Patrick Mitchell

Children read longer books of greater difficulty during lockdown periods last year, and reported that reading made them feel better while isolated from the wider world, according to new research.

Last week news broke that Blake Bailey, the author of Philip Roth: The Biography, had been accused of sexual crimes and that his publisher, W. W. Norton, would halt promotion of the book. I had just reviewed it. Bailey's transmogrification didn't change my basic opinion of his work-not because it's that good, but because it's that bad.  Read more

Amazon continued to cash in on our new shop-work-relax-from-home habits in the first three months of this year, reporting a huge rise in sales and a tripling of profits.

Almost every aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic has served to boost the tech giant's revenues, from video streaming to grocery delivery.

It said it expects the boom to continue over the next few months.  Read more

Vaccinations may be increasing at a rapid rate, and many business are reopening to close to pre-pandemic hours, but publishers and booksellers are not in a hurry to resume in-person author tours this spring or summer.  Read more

From writing in her lunch break at Hampstead Waterstones, to securing an international publishing deal, Lorraine Brown was finally able to see her debut novel on the shelves when lockdown eased.

She wrote Uncoupling while working as a secretary at Devonshire House School, but didn't get the chance to see it in bookshops when it was published in February.