LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Two of the biggest Harry Potter fan sites on Thursday distanced themselves from author J.K. Rowling because of her beliefs on transgender issues, calling them at odds with the message of empowerment in her best-selling books. Websites T... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – Accounts by former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton of discussions between leaders of the United States and the two Koreas in his upcoming book are inaccurate and distorted, South Korea said on Monday. Bolton gives details in the bo... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafon, whose book “The Shadow of the Wind” sold more than 15 million copies, has died of cancer aged 55 in Los Angeles, his publishing house said on Friday. Zafon began his career in juvenile literature before pu... More »
KYIV (Reuters) – A wealthy Ukrainian politician has made public a manuscript in his private collection that he says is a fragment of the Gutenberg Bible, the world’s first substantial printed book, although researchers said it would need to be authenticated. T... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – From “White Fragility” to “The New Jim Crow,” literature about the history of racial discrimination in the United States is selling out as white Americans seek to educate themselves as nationwide protests grow over the killing of unarme... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Stuck at home with the kids? Meryl Streep, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Cate Blanchett may be able to help. Oscar-winning New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi has lined up some of his Hollywood friends by videolink from their living rooms for a ... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – Austrian cultural spaces including museums and libraries can reopen from mid-May as part of a gradual loosening of the coronavirus lockdown, the government said on Friday. Austria took a first step in relaxing its month-old restrictions on T... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Chilean author Luis Sepúlveda, best known for his book “The Old Man Who Read Love Stories,” died on Thursday of COVID-19 in a hospital in Asturias, the region of northern Spain where he lived for several decades, his publisher and Spanish me... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A lost portrait of Charles Dickens and 25 of his unpublished letters will go on display for the first time after a major acquisition from a private collector. The Charles Dickens museum in London has bought a huge collection of objects belon... More »
BRIDGETOWN (Reuters) – Internationally acclaimed Barbadian poet, essayist and historian Edward Kamau Brathwaite, whose prolific writings sought to assert the identity of Caribbean peoples and their African roots, died at his home in Barbados on Tuesday. He was... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – In a gesture of unity at what they called a time of political crisis, four British artists broke with tradition by choosing to share the 2019 Turner Prize. The nominees for the country’s most prestigious award for young artists – Lawrence Ab... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – From the world’s youngest self-made billionaire to celebrities in court, the world of entertainment produced a wide array of headlines this year. Below are some of the biggest showbiz stories of 2019. * The year began with rap making history... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – A miniature manuscript written by the teenage Charlotte Bronte is returning to her childhood home in West Yorkshire after it was bought by a British museum at auction in Paris. The Bronte Parsonage Museum bid 780,000 euros ($862,600) for the ... More »
LAGOS (Reuters) – Author Bernardine Evaristo hopes her Booker Prize-winning novel will help to alter perceptions of black British people among African readers and Britons she sees as grappling with heightened racial tension. In an interview with Reuters on Sat... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – The Swedish Academy has defended its decision to award the 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature to Austrian writer Peter Handke, saying he had made provocative comments but had not supported bloodshed. Handke’s prize has attracted criticism, i... More »
BAYEUX, France (Reuters) – The French town of Bayeux has been home for nearly a millennium to a tapestry depicting a bloody battle for power. Now it has another. An exhibition featuring a tapestry illustrating the events of hit HBO TV show “Game of Thrones” op... More »
BAYEUX, France (Reuters) – The French town of Bayeux has been home for nearly a millennium to a tapestry depicting a bloody battle for power. Now it has another. An exhibition featuring a tapestry illustrating the events of hit HBO TV show “Game of Thrones” op... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – French literary types aghast at the political turmoil engulfing Britain as it seeks to leave the European Union launched a tongue-in-cheek Twitter campaign on Wednesday to add ‘Brexit’ to the national lexicon. French commentator Bernard Pivot... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Canadian author Margaret Atwood said a deterioration in women’s rights in some parts of the world including in the United States prompted her to write a sequel to her best-selling 1985 novel “The Handmaid’s Tale”. The novel, made into an awa... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Magic realism is a literary genre in which narrative is shot through with surreal, dreamlike, seemingly impossible moments. If famed author Salman Rushdie is a dean of the genre, perhaps it is not surprising that his life exhibits so many ... More »
