February 2002 book gossip

Good news for Donna Leon fans – her latest book, Wilful Behaviour (Random), is out in April.

Also from Random, same month, comes Michael J Fox’s long awaited book, Lucky Man: A Memoir. Billed as a funny, moving account of what it’s like to be a 30 year old man with an 80 year old man’s disease, Fox stunned the world when he announced in 1998 that he had Parkinson’s Disease.

In March there’s Charlotte Bingham’s new novel, Distant Music (Random), which is set in the musical theatre after the Second World War.

Crime fans will be thrilled to hear HarperCollins is publishing a new Dalziel and Pascoe mystery by Reginald Hill. Dialogues of the Dead is due in book shops in March.

The former wild boy of tennis, John McEnroe, is releasing his autobiography called Serious, in July to tie in with Wimbledon. Published by Penguin, it covers McEnroe’s brilliant tennis career and his marriage to movie star, Tatum O’Neal.

Ann Pearlman whose exquisitely written book Infidelity, has been sold to Broadway for a quarter of a million dollars, has written a new book called Living in a Black and White World, which is the story of her mixed race marriage and her experience raising mixed race children.

British journalist and celebrity biographer, Wendy Leigh, has written a novel in which the late First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe who had an affair with JFK, exchange letters.

Seven publishers were interested in a book about the role of American army nurses in World War II. Due to be published next year by Knopf, it is already famous for having a 31 word title.

Following September 11, the trend in books in the US was for the spiritual/philosophical/new age. Now, latest book sales indicate Americans have retreated to the kitchen where they’re cooking up a storm. There’s reports of a big increase in the sales of cookery books across the board, but specifically for cookery books for large occasions, as well as ones that use packaged food and those specialising in desserts.

In the pipeline is a biography of silent movie comedian, Buster Keaton.

First came Harry Potter, then The Lord of the Rings. Now, the latest children’s book that’s set to get the big screen treatment is The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, from the Chronicles of Narnia.

For fans of Barbara Vine ( who is really Ruth Rendell writing under a pseudonym), comes the great news that her next book, The Blood Doctor, (Viking) is due in July.

The same month sees a new Marian Keyes – Angels (Penguin) – hit the book shops.

Towards the end of this year, expect the release of the autobiography of June Dally-Watkins (Viking), the doyenne of finishing schools and Australia’s most successful, post war model.

Also in the second half of year, expect the second instalment of Barry Humphries’ autobiography, titled You Could Be Happy Here (Viking).

There’s an unusual twist to the next book by Australia’s best selling author, Bryce Courtenay, due out just before next Christmas (Viking) – it is written in the voice of Trim, the cat who accompanied explorer Matthew Flinders on his voyages.