A while ago I wrote a scathing piece in the Daily Mail about what I regarded as the “pornography” of misery memoirs. I had become increasingly concerned at the way boundaries were being pushed in this genre. Each book seemed to push the border between taste and titillation further as
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Hmmm, that is probably not the best headline for a woman who has just had a baby (it’s a G Glitter song, in case you wondered what I am talking about). But it is appropriate in one way, because I have take a long break from my website thanks to
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Another day, another arrest in the case of teenager Scarlett Keeling in Goa: this time the suspect is accused of drugging, raping and murdering the 15-year-old, which suggests the local police have finally accepted the claims of Scarlett’s mother that the girl was murdered. Funny what a media campaign can
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Couldn’t resist adding this press release about this Christmas single with a difference. Could it be the first facebook number one? Not sure I think so, especially with the final chorus, which, er, stinks, but I have to agree about the X Factor ad and applaud them for using social
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I have just interviewed author Scarlett Thomas for the wonderful Mslexia, a magazine for women writers that should be read by anyone who writes. You can subscribe by clicking on this link. The interview concentrates on Scarlett’s latest novel, The End of Mr Y, and ranges into linguistics, Derrida, Nietzsche,
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Now here is a press release from HarperCollins I am very pleased to pass on: INDUSTRY FIRST: Orange World to advertise Nigel Slater’s Eating for England mobile portal In a unique collaboration between Orange World and the 5th Estate mobile portal, Nigel Slater fans will now be able to interact
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And here it is in all its glory: be sure it will be in certain papers desperate to write about something other than Foot and Mouth tomorrow: Peculiar Pop Duets & Laughable Love Matches
Reality TV Magazine has a scoop: Tony Cowell is to do for would-be authors what brother Simon has done for wannabe popstars. Cowell Sr (he is nine years older than Simon) has signed a deal with ITV to do a show called “Bestsellers!”, which will be screened this summer. Tested
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What Surfistinha calls “run-of-the-mill” prostitutes are women more often than not living in horrible and degraded circumstances, whose choice was taken away with their passports or the first time they smoked crack. There is nothing glamorous about the world they inhabit.
Prostitution and paedophilia have an uncomfortably close relationship. It is one publishers would do well to remember next time they publish a book glamorising the business. Belle and Bruna may be above the age of consent, but according to the Home Office (Paying the Price. 2004) the average age women become involved in prostitution is 12 – one out of every two prostitutes become involved in the trade before they are 18.
What is remarkable about the whole tawdry episode is the utter cynicism it reveals at the heart of publishing. The same cynicism that makes publishers pump out car crash celebrities and grit lit memoirs that seem to revel in almost pornographic accounts of abuse and degradation.