TORONTO (Reuters) – ‘The Goldfinch’ felt the pressure to live up to the award-winning book upon which the film is based, members of the cast and crew said at the Toronto Film Festival premiere on Sunday. Donna Tartt won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014 f... More »
(Reuters) – With Argentina once again reeling from a financial crisis, a film released on Thursday shows residents from a village outside Buenos Aires pursuing the dream of many of those left penniless by the country’s 2001 debt default: getting their money ba... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Italian author Andrea Camilleri, who penned the acclaimed Inspector Montalbano detective novels, died on Wednesday at the age of 93, state-owned broadcaster Rai said. Camilleri spent much of his life working as a theater director, screenwriter... More »
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – An Argentine creative duo is looking to keep alive memories of the horrors faced by people during the country’s so-called “Dirty War,” turning to comic-book form to reach a generation who grew up after the end of the military dictators... More »
(Reuters) – The detailed manual used by U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to land on the moon in 1969 is going up for auction in July and could fetch up to $9 million, New York auctioneers Christie’s said on Wednesday. The 44-page ring-bound Apoll... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – English Tudor king Henry VIII and his six wives are a staple tale of costume dramas – now a new television series is turning viewers’ attention to the story of the first, Catherine of Aragon. “The Spanish Princess”, a British-American produc... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “Twilight” is coming back from the dead with a live concert that will tour the world. Movie studio Lionsgate on Thursday announced that the vampire book and movie romance that had millions of hearts swooning is being adapted for an inte... More »
MUNICH (Reuters) – If you are a “Game of Thrones” fan and appreciate the element of surprise, stop reading now. Students at the Technical University of Munich have developed an application to predict which character has the best chance to claim the coveted Iro... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Jill Schlesinger got her start on Wall Street, and that is where she learned a lot of what she knows about the financial world. But she has built a career dishing out personal finance advice by pulling back the curtain on myths about invest... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – The scandal-plagued Swedish body that awards the Nobel Prize for literature said on Friday that one of its members would leave after an investigation determined she had leaked the names of winners. The poet Katarina Frostenson and her pho... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Tintin will mark his 90th birthday this year with a return to controversy as his Belgian creator’s heirs release a new edition of “Tintin in the Congo”, a work from 1930 that draws accusations of racism. The boy reporter’s adventure in the... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Audrey Geisel, the widow of beloved children’s book author Dr. Seuss and an avid promoter of his legacy, died this week at her California home at age 97, a representative confirmed on Friday. Geisel married the writer, whose real name w... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Seven years ago, a nephew of Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked the U.S. Supreme Court justice to help him with a screenplay that would chronicle one of her early cases seeking equal rights for men and women. That story, written with extensive i... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Glasgow-based artist Charlotte Prodger won the 2018 Turner Prize on Tuesday, Britain’s prestigious contemporary art award, with an autobiographical film shot on a mobile phone. For the first time, all four works shortlisted for the annual pr... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The original map of the Hundred Acre Wood from the Winnie-the-Pooh children’s stories is set to go under the hammer, with an estimate price tag of up to $200,000. The ink sketch drawn by E.H. Shepard in 1926 lays out the much-loved fictional... More »
(Reuters) – Author Philip Roth, who was both hailed and derided for laying bare the neuroses and obsessions that haunted the modern Jewish-American experience, died on Tuesday at the age of 85, his agent said. Roth died in New York City at 10:30 p.m. local tim... More »
(Reuters) – Tom Wolfe, an early practitioner of “new journalism” who captured the mood and culture of America across five decades with books including “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” “The Right Stuff,” and “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” has died at the age ... More »
