Rooney signs new contract
Village wrote recently of the bidding war which broke out over Alan Greenspan's (ex-Chairman of the US Fed) eagerly anticipated (!) memoirs, the dubious prize being eventually claimed by Penguin for $8,000,000.
This despite Book Notes' fervently held belief that it is a preacher without a congregation, the book without an audience. Similar sums were offered last week to Wayne Rooney, hot tempered Manchester United and England forward and the new face of Asda supermarkets. Rooney, still only 20 is to be paid £5,000,000 for a series of five autobiographies to be published between now and 2018. Not that much considering it equates to about one year's earnings for Rooney but it is the highest amount t o be advanced for a sports biography. Presumably the publishers feel the major trophy that has evaded England since 1966 will have been won with Rooney's aid within the 12 year duration of the contract. This gamble by Harper Collins is probably not as reckless as it appears. Rooney has most commonly been compared to George Best and Paul Gascoigne, two footballers of whom the press and public never tired. The books will be written by veteran biographer Hunter Davies who wrote books on Wordsworth and the Beatles. His last work, Gazza's My Story was the biggest selling sport's book of 2004 and winner of the 2005 Sports Book of the Year. For those of you interested, Rooney (unlike team mates Beckham and Owen) is a reader and keeps one of the Harry Potter books by his bedside. Some of the Premiership managers answered the same poll last week on their favourite book. Most highbrow was Martin Jol, manager of Tottenham Hotspur with his ruggedly masculine choice of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Dave O'Leary opted for Kane and Abel, Alex Ferguson for Treasure Island. Least surprising was the selection of the Chosen One, Chelsea manager José Mourinho who opted simply, true to form for The Bible.
Driving us to books
Lucky commuters in Darlington are to receive copies of library books to read on their train journeys and hand back at the end. The first to benefit from the deal will get copies of ES Nesbitt's The Railway Children. Makes a nice change from underwritten free papers and the ubiquitous buzzing headphones. What chance they'll extend the idea to Ireland, offering books to those sitting in our motorway traffic jams? Let's hope we soon see Martin Cullen with copies of Long Days Journey into Night.
London Book Fair
Village wrote last year of Margaret Atwood and her new invention which can be used to sign copies of a book remotely. The invention was launched and demonstrated recently at the London Book Fair where Atwood signed copies of her latest work The Tent for executives from her publishers, Bloomsbury. Christened the LongPen with fashionably incorrect capitalisation (see iPods) it came about after a Eureka moment Atwood had while signing for a parcel on an electronic delivery pad. Atwood has long mixed forays into science fiction with her more standard literary fiction in novels like The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake. While many have welcomed the chance of getting a book signed rather than not, other onlookers thought the invention might limit interaction between author and reader, we reckon limit of access for the great unwashed was a prime motivator for the Nobel laureate. Other heavyweights of the literary firmament made news when they called on the organisers of the Fair to cease participation in the world arms trade. Booker winners JM Coetzee Ian McEwan and AS Byatt all signed a letter printed in TLS which called on facilitators of the Far, Reed Exhibitions to stop organising Arms and Defence fairs.
The future's bright, the future's Orange
The awards season trundles on with the announcement of the Orange Prize for Fiction longlist in advance of the shortlist due in April. Big books from last season like On Beauty, The Accidental and Gilead are joined by five debutants and a few big books of 2006. Strong backing can be anticipated for Helen Dunmore's House of Orphans, Sarah Walter's The Night Watch and Joyce Carol Oates' Rape. There are many admirable books on the list which will guarantee a very strong final, continuing a long history of excellence in the Orange list, most recently awarded to We Need to Talk about Kevin and Small Island. Two American books recommended by Village last year, Nicole Krauss' The History of Love and Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep are also included for your attention.