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It's the ultimate in luxury editions - the beautifully crafted Bentley Bond Special Series edition represents a unique alliance between three of Britain's most iconic brands: James Bond, Bentley Motors and Penguin Books.

Cars and James Bond have always had a strong association. He owned three Bentleys in the course of the fourteen original novels written by Ian Fleming. It is fitting therefore that in Devil May Care - published to coincide with the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth - Bond is found once again in the driving seat of his favourite car.

To mark the reunion, Bentley have produced a luxury, limited edition of Devil May Care. The result is a beautiful and striking edition which takes its inspiration from hard-covers of the original 1950s and 1960s Bond books combined with the stylish Bentley owner’s manuals and handbooks of the era. Inside the book is a specially designed model pewter Bentley, described in detail by Fleming in Thunderball.

Find out more about the Bentley Bond Special Series, including the history of Bond & Bentley, information on the Special Series Edition and the Design History of this special book here.

Only 300 copies of the Special Series edition will be produced, costing £750 each, available exclusively from www.penguin007.com from 28th May.

Which is your favourite Nick Hornby novel? To celebrate his latest novel Slam we want to know which Hornby classic you like best. Nick also reveals his top 5 albums of all time here. Vote here!

We've got one pair of tickets up for grabs to a lecture and Q&A with Naomi Klein, award-winning author of The Shock Doctrine. The lecture and Q&A will take place at 7pm on Monday 19th May - Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ. To enter, simply send your name, address, age and email address to competitions@penguin.co.uk.

The closing date for entries is Monday 12 May at 5pm, entrants must be 18 or over. The lucky winner will be notified on Tuesday 13 May!

» Read more about the event

» Terms & Conditions

If you missed out the first time round, Blog A Penguin Classic is open to new reviewers again. Sign-up on www.blogapenguinclassic.com and if you’re quick enough, you’ll become one of the lucky people to receive a randomly chosen, FREE Penguin Classic in the post. Plus you’ll be the first to review it on the site!

Each day, new reviews will be posted, so keep an eye out for yours and don’t forget everyone can comment on a book once it has become active.

Bring on the blogging!

Cork-born novelist, playwright, and short story writer, William Trevor, has been honoured with The 2008 Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award. He was described by guest speaker, An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern as "one of our country's most prolific writers and above all, a master storyteller."

In his new book, Cheating At Canasta, William explories his time honoured themes: missed opportunities, the inevitability of change and the fragmentary nature of memory, in these dazzling stories. Cheating at Canasta is out in paperback on Thursday.

Miss Moneypenny has offered to juggle our diaries as we're dying to take a peek at the new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum - For Your Eyes Only. We'll be delving deep into the mind of Ian Fleming, the mastermind behind the world's most famous secret agent, James Bond. Just how much of Fleming's own life was woven into the Bond stories and character? Fans of the films can admire the "blood-splattered" shirt worn by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale and the prototypes of Rosa Klebb's flick-knife shoes.

The countdown has started for publication of our new Bond book Devil May Care on the 28th May. Investigate further here.

Wednesday, 23rd April is St George's Day, England's National day! To celebrate this patriotic occasion, which marks Saint George's death in 303 AD, why not have a read of titles such as:

The English Year
England: The Autobiography
In Search of England
Orwell's England
Oh! to be in England

Fly the St. George's Cross with pride! And did those feet in ancient times...

It's Angelina Ballerina's 25th birthday!

Click here to see how we celebrated.

To mark the occassion we've produced a beautiful 25th anniversary edition of Angelina Ballerina, have a look here.

Visit the fun Angelina Ballerina website here.

Publishing News has unveiled the first wave of shortlists for the British Book Industry Awards 2008. BlogaPenguinClassic.com, Penguin's novel idea to promote discussion on the Penguin Classics and Penguin Modern Classics by encouraging people to blog about this range of more than 1,400 books from around the world and across the centuries, has been shortlisted for the Nielsen Book Award for Innovation in the Book Industry.

See the Awards Shortlists here. Good luck to all!

Join Nick Hornby at the Apple Store, Regent Street at 7pm on Thursday 10th April for the UK's first iTunes Meet the Author event.

Nick Hornby will be reading from and discussing his latest book SLAM, about 16-year-old, skateboarding obsessed Sam who gets his girlfriend pregnant.

Admission is free. Just come to the upper floor of the Apple Store, 235 Regent Street, London, W1B 2EL.

View Nick's website and blog here.

Congratulations to Kim Edwards who won last night's Sainsburys' Popular Fiction Nibbie for her million copy-selling novel The Memory Keeper's Daugther.