(Reuters) – The producer of a Broadway adaptation of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the author’s estate have settled a legal dispute over the Aaron Sorkin-penned script, which will allow the production to go head on schedule. In a joint statement on ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator John McCain rebukes President Donald Trump in a new memoir, accusing his fellow Republican of failing to uphold U.S. values by showering praise on international “tyrants,” discrediting the media, ignoring human rights and de... More »
(Reuters) – A first edition of John James Audubon’s “The Birds of America,” one of the most celebrated books of natural history, is going up for auction in New York in June and could fetch up to $12 million, Christie’s said on Wednesday. The richly illustrated... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former FBI director James Comey said in an ABC News interview on Sunday that U.S. President Donald Trump is a dangerous, “morally unfit” leader doing “tremendous damage” to institutional and cultural norms. Comey, fired by Trump in May l... More »
French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (L) visit the Ullens Chinese Contemporary Art Centre in Beijing January 9, 2018. Picture taken January 9, 2018. REUTERS/Ludovic MARIN/Pool PARIS (Reuters) – A new biography of French first lady ... More »
TORONTO (Reuters) – Publisher HarperCollins has agreed to donate C$150,000 ($120,000) in books as part of a settlement with a Canadian law enforcement agency over accusations it colluded with rival publishers and Apple Inc to set prices, the agency said on Tue... More »
FILE PHOTO: Aaron Sorkin poses with the award for Best Screenplay – Motion Picture for “Steve Jobs” backstage at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California January 10, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – When writer and producer... More »
FILE PHOTO: An employee displays the Marquis de Sade’s original rolled manuscript called Le Rouleau de la Bastille of “Les 120 jours de Sodome ou l’ecole du libertinage” (The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinage, 1785) before its auction at the Hote... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A previously unseen series of illustrated Christmas letters written by the author J.R.R Tolkien to his children, featuring Santa Claus and his helper Polar Bear, are to go on show next year. The letters start in 1920 after Tolkien’s three-ye... More »
FILE PHOTO: Rare documents of the pasenger liner “Titanic” about its shipwreck are displayed at the Hotel Drouot auction house in Paris, France, November 23, 2017. The sale of the most important private stock of manuscripts from bankrupt French company Aristop... More »
FILE PHOTO – Writer J.K. Rowling poses as she arrives for the European premiere of the film “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” at Cineworld Imax, Leicester Square in London, Britain November 15, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo LOS ANGELES (Reuters) –... More »
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with reporters at the White House in Washington, U.S. November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrum... More »
A Prairie Home Companion, the U.S. radio variety show that Garrison Keillor presented for decades until his retirement last year, has been renamed "Town Hall," days after the raconteur was accused of sexual misconduct. More »
Call Me By Your Name became a landmark for gay romantic fiction when it was first published in 2007, but the makers of a new movie version say it will appeal to anyone who enjoys a good love story. More »
When Brian K. Vaughan was approached by Marvel Comics to write a comic book to bring in new readers, he hit on the idea of "Runaways," the story of a diverse group of teenage friends whose bond grows stronger when they make a gruesome discovery. More »
Amazon.com Inc has bought the global television rights to "The Lord of the Rings," the company said on Monday, in what may be its biggest and most expensive move yet to draw viewers to its streaming and shopping club Prime. More »
An imposing 19th Century building with elegant manicured lawns and sweeping views of the Edinburgh skyline seems an unlikely place to have earned the nickname "Dottyville" from one of Britain's most revered poets. More »
The former head of the U.S. Democratic National Committee on Sunday defended her assertion that she had seriously considered proposing to replace Hillary Clinton as the party's 2016 presidential nominee, and said her critics could "go to hell." More »
American author George Saunders has won the 2017 Man Booker Prize, a high-profile literary award, for his first novel, "Lincoln in the Bardo," - a fictional account of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln burying his young son. More »
The world is closer to the dark days of the 1930s than at any time since, Canadian author Margaret Atwood said on Saturday in Frankfurt, where she was due to receive a prestigious German literary award. More »
What Happened, Hillary Clinton's memoir of her unsuccessful bid to win the 2016 U.S. presidential election, topped the U.S. non-fiction bestsellers list on Thursday, fending off a challenge from the latest book by former Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly. More »
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton's debut novel will not hit shelves for almost a year, but it is already getting the TV treatment as Showtime said Friday that it would adapt the anticipated book into a series. More »
