in smaller, quirkier neighbourhoods. You get cheaper, better, more original presents, and half the crowds.

Make as many presents as possible - don't start doing this on 20 December. I try and make little things throughout the year, and keep them in my present drawer. If you're making edible presents, check they don't need refrigerating and won't go off/melt sitting under the tree.

Get the children to make presents too. Nobody doesn't like a giant beribboned box of home-made fudge. More edible present ideas here: www.wondertime.go.com/life-at-home/article/mommys-little-helpers.html. Teenagers often make brilliant music compilation CDs - an excellent gift for the middle-aged kidult.

Start wrapping in early December - just a few every night as you're watching telly. Saves being up till 2 a.m. on Christmas morning and running out of Sellotape.

Use recycled wrapping paper. I personally also love brown paper with coloured string, and newspaper with beautiful ribbon (from the haberdasher's - enough dazzling ribbon for everybody for a fraction of the price of ordinary wrapping paper). You can use whatever you have to hand: bits of magazine or catalogue, old calendars (nicely seasonal), old posters, old wallcharts, old maps, the horoscope page (pick a good one). Not only do they look nice, but you can tailor the wrapping to the giftee: a magazine picture of a shell-strewn beach for your surfer friend, a free wallchart of common or garden birds for Old Mr Smoothie who's still sowing his oats, and so on.

From: The Thrift Book by India Knight

Tomorrow: Homemade Gifts 1

Learn the Art of Christmas Card Making

Handmade greeting cards can cost upwards of a fiver for a bit of folded thickish paper with some stuff on it. Solution: make your own cards. Have a look at www.making-greeting-cards.com or www.allcrafts.net/cards.htm (among others) for instructions, templates and inspirations; there are videos showing you how at www.expertvillage.com/video-series/391_card-making.htm. Personally, I wouldn't necessarily bother bogging myself down with too much information: we all know what kind of card we like. You don't have to be especially arty or creative, by the way - a greetings card can be any way you want it to be; it certainly doesn't have to be hand-drawn, or even symmetrical, or even neat. Supplies - glitter, bits of fabric, mini pompoms, ribbon - are all available online, but chances are you have some of these lying about anyway, so just use what you have (and make a box of bits and bobs for future projects) and design your card according to your supplies.

You'll probably need glue and scissors, plus possibly a stapler and a needle and thread. Here are some examples of what you might use:

Coloured paper and card.Pretty origami paper is especially useful - you can get it from Muji.

Old cards to cannibalize, postcards, invitations, flyers, bits cut out of magazines, anything at all with a pretty or interesting pattern on it, or with an interesting font, or an especially pleasing word or name.

Scraps of fabric.

Sequins, glitter, beads, ribbons, buttons.

Letraset(if you're feeling ambitious) and ink stamps (ditto). If you want to gild the lily and make a beautiful envelope (out of anything you have lying around, such as spare bits of old wallpaper), check out www.make-stuff.com/projects/wallpaper_envelopes.html. Or, obviously, take a piece of rectangular card, decorate and fold it, then staple two sides -voila, an envelope. It needs to contain the card and look nice, but it doesn't have to look trad.

From:The Thrift Book by India Knight

Tomorrow: Christmas Shopping

Feeling poor because of the recession? In a bit of a panic about Christmas? Overwhelmed with shopping dread, party nightmares, and credit card gloom? No need. Over the next two weeks, India Knight will show you how to embrace the New Thrift and make your holiday season glamorous and fun, yet amazingly low cost. Cards, gifts, parties, food, booze, clothing, sales shopping. It's all you need for a very Merry Christmas. Try it - you have nothing to lose but your overdraft.

You know how you do Christmas, and how you like it, so I don't want to be prescriptive, but this is what I now do to save me time and money:

If there are a large number of you, agree with each other to only give presents to the children.

If that's an unbearable prospect (I feel your pain), agree on a set budget - £5, £10, £20 - per present per head, and make it clear that busting the budget is not an option.