Kim, who flew over from her home in Kentucky, US for the awards ceremony last night at London's Grosvenor House, gave a gracious acceptance speech thanking both Penguin and Richard and Judy.

Well done Kim!

Lisa Jewell's fabulous 31 Dream Street, just out in paperback, has been shortlisted for this year's Melissa Nathan Awards for Comedy Romance.

The judging panel includes comedienne Jo Brand, bestselling novelists Joanna Trollope and Sophie Kinsella, television actors Jessica Stephenson and Alan Davies and Tesco's Gaynor Allen. The winner will be announced on June 18th and Jo Brand will be appearing on the Paul O'Grady show next week to discuss the shortlisted titles.

Marian Keyes won last year's inaugural award with Anybody Out There so let's hope that 31 Dream Street makes it two out of two!

Penguin have teamed up with Virgin Radio's The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show to offer Nick Hornby fans the chance to create a soundtrack to Nick's latest book, SLAM. All you have to do is choose 5 songs that you think best sum up the book. Nick will be launching the comp live on the show on 8 April and choosing the winner live on-air on 11 April.

Click here for more details.

In today's Britain thousands of people have parents from different cultural backgrounds. We are looking for true stories which illuminate the complexities, challenges and joys of having a mixed heritage - those defining moments which seem to say it all. This could come from your own experience or that of someone you know.

This is your chance to be published in a Penguin new writing anthology in winter 2008.

Click here for an application form.

Our official James Bond books website launches today at www.penguin007.com.

The website is as slick as the man himself with features including an up-to-the-minute news feed, dynamic galleries of all the new Bond cover art plus thrilling preview information about the brand-new book by Sebastian Faulks.

Join in the countdown to the publication of Devil May Care on 28 May when Bond’s next adventure is revealed...

Hamish Hamilton has had two pieces of good news this week: Rachel Lichtenstein's On Brick Lane has been shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize, and Jay Griffiths' Wild has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, along with Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka. So it's been a good week for Fig Tree, too! Over at Allen Lane, Orlando Figes' The Whisperers is also in the running for the Ondaatje Prize, whilst The Islamist by Ed Husain is nominated for the Orwell Prize.

Here are the full shortlists:

Ondaatje Prize

Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)
Paradise with Serpents by Robert Carver (Harper Perennial)
The Whisperers by Orlando Figes (Allen Lane)
On Brick Lane by Rachel Lichtenstein (Hamish Hamilton)
Sea Holly by Robert Minhinnick (Seren)
The Discovery of France by Graham Robb (Picador)

Orwell Prize

What's Left by Nick Cohen (Harper Perennial)
Wild by Jay Griffiths (Hamish Hamilton)
William Wilberforce by William Hague (Harper Press)
The Islamist by Ed Husain (Allen Lane)
Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka (Fig Tree)
Palestinian Walks by Raja Shehadeh (Profile)
Bad Men by Clive Stafford Smith (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)

Best of luck to all!

Charlie and Lola are still absolutely at the very top of their game - so to add to their collection 2 BAFTAs, 5 international TV awards and awards for the magazines, music, books and more - they now have a British Animation Award for Best Pre-School Series to add to the list!!

The British Animation Awards (BAA) covers all aspects of the UK animation scene, from student work to commercials, children's entertainment, short and experimental art films, music videos, new technologies - BAA is held every two years.

We are delighted to share with you the wonderful news that Eric Hill, the creator of Spot, was recently awarded the prestigious honour of an OBE. This outstanding achievement was presented by Prince Charles at a lavish royal ceremony held at Buckingham Palace, in recognition of his services to children's literature. His family joined him for the ceremony and pictured alongside him are his children Christopher and Jane.

Eric said: “I am absolutely thrilled and delighted to have received an OBE. Spot has been a huge part of my life for over 25 years and I still very much enjoy the creative process. To be honoured for something that has given me so much pleasure is quite overwhelming.”

The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman, today announced the 2008 longlist. Now in its thirteenth year, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing.

Two of our titles have been longlisted for the prize this year: Elif Shafak's The Bastard of Istanbul (Viking) and Monster Love by Carol Topolski (Fig Tree).

The 2008 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction judging panel will be chaired by journalist and broadcaster Kirsty Lang. She will be joined by musician Lily Allen, Lisa Allardice who edits the Guardian Review, novelist Philippa Gregory and novelist, journalist and children’s author Bel Mooney.

The Award ceremony for the overall winner will be on 4th June 2008.

The Galaxy Book Awards will be announced on Wednesday April 9th and televised on Sunday 13th April, entries for voting close on 2nd April and the list is impressive.