Long associated with pirates, famine and bombs, Somalia showed a different face to the world this week as it welcomed foreign writers for the first time to its annual book fair. More »
Two first-time female authors feature on the 2017 Man Booker Prize fiction shortlist which comprises three women and three men including best-selling U.S. writer Paul Auster. More »
A zombie dragon, an illicit romance and satisfying revenge helped drive the season finale of "Game of Thrones" to a viewership high, HBO said Monday, as the seventh season drew record ratings. More »
Dick Gregory, a comedian who lambasted racism and played a prominent role in the 1960s civil rights movement after becoming one of the first black comics to perform for white audiences, died on Saturday at age 84, his son said. More »
Jane Austen once wrote that a large income was the best recipe for happiness. Now a private letter written by the author to her niece could well make someone very happy indeed. More »
A man reads a book at a bookshop in Bab Doukkala in the city of Marrakech, Morocco May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal Lined up against shopkeepers hawking everything from fresh parsley to colorful socks, Marrakech’s historic booksellers face an uncertain fu... More »
FILE PHOTO: Singer Bob Dylan performs during a segment honoring Director Martin Scorsese, recipient of the Music+ Film Award, at the 17th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards in Los Angeles, USA, January 12, 2012. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo Nobel prizewin... More »
The cast of a new adaptation of dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” insisted on Friday they did not set out to make a feminist statement, but some hoped the TV show would inspire viewers to take political action. More »
Canadian writer Margaret Atwood speaks during an interview at a hotel in Havana, Cuba, February 8, 2017. Picture taken on February 8, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini – RTSY5HP Margaret Atwood did not have any creative control over the latest adaptation of he... More »
FILE PHOTO – Actor Jude Law attends the photocall for the movie ‘The Young Pope’ at the 73rd Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy September 3, 2016. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/File Photo British actor Jude Law has been cast to play a young version of Hogwarts... More »
Sweden’s girl with the dragon tattoo is heading back to bookstores in a fifth thriller about the troubled computer hacker Lisbeth Salander created by the late novelist Stieg Larsson, publishers said on Tuesday. More »
Actor Bill Cosby (R) leaves for a lunch break during a hearing for his upcoming sexual assault trial at Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania, U.S., April 3, 2017. REUTERS/Clem Murray/Pool Bill Cosby’s “Little Bill” children’s book series la... More »
FILE PHOTO: Rock musician Bob Dylan performs at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, U.S., May 5, 2004. REUTERS/Rob Galbraith/File Photo Details of Bob Dylan’s receipt of his Nobel literature prize were being kept under close wraps on Saturday leaving those wan... More »
Italian novelist Elena Ferrante’s best-selling novel “My Brilliant Friend” is headed to television as an eight-part series, U.S. cable channel HBO and Italy’s RAI television said on Thursday. More »
Author Robert James Waller is interviewed at the premiere of the new film ”The Bridges of Madison County,” which is based on his book of the same name, May 30 on the Warner Brothers Studio lot in Burbank, California. Robert James Waller, author of the best-sel... More »
Actor Alec Baldwin speaks at a protest against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump outside the Trump International Hotel in New York City, U.S. January 19, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith /File Photo Actor Alec Baldwin is taking his “Saturday Night Live” impersona... More »
Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, director of Oscar-nominated documentary ‘I Am Not Your Negro,’ poses for a portrait at the 89th Oscars Nominee Luncheon in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., February 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni Roy More »
Cast members (L-R) Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Zoe Kravitz and Reese Witherspoon pose at the premiere of the HBO television series ‘Big Little Lies’ in Los Angeles, California U.S., February 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni Two of film’s biggest... More »
Laura Wood of Skoob Books poses for a photograph with a copy of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ in central London June 9, 2013. REUTERS/Toby Melville George Orwell’s “1984” novel about a dystopian future under an authoritarian regime is back as a bestseller and being r... More »
Cast member Michael Keaton. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni The man who turned a popular California hamburger stand into the McDonald’s global fast-food empire is having a posthumous Hollywood moment. More »
Actor Benedict Cumberbatch arrivesat the 86th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California March 2, 2014. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Why does actor Benedict Cumberbatch cut such a dash as British literary detective Sherlock Holmes? More »