Make everyone bring something, matching your request to their income. Last year I efficiently sent everyone an email making them responsible for one aspect of Christmas Day: flowers, candles, napkins (after years of kitchen roll), snacks to have with drinks, Christmas puddings, brandy butter and so on. One ex-husband did white wine, another red wine; I did champagne; someone swotted up on cocktails (to eke out the champagne); another person brought their karaoke CDs; the children were responsible for laying the table; my least financially buoyant but most creative friend decorated the sitting room with stuff from our attic, and so on and so forth. This saved money (and how), but it was also unbelievably helpful. Instead of running around like a blue-arsed fly, 'all' I had to do was produce the food. Allocated tasks don't have to involve expense. Get the teenagers on washing-up duty, with one on stand-by for emergency trips to the corner shop; put aunties in charge of Disney DVDs for the toddlers; ask energetic sorts to take the dog for a walk while you load the dishwasher (for the third time), and so on.

From: The Thrift Book by India Knight

Tomorrow: Christmas Cards

In a new and timely landmark series, historian Professor Niall Ferguson tackles the story of money and the rise of global finance.

Each episode of the series deals with a big bang in the history of money and demonstrates how it has changed the course of history. Ferguson explains why credit networks have been indispensable to progress, and what goes wrong when trust in money-lenders breaks down.

In the remaining episodes, Ferguson goes on to examine the rise of the other pillars of the world's financial system.

Watch the nest episode of the Ascent of Money on November 24th 8pm.

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Canadian journalist Naomi Klein's critique of globalisation has been shortlisted for the the inaugural Warwick Prize for Writing.

The £50,000 biannaul prize has set out its stall as Britain's most innovative award with a promise to explore "how writing evolves" and pick out its "moving edge" and has now issued its first longlist.

The award is dedicated to "complexity" and nominations have been invited from all university staff. The longlist is comprised of 20 titles, both fiction and non-fiction.

We've teamed up with Alibi, the Deadliest Place on TV, to offer you the chance to be a fictional murder victim in Nicci French's next thriller!

This is a 'deadly' prize for one lucky winner who will be contacted by one of the authors and used as inspiration for the story. Plus you'll have the chance to read all about your character and their chilling fate in a limited edition Nicci French book that will be released in March 2009.

To enter this unique, once in a lifetime competition, you need to sharpen your detective skills... there's been a murder and we need you to crack the case!

To enter visit www.theperfectalibi.co.uk/niccifrench

Alibi is the only TV channel dedicated to crime drama, with a fresh case in every show and featuring some of TV's top detectives. So if you love unlocking the clues and cracking the case, go to www.theperfectalibi.co.ukfor full details.

Ross Raisin's God's Own Country and Steve Toltz's A Fraction of The Whole have been shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.

Guardian literary editor, Claire Armitstead said that the shortlisted titles are "sophisticated books that require a big investment from the reader - an investment for which they are richly rewarded."

The winner of the prize, worth £10,000, will be announced in December.

Malcolm Gladwell Live at the Lyceum Theatre on 24th November 2008 ,17.45 and 20.30

Malcom Gladwell will be talking about his latest book, The Outliers, at the Lyceum Theatre.

Tickets £26.50/£22.50 concessionary.
Call the Box Office on 0207 74780100.

More information: www.malcolmgladwell-live.com

See bestselling author Nick Hornby talk about his latest novel, Slam.

The event will take place at the Turner Sims Concert Hall, University of Southampton on Thursday 6th November, 7.30pm

Tickets £6/£3 concessionary.
Call the Box Office on 023 8059 5151.

Five Penguin titles long-listed.

Spread The Word is a promotion run by the World Book Day team who asked publishers large and small to submit books they deemed worthy of a wider readership- books that entertain and give greater food for thought. From the submissions recieved, the World Book Day team selected 50 titles.

The five Penguin titles include:
Bad Traffic
Rainbow's End
Wild
The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets
Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction

The winner will recieve the accolade of being The Book to Talk About 2009.

Voting on the long list will end on 2nd January 2009. A short list of ten titles will be announced on 30th January 2009 and voting will recommence. The winner will be announced on World Book Day - Thursday 5th March 2009.

The Penguin Readers' Group website gets a Forum: http://readers.penguin.co.uk/forum.It's a place where you can discuss your favourite books, authors, the latest literary news and perhaps share tips on where to find a local Reading Group.