Penguin books make a healthy appearance on the shortlists including Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris which is up for 'Best Read', Kim Edward's bestseller, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, on the shortlist for Popular Fiction Book of the Year and Jeremy Clarkson's Don't Stop Me Now crops up as one of the choices for Popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year. You can look at the online lists here.

For a digital edition of the Galaxy British Book Awards Shortlists Magazine, look here.

50 days. 1474 friends. 500 entries. 5 finalists. 3000 votes

And now we have...THE WINNER!

We searched for a track that epitomises the excitement and sophistication of Ian Fleming's Bond and here it is. The judges chose it and you voted it the winner. The official Devil May Care theme tune, to be featured on the official audio book, published 28 May 2008, is 'Devil May Care' by Sal.

Cardiff based rockers Sal are vocalist Catrin Wyn Southall, guitarist Noog, drummer Denley Calais Slade and bassist Chris Saunders. They've been together for six years, and play what they call ‘energetic, emotional rock music and incredibly catchy tunes'. It is this energy that attracted the judges to their ‘Devil May Care’ track. They took as their inspiration ‘the energy and drama of the James Bond stories’, but were determined to stay true to their own sound.

Sal said: 'It feels great to know that there's enough people out there who liked our song enough to vote for us. We feel very proud to have a Sal song as the theme for Devil May Care!'

Listen to ‘Devil May Care’ by Sal at www.myspace.com/devilmaycarebook

Fantastic news! Following a long-running campaign by English PEN of which the Penguin book Free Expression is No Offence formed a part, the common-law offence of blasphemy and blasphemous libel has now been repealed.

To find out more about this issue look here.

Just goes to show the pen is mightier than the sword!

Today, Thursday 6 March, marks World Book Day 2008. The wait is finally over...out of the 10 shortlisted titles Boy A by Jonathan Trigell has been voted The Book to Talk About in 2008.

To read more about World Book Day and see here

Oprah and Eckhart Tolle are to teach Tolle's book A New Earth in 10 live web classes starting Monday, March 3rd and ending Monday, May 5th. To sign up to the web classes and learn more about A New Earth, go to Oprah.com now!

Then We Came to The End by Joshua Ferris will be the featured book on today's Richard & Judy Book Club.

Judy raved about it at the end of last week's show, saying it was the book of the year, so find out what the rest of the panel, including Emilia Fox and Dermot Murnaghan, think today at 5.20pm on Channel 4!

Award-winning feature film There Will Be Blood is based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 masterpiece Oil!, the story of a genial independent oil developer and his son, whose sympathy with the oilfield workers and socialist organizers fuels a running debate with his father...

Read more about the book here.

Find out more here!

The cover for the new James Bond novel, Devil May Care, has been unveiled!

To celebrate the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth we're publishing a brand new Bond, Devil May Care, in May 2008. Acclaimed author Sebastian Faulks has written the novel, and it's set to be one of the most exciting moments in the literary world next year.

Read how the cover came to fruition here.

Penguin has launched Spinebreakers.co.uk, a pioneering entertainment portal into the world of books, run by teenagers themselves. Editorial control of the site is in the hands of a core editorial team of nine teenagers aged between 13 and 18 years, supported by a large network of contributing teen editors from across the UK. The site also invites contribution of vidlogs, blogs, short stories, alternative book jackets, soundtracks, reviews from any young person aged 13 to 18.

Launched to coincide with publication of Nick Hornby’s first novel for teenagers, Slam, spinebreakers.co.uk allows teenagers to debate and interact with Penguin’s rich source of publishing from contemporary titles such as Meg Rosoff’s Just in Case, Charlie Higson’s Young Bond titles, Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation to classics such as J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Kerouac’s On the Road.

Mahta Hassanzadeh, aged 18, said: "Getting teenagers involved with the running of the website is an excellent idea! It encourages more teenagers to participate in schemes where they can get hands on experience in a field they may want to go into in the future. Also, the fact that teenagers are so heavily involved in the project could make creative writing and reading more appealing to other teens."

"There aren't many sites where teens can share and discuss their ideas about the books that they have read, and this is a great chance to do so." says Aijamal Bahibek Kizi, aged 15. "Sometimes you have read a book and none of your friends know about it and you are dying to talk to someone, and this is just a great place to do so. Plus you can find out a lot about other books that may be interesting to you that you don't know about."

Take a look at the site here.

Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, recounting the doomed affair between sweet Cathy Earnshaw and the brutal outsider Heathcliff, has seen off Shakespeare, Gone With the Wind and everything by Barbara Cartland in a survey which shows the lasting power of classic works.

