I had been looking forward to hearing the publisher’s perspective on the unhappy saga of Kate Clanchy and her book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me. The book had won the Orwell Prize for non-fiction in 2020 and was described by the judges as ‘moving, funny, full of love and offering sparkling… Continue reading When did this cultural cringe take hold of book publishing?
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The working life of a professional writer is not exciting. You write. You read what you have written. You sigh. You try again until, with luck, something passable appears on the page or screen before you. Now and then – again, with luck – you get published. Rows or bust-ups in the little world of… Continue reading ‘Play nicely, children,’ said the Society of Authors …. They didn’t.
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