So, if you fancy starting a discussion on a book that you'd love to recommend or just talk about how you felt about it, go to http://readers.penguin.co.uk/forum, register and start chatting.

Plus, we're offering a prize each month for the most lively post...

Get posting!
The Penguin Readers Forum
www.readers.penguin.co.uk/forum.

Ross Raisin beat 6 other contenders to win the Guildford Book Festival First Novel Award for God's Own Country. The announcement was made at the Guildford County Club on October 15th. The prize is open to any first-time novelist from the UK and includes a £2,500 cheque for the winner.

The award is relatively young but already has a strong heritage, with previous winners including Hari Kunzru for The Impressionist and Panos Karnezis for The Maze. This year's prize was chaired by Andrew Holgate, newly-appointed Literary Editor of the Sunday Times, and the entries had proven to be of such high quality that the traditional 6-strong shortlist had been upped to 7 titles. The win is reported on The Bookseller bulletin, here.

Ross is also shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Award, honouring the best young writer in the world today, which is announced on November 10th, and is longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the shortlist for which is announced at the beginning of November. Fingers crossed!

Short-selling, global recession, bank-bail outs and markets crashing. Finding it hard to make sense of all the financial jargon? Don't panic!

We've gathered together an affordable and accessible set of books on the economy,A Penny for their Thoughts, aimed to help you make sense of the financial chaos.

Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence talks us through the turbulent system of the post 9/11 global economy, and Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses the unpredictability of our financial structure in Black Swan. Or more practically, you can learn how to watch your pennies in Juliane Otterbach's Saving.

Take a look at the full list of Credit Crunch titles in our A Penny for their Thoughts feature, plus there's 20% off on the selection too...

In response to the government proposal to extend detention terms to 42 days for terror suspects, forty-two writers including Hari Kunzru, Anya Serota, Philip Pullman, Monica Ali, Julian Barnes, Ian Rankin, Alain de Botton, Ali Smith and AL Kennedy have written short stories and poems opposing this legislation.

To read the pieces, please visit www.42writers.com

If you support the campaign, please do forward this link to anyone else you think might be interested. The more voices that are raised, the less likely this unjust law is to be passed.

Have you been captivated by the Shadow War game?

All will be revealed about the explosive live finale at 5pm on Wednesday 8th October.We see Charlie Higson playing the part of a captured British agent in a video that will be streamed live across the internet and, for the first time, players will be playing separately on their 'own' side, helping to co-ordinate an attack on Schloss Donnerspitze.

Since Charlie launched the game on 23rd August, fans have been signing up in thousands to become either a British or a Russian agent (there are about 3 times as many SIS agents as OGPU agents!). Over 7 weeks, over 16,000 missions have been completed as players have infiltrated Eton's Danger Society, navigated their way around Europe and uncovered the truth about a gruesome murder in Lisbon.

But if you have missed any of the missions, then never fear, just click here and prove you have the intelligence and the skill to join the battle.

Marian Keyes, author of This Charming Man, is to show her moves on the dancefloor on Strictly Come Dancing on BBC 2 at 6:30pm tonight!

There will also be a chance to watch Marian 'behind the scenes' on BBC 2 on Monday, 20th October.

Gary Rhodes, author of Gary Rhodes 365 has already wowed us with his hippy hippy shake on this season of Strictly Come Dancing.

We are delighted to announce that one of our authors, Ruth Rendell (who writes as Barbara Vine), author of The Birthday Present, has been shortlisted for ITV3 Writer's Award for Classic TV Drama.

Other shortlisted writers are:
Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin, PD James, Lynda La Plante, Val McDermid.

ITV3's Crime Thriller Awards Season consisted of seven weeks of programming celebrating the genre in books, film and TV, culminating in the Crime Thriller Awards - to be broadcast exclusively on ITV3 at 10pm on Monday 6th October.

At this star-studded ceremony one of the six selected authors will walk away with the inaugural ITV3 Writer's Award for Classic TV Drama - fingers crossed for Ruth!

Congratulations to Jonathan Coe who has been shortlisted for Writer of the Year Stonewall Award for Rain Before It Falls.