Twelve out of the top 20 choices of 2,000 readers are Penguin books, with Jane Austen pipping Shakespeare as runner-up and Emily's sister Charlotte coming in fourth with Jane Eyre.

Tears, missed heartbeats and almost-fatal misunderstandings also helped plots to win top ranking, although happy endings - summed up by Jane Eyre's "Reader, I married him" - were considered essential. Forty per cent of women read romantic novels to feel better, 15% for nostalgic reasons and 10% to compensate for their own less highly-coloured love lives.

The top 20;

Penguin is proud to announce the return of Bond, James Bond! On 28 May 2008, to mark the centenary of Sir Ian Fleming's birth, we will be publishing the new Bond novel - Devil May Care, written by one of the greats of modern British literature, Sebastian Faulks.

Sebastian was commissioned by the Fleming estate last year but in true Bond style his identity remained secret until today. Devil May Care is set in “several of the world's most thrilling cities” during the Cold War, and has been described as “a bloody good thriller, with everything one could possibly ask from a James Bond novel and everything one could possibly ask from Sebastian Faulks' writing.”

Faulks certainly enjoyed following Sir Ian's lead: “In his house in Jamaica, Ian Fleming used to write a thousand words in the morning, then go snorkelling, have a cocktail, lunch on the terrace, more diving, another thousand words in late afternoon, then more Martinis and glamorous women. In my house in London, I followed this routine exactly, apart from the cocktails, the lunch and the snorkelling.”

» For more information - please visit www.Penguin007.com.

The Man Booker International Prize is worth £60,000 to the winner and is awarded once every two years to a living author for a body of work that has contributed to an achievement in fiction on the world stage. It was first awarded to Ismail Kadaré in 2005.

Chinua Achebe is probably best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart, written in 1958 and Anthills of the Savannah, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1987. Penguin publishes Things Fall Apart and Anthills of the Savannah in Penguin Modern Classics and Things Fall Apart in Reds.

"It was 50 years ago this year that I began writing my first novel, Things Fall Apart. It is wonderful to hear that my peers have looked at the body of work I have put together in the last 50 years and judged it deserving of this important recognition. I am grateful."
Chinua Achebe

To see the collection of Chinua Achebe's work, look here.

To find out more about the author, look here.

1. No purchase necessary to enter the prize draw.
2. This prize draw is open to UK residents aged 18 years or over, with the exception of employees of the Promoter, their families, agents and anyone else connected with this promotion.
3. Entries must be received by 5pm on Monday 12th May. The Promoter accepts no responsibility for any entries that are incomplete, illegible, corrupted or fail to reach the Promoter by the relevant closing date for any reason. Proof of posting or sending is not proof of receipt. Entries via agents or third parties are invalid. Entries become the property of the Promoter and are not returned.
4. Only one entry per person. No entrant may win more than one prize.
5. To enter simply send your personal details, including name, age, address and email address to competitions@penguin.co.uk.
6. All correctly completed entries will be entered into a prize draw which will take place at 10am on Tuesday 13th May. The first entry drawn will be the winner.
7. The prize for the winner is 2 tickets to a Lecture / Q&A with Naomi Klein (author of The Shock Doctrine), taking place on Monday 19th May at Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ. In the event that you cannot make this date, no alternative dates will be possible and the Promoter reserves the right to offer the prize to a substitute winner. Travel expenses are not included in the prize.
8. Prize is subject to availability. In the event of unforeseen circumstances, the Promoter reserves the right (a) to substitute alternative prizes of equivalent or greater value and (b) in exceptional circumstances to amend or foreclose the promotion without notice. No correspondence will be entered into.
9. The winner will be notified via email by Tuesday 13th May. The winner must claim their prize within 1 working day of the Promoter sending notification. If the prize is unclaimed after this time, it will lapse and the Promoter reserves the right to offer the unclaimed prize to a substitute winner selected in accordance with these rules.
10. To obtain details of the winner please email competitions@penguin.co.uk stating the name of the prize draw in the subject heading 4 weeks after the closing date.
11. The Promoter will use any data submitted by entrants only for the purposes of running the prize draw, unless otherwise stated in the entry details. By entering this prize draw, all entrants consent to the use of their personal data by the Promoter for the purposes of the administration of this prize draw and any other purposes to which the entrant has consented.
12. The winners agree to take part in reasonable post event publicity and to the use of their names and photographs in such publicity.
13. By entering the prize draw each entrant agrees to be bound by these terms and conditions.
14. The Promoter is Penguin Books Limited, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL.

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