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John le Carré is famous for writing dazzling novels about the contemporary world - whether he is writing about the Cold War in the 1960s, the 'War on Terror' in the early twenty-first century and, today, in Our Kind of Traitor; a story that could have come straight out of Wikileaks. To celebrate the paperback publication of Our Kind of Traitor, Penguin in collaboration with the Daily Telegraph launched a competition in February, inviting anyone in the UK between 16-18 years old to write a short story that reflects the contemporary world. It could be any genre and the word limit was 2000 words. Two months and over one hundred entries later, Penguin are proud to announce the shortlist for the prize. It was judged by the fiction editors at Penguin, and the winner will now be picked by John le Carré. Ben Brusey, one of the editors who judged the shortlist had this to say:
'I'd like to congratulate all of the writers who entered the competition. To write a short story and create a whole world in just two thousand words is what some authors spend their whole lives trying to achieve. That you have been able to do this, with so much flair and imagination, and at such a depressingly young age, is extremely impressive. The stories ranged greatly in geography, subject and style, from revolutionary tales in North Africa, to civil unrest on the streets of London, to the perils of technology in our information age. Great characters were born, and touching relationships forged. You should all take enormous pride in the stories that you have written and I am certain that many of you will be appearing on many more literary shortlists in the future. As for the shortlisted writers, a special congratulations.'
The Shortlist
A Tale from the Holy Land by Rory Tingle, Age 17, King's College School, London What the judges said: "A dramatic and harrowing tale of a young boy in the West Bank who witnesses a suicide bombing, only to discover that his father was responsible for the blast."
But He Didn't by Lottie Pyper, Age 17, Marlborough College, Wiltshire
What the judges said: "Using a poem as inspiration, a moving tale of regret and conciousness in our contemporary world, from recycling to war."
Nobody Important by Simon James, Age 17, Sir John Deane's College, Cheshire
What the judges said: "A modern day parable about the dangers of internet chat rooms and online relationships, with a fresh and clever twist."
Sons of Abraham by Alasdair Wood, Age 18, Worcester Sixth Form College, Worcester
What the judges said: "Set in the outskirts of Jerusalem, an urgent and evocative story about two boys who are caught up in a mistaken government terrorist raid."
Untitled by Helen Price, Age 16, Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls, Monmouthshire What the judges said: "A touching story about a secret relationship between a librarian and a reader who pass notes to each other hidden in their favourite books, only tragically never to meet in person."
Nigeria in Pink by Edward Scott, Age 17, Parmiter's School, Hertfordshire What the judges said: "Set in Nigeria, a poetic tale with a powerful conceit where homosexuality is the norm and heterosexuals are persecuted."
The winning story will be announcted next Monday 9th May. It will published in the Daily Telegraph and on the Penguin website.The winner will receive a signed limited edition of le Carré's recent novel, Our Kind of Traitor, along with ten Penguin paperbacks at a special prize-giving event at the winner's school or sixth form college. The prize will be presented by John le Carré at the college or school attended by the winner, and the school or college will receive the full Penguin Decades collection - 20 classic novels from the last four decades.
A guest blog from Olivia Scott-Berry from Penguin's teen site, Spinebreakers
I’ve never wanted to hate but couldn’t help loving so many people all at the same time.
Every now and then an event comes along and you think, you know what? My biology homework can wait, Masterchef can be recorded, dinner is reheatable- It’s a Wednesday night, but I’m going out! (It’s a phenomenon I like to call ‘the dilemma of the sixth-former’)
The Penguin General Bloggers' event then, was something pretty special. Imagine this: you receive an email telling you that seven of the most brilliant authors are going to be giving readings, and that you will get to talk to them afterwards and there are going to be goody bags. Can you honestly tell me that you would have said no, I have to finish this sheet on quadrat sampling?
Arriving at the event, I knew that I had made the right choice between my education and my passion for books, because not only were the free books stacked high, but the room was packed with people each with their own unique take on the publishing world- editors, bloggers, authors- people who I was really excited to talk to and hear their experiences and get some advice.
It was probably one of the most daunting things I’ve ever done as a Spinebreakers - by definition we are readers, which is an activity that calls for quiet and aloneness and the kind of imagination that thrives in that environment more than any other- but it was gratifying to see that the authors were just as true to their sixteen-year-old bookworm selves as I was and acknowledged the paradox of the modern author’s duties. (Not that any of that showed in their amazing readings!)
Equally gratifying was the real interest people took in Spinebreakers and what we do, and I only hope that I represented us well to this group of amazing people, who, after all, were not just composed of authors, but of bloggers too. It was incredibly humbling but also inspiring to see all these people who do what we do at Spinebreakers but to a whole other level, and who do it so well (as you can probably tell from the fact that I’ve written up my report the very next morning without going on iplayer once!)