Other shortlisted writers are:

Stella Duffy (The Room of Lost Things)

Philip Hensher (The Northern Clemency)

Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Her Naked Skin)

Adam Mars-Jones (Pilcrow)

Ben Summerskill, Stonewall Chief Executive, said: 'It's hugely encouraging that every year the shortlists of nominees for the Stonewall Awards get more varied. This reflects an increasingly gay-friendly modern Britain, where equality is being built into the everyday lives of millions of people.'

The winner of the award will be announced at the third Stonewall Awards ceremony on Thursday 6 November.

Remember Puffin Post? Well now it's back to entertain you (and your children)

Puffin Post - which boasted a membership of over 200,000 children in those halcyon days when kids were allowed to play out on the streets or run free in nearby woods - is to be relaunched to meet the needs of the 21st Century youngster.

An amazing magazine; a free book with each issue; a website full of competitions, games and ways to share stories and artwork; a mega membership pack and the chance to be a Very Important Puffineer. It's Pufftastic!

The pre-launch issue of Puffin Post is available now via subscription and the first issue will be distributed to the new Puffineers in January 2009.

For a year's subscription to Puffin Post - including six magazines, six books, a membership pack and exclusive access to the VIP area of the Puffin Post website - call 0845 606 4261 or visit www.puffinpost.co.uk.

As a special introductory offer, subscriptions are available for £38 if bought before 31 December 2008.

Penguin has an astonishing 8 books in The Independent's 50 best ever cookbooks

The Independent's THE INFORMATION supplement turned the attention of its regular slot '50 best' to the world of cookery this week, with its exploration of the 50 best ever cookbooks.

Penguin has an astonishing 8 books in the list, far more than any other publisher (Quadrille in 2nd place with 6 on the list), including:
French Provincial Cooking by Elizabeth David
Fresh by Mitchell Tonks
A New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Real Fast Food by Nigel Slater
Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver
Sichuan Cookery by Fuchsia Dunlop
In the Mood for Food by Jo Pratt
English Bread and Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David

Charlie Higson will be speaking about his bestselling Young Bond series

Entry is free for the event at the Apple Store, 235 Regent Street, London, W1B 2EL. Don't miss your chance to see Charlie Higson talk about his brand new book, By Royal Command.

Event contact information: 0207 153 9000

View more information here

NUMBER-ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR EOIN COLFER IS CHOSEN TO WRITE THE SIXTH HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY

London, 17 September 2008... Penguin announced today that it is to publish the sixth novel in the ever-more increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. Eight years after the tragically early death of its creator, Douglas Adams, widow Jane Belson has sanctioned the project to be written by the international number-one bestselling children's writer, Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl novels. The new book is entitled "And Another Thing..." and will be published in hardback by Penguin in October 2009. The deal was done with Sophie Hicks and Ed Victor of Ed Victor Ltd., agents for both Colfer and the Douglas Adams estate.

Douglas Adams himself said in an interview: 'I suspect at some point in the future I will write a sixth Hitchhiker book... I would love to finish Hitchhiker on a slightly more upbeat note. Five seems to be a wrong kind of number, six is a better kind of number.' *

Jane Belson, the widow of Douglas Adams said, 'I am delighted that Eoin Colfer has agreed to continue the Hitchhiker series. I love his books and could not think of a better person to transport Arthur, Zaphod and Marvin to pastures new. The project has my full support.'

Eoin Colfer has introduced a new generation of readers to the absurdities of life, the universe and everything through his bestselling Artemis Fowl series, in which a teenage criminal mastermind wreaks havoc in this world, the next and any others that happen to be nearby. The Sunday Times has said, 'Colfer has the ability to make you laugh twice over: first in sheer subversive joy at the inventiveness of the writing, and again at the energy of the humour.'

Colfer has been a fan of Hitchhiker since his schooldays and said, 'Being given the chance to write this book is like suddenly being offered the superpower of your choice. For years I have been finishing this incredible story in my head and now I have the opportunity to do it in the real world. It is a gift from the gods. So, thank you Thor and Odin.'