A copy of ‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’, handwritten and illustrated by Harry Potter author JK Rowling, is displayed at Sotheby’s auction house in London, Britain December 8, 2016. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh “Harry Potter” fans will be able to bid for a piece of his... More »
Author J.K. Rowling poses for photographers at a gala performance of the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child parts One and Two, in London, Britain July 30, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo After a hit debut on London’s West End this summer, “Harry Potter ... More »
Germany has purchased the California home that once belonged to Nobel Prize-wining author Thomas Mann for $13.25 million and plans to preserve the historic property, the real estate company that listed the house said on Thursday. More »
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch leaves his home in London, Britain March 4, 2016. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth News Corp (NWSA.O), the owner of the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires and book publisher HarperCollins, reported a quarterly loss as it struggles to cop... More »
People gather for a global fan event to preview the film ”Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” at Cineworld IMAX at Leicester Square in London, Britain October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall “Harry Potter” fans will be welcomed back to the wizarding world nex... More »
Author Madeleine Thien poses for photographs during a photo-call in London for the six Man Booker shortlisted fiction authors, on the eve of the prize giving in London, Britain October 24, 2016. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls – RTX2Q9MY Man Booker Prize finalist Madel... More »
Author Paul Beatty poses for photographs during a photo-call in London for the six Man Booker shortlisted fiction authors, on the eve of the prize giving in London, Britain October 24, 2016. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls Paul Beatty was on Tuesday named as the first ... More »
People gather for a global fan event to preview the film ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ at Cineworld IMAX at Leicester Square in London, Britain October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall Roy More »
Comedian, actor, director Mel Brooks (C) enters the East Room to receive his 2015 National Medal of Arts from U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, U.S., September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Gary Cameron President Barack Obama awarded 24 America... More »
Roald Dahl’s “The Twits”, a children’s tale about a cruel and spiteful married couple, is being brought to life through an immersive theatrical show in London. More »
Deborah Levy, one of the shortlisted authors for the 2012 Man Booker Prize, poses with her book ”Swimming Home”, in London October 15, 2012. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo Novels on subjects ranging from murder in 19th century Scotland to classical music in... More »
A New Zealand library that went beyond stern looks from librarians to ensure peace and quiet has turned off a “mosquito” device after drawing criticism for targeting young people with an annoying, high-pitched buzz. More »
A woman holds copies of the book of the play of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child parts One and Two at a bookstore in London, Britain July 31, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo British author J.K. Rowling is delving back into the world of “Harry Potter” for a... More »
LOS ANGELES/LONDON “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the script for a new London play telling the eighth story in the boy wizard series, has sold more than 2 million copies in its first two days on the market in the United States, publisher Scholastic said ... More »
LONDON A new “Harry Potter” play that opened to swooning reviews and delighted gasps from the audience marks the end of the journey for the beloved boy wizard, his creator J.K. Rowling said at the play’s premiere in London on Saturday. Billed as the eighth ins... More »
LONDON A new “Harry Potter” play that opened to swooning reviews and delighted gasps from the audience marks the end of the journey for the beloved boy wizard, his creator J.K. Rowling said at the play’s premiere in London on Saturday. Billed as the eighth ins... More »
SAN DIEGO, Calif. Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne brought the wizarding world of “Harry Potter” to real life briefly on Saturday, as he helped hand out wooden wands to the 6,500-plus audience at a Comic-Con panel and made everyone perform a spell. Redmayne,... More »
SAN DIEGO, Calif. French director Luc Besson lifted the lid on his sci-fi space epic “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” at Comic-Con, showing fans the first footage from the ambitious project following two space travelers in the 28th century. “Valer... More »
LONDON Author JK Rowling has criticized the rhetoric surrounding the British referendum on the European Union, calling the campaign “divisive and bitter”. Writing on her website on Monday, the Harry Potter author dissected the narratives of both sides and comp... More »
LONDON Dressed in Hogwarts robes and waving wands, eager fans got a first glimpse of the next installment in the Harry Potter saga, giving a new London stage production glowing reviews. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” brings back to life author J.K. Rowlin... More »
