March and only 6 weeks to Easter!

I am not sure if I believe this but we have just heard from the book trade market intelligence company, Nielsen, that book sales are holding their own in this dire economic climate. We hear that Stephanie Myers’ books are helping out Hachette and that Bloomsbury and HarperCollins claim to have stand out best sellers including Endal, by Allen and Sandra Parton and Wetlands by Charlotte Roche.

Watch out for a mobile phone voting event. The Galaxy British Book Awards will be appealing to readers to use the mobile phone voting service to vote for their favourite tile and download sample chapters. Let us know how you get on. Begins on March 10^th.

Cookery book fans will be delighted to have the chance to choose between Gordon Ramsay and Delia Smith when their latest offerings go on sale on the same day. That is Delia’s Complete How to Cook from the BBC at £30 and Gordan Ramsay’s Great British Pub Food from HarperCollins at £20.00 – buyers please note the Ramsay book is actually put together by the wonderful Mark Sargeant the rather good head chef at Claridges, some pub!

Look out for the new imprint from Penguin “Particular Books” It launches in July and promises seven titles this year that will be perfect gift books. One of the first titles will be the republishing of a lost “classic” from the 1960’s (doesn’t that make you feel old?) The Shell Country Alphabet by Geoffrey Grigson, yes Sophie’s dad.

By the way crime fans have you picked up on Kate Summerscale’s The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. It is a true detective tale written in the style of a country house whodunit. It will keep you guessing to the end.

Another new award was announced last month, the Warwick Prize for Writing, Warwick as in Warwick University. The winner was Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine. Chair of Judges said

''Every book on the shortlist was exceptional, but of course it had, ultimately, to come down to one. Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine is a brilliant, provocative, outstandingly written investigation into some of the great outrages of our time. It has started many debates, and will start many more, and we're delighted to award it the first Warwick Prize for Writing.”