Penguin Managing Director, Helen Fraser commented, 'In 1992 I was lucky enough to be involved in the publication of Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams's last brilliant volume of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. He was an extraordinary writer, with an ability to come at the reader from the most unexpected angles, knock them off balance and make them laugh at the same time. Eoin Colfer is an inspired choice as Douglas's successor. Eoin burst on the world in 2001 with his incredibly popular Artemis Fowl series, which is beloved by readers of all ages. He is a huge talent and a fantastically funny writer, and this new book will bring as many new young readers to Douglas Adams's work as it will introduce adults to the brilliance of Eoin Colfer.'

Missed your chance to register for a free book on Blogaholiday read.co.uk? It's not too late to comment on the reviews!

Back in July we launched Blogaholidayread, where readers were invited to register for their chance to receive a free Penguin holiday read in the post and review it on Blogaholidayread.co.uk. 500 lucky people were randomly chosen and now their reviews are in! Latest postings include reviews of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Revenge of the Wedding Planner, and Crackdown and new reviews are posted every day.

Have the reviewers done the books justice? Here's your chance to comment!

Congratulations to Steve Toltz whose debut novel A Fraction of The Whole has been shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize.

The other shortlisted titles are:

Aravind Adiga The White Tiger (Atlantic)

Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture (Faber and Faber)

Amitav Ghosh Sea of Poppies (John Murray)

Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs (Virago)

Philip Hensher The Northern Clemency (Fourth Estate)

This year's judging panel is chaired by Michael Portillo former MP and Cabinet Minister. He is joined by Alex Clark, editor of Granta; Louise Doughty, novelist; James Heneage, founder of Ottakar's bookshops and Hardeep Singh Kohli, TV and radio broadcaster.

Michael Portillo, Chair of judges, commented today: "The judges commend the six titles to readers with great enthusiasm. These novels are intensely readable, each of them an extraordinary example of imagination and narrative. These fine page-turning stories nonetheless raise highly thought-provoking ideas and issues. These books are in every case both ambitious and approachable."

The judging panel will meet to decide on the winning novel on Tuesday 14 October, and the author will be awarded the £50,000 prize money at an awards ceremony later on that evening at Guildhall, London.

eBook Tasters now give you the oppourtunity to try before you buy

We were the first UK publisher to launch eBooks way back in 2001 and now we are re-launching eBooks to coincide with the launch of the new Sony Reader.

The online ebook store's relaunch, scheduled for 24 September 2008, will feature a vast selection of non-illustrated Penguin titles. Until then, eBook Tasters will allow readers to sample the opening chapter of top Penguin titles for free. A range of books is available from the Penguin website, including the top-ten bestseller Things I Want My Daughter to Know by Elizabeth Noble.

By the end of this year we'll have thousands of titles available in the shiny new ePub format for you to buy and read on your Sony eReader, your PC or Mac and other devices soon to launch.

Congratulations to Sara Houston on her winning lyrics 'Cried for our Past'

Earlier this year, Puffin launched a competition on spinebreakers.co.uk inviting teens to write lyrics to a song inspired by young adult author, Kevin Brooks' latest novel Black Rabbit Summer. The prize was to have their song recorded by an upcoming Indie Band.

Lucky competition winner, Sara Houston 18 from Cheltenham, met up with Kevin Brooks and hot new talent Ivyrise before the band's gig at Bush Hall. Prior to the gig the band privately played the song to Sara and presented her with a signed CD of the recording.

An awe-struck Sara said 'It was the first time I'd ever let anyone read something I've written, I didn't tell anyone I'd entered the comp and winning it was such a shock... the song Ivyrise recorded was just perfect'

See pictures of Sara with Kevin Brooks and the band and hear 'Cried for Our Past'

Become either a British or Russian agent in the Young Bond alternate reality game

The Shadow War involves seven missions which takes the intrepid player through adventures in the world of Young Bond: from discovering who escaped the fire at SilverFin's Hellebore Castle to tracking a ship down in the Royal Docks, uncovering a secret code in a bookshop where a gruesome murder has taken place and revealing the mysterious passenger of an airship crossing the Alps.

It's never too late to join - head over to www.youngbondshaddowwar.com for details of your first mission.

» Send this to a friend

» Print this page