If you’re anything like me, you probably want to hear all about the books, but I thinkthat whatI took away from last night was the knowledge that I can allow myself to meet the authors- it is not a sacrilege and it could in fact enrich the whole experience (even now I am itching to reread Anatomy of a Disappearance after hearing it in Hisham Matar’s own voice). So I’m going to compromise and tell you a little bit about the books (which you must read, all of them!), and a little bit about the authors:
If you ever wanted to know what it’s like to grow up in a modern commune, it sounds like (I haven’t read it yet- even the Penguin editors are waiting anxiously for their proofs to arrive) Wild Abandon will be the perfect book for you, and if you didn’t- you will now just to hear Joe Dunthorne’s comic take on it. The man himself? Two words: Funny. Shorts. (Get yourself down to one of his poetry readings now).
Landfall, Helen Gordon
Helen Gordon is a former associate editor of Granta magazine and the author of Landfall, the story of an art critic in South East London (woop woop), which sounds (again, I haven’t read this, but I do have the proof right next to me right now) totally brilliant in a knowing and satirical way, but when I spoke to her I didn’t know all of this yet. She took such an interest in Spinebreakers and encouraged me to keep writing (and had a jumper on which I coveted) that I now feel really bad that I didn’t ask her anything about the book, because it sounds amazing.
Mr Chartwell is one of those books where you absolutely love the author and hate them for having the idea instead of you- and hearing Rebecca Hunt read, the feelings intensify. She is absolutely lovely and the kind of person I wish I was and an amazing speaker- who else could pull off the voice of a large black dog who happens to be a metaphor for depression? And do you know what makes it one of those books even more? Even if I did have the idea first, I wouldn’t be able to pull it off in prose half as sparkling as Hunt’s. Girl in Translation, Jean Kwok
Jean Kwok is an absolutely lovely lovely person. I could hear my English teacher screaming at me for my limited vocabulary as I wrote that, but there is no better way to say it- she is the absolute embodiment of everything that is lovely. Not only did she make me feel completely comfortable talking to her, but she managed to command the floor like she was having a conversation with each one of us. Once I could tear myself away from her warm sunshine accent, I was equally fascinated- Kwok’s tale of arriving in New York and the troubles that ensued (having no central heating, working on a piece-by-piece basis in a factory, having a talent for school) has elements of truth with her own life. Even without knowing this, the novel is beautifully brilliant- it will make you smile.
On TV programmes when someone dies or goes missing then those who are left behind are shows in crying in a series of artistic shots, and the cameras will only return to them once something changes in their lives. This is a nice idea to believe in, but it couldn’t be further from the truth- as Hisham Matar shows exquisitely in Anatomy of a Disappearance- life, ordinary life, goes excruciatingly onwards. The absence of the main character’s father is described with such poise, the everyday events imbued with such numbness that it comes to sit in your own heart as you read. This book made me extremely guilty that I didn’t know enough about the events that forced the disappeared father out of Egypt, and especially after I heard Hisham Matar’s mournful, silken reading, I am definitely going to find out more. I’m afraid I might have to disappoint my English teacher again and tell you that Hisham Matar is an absolutely lovely man, who wonderfully disarmed me by telling me that he liked my jumper. I can only respond with how much I loved his book.
I’m not really sure how to do justice to the presence that is Ross Raisin- is it okay if I just tell you that, despite hailing from Yorkshire and not (as far as I could tell) having any particular links to Scotland that he did his reading in a Glaswegian accent, which, despite his warning that it wouldn’t, I thought sounded pretty good? His new novel, Waterline, sounds a world away from his first, God’s Own Country (which I loved), but looks to be just as brilliant. I’m going to take the words straight from the press release because I think they summarise everything that I am looking for in a book- ‘the tale of an ordinary man caught between the loss of a great love and the hard edges of modern existence’. Sold.
Luke Williams joins Rebecca Hunt in the ranks of authors I want to hate but absolutely can’t- the idea behind his first novel, The Echo Chamber, is brilliant. It tells the story of Exie, whose superhuman hearing means that she can hear things that other people can’t, and who is now writing up her memories of her life, beginning in Nigeria as the British Empire’s influence was deteriorating. I was instantly intrigued by this ambitious idea, and however much I want it to fail to make myself feel better, from seeing Williams read that doesn’t seem likely. He is so confident and in control and in sync with his story (though he actually is Scottish, he too pulled a Raisin and read in a voice completely different from his own) that I just know it is going to live up to my expectations.
Because I refrained so well from adding two simple words to the end of each of these summaries and because I’m pretty sure that my biology homework is going to have to wait for a little while because I will be taking my own advice, I’m going to end my review with what you really really must do. Read them. (Now!)
1. The first time I watched the film of my novel, Submarine, was a strange experience. We were at the world premiere as part of the Toronto Film Festival and it felt, to use the director, Richard Ayoade’s words, like a “ninety-minute heart attack.” Okay, maybe not quite that bad. A ninety-minute anaphylactic shock. (I have a peanut allergy, so I can say that.) Only as the credits rolled was I filled with a wave of relief and pride — much like the feeling of being injected in the glutes with an Epipen full of adrenaline.
2. The second time I saw the film was at the London Film Festival, with my parents, sisters, friends and famous people all in the audience. This time, being more able to concentrate on the film, I’d even go so far as to say I enjoyed it. But there was still this meta-narrative, whereby I was conscious of all the different versions of the story that exist. Not just the film and the book, but all the different drafts of the book, and all the drafts of the script, and everything that got cut out, and all the scenes that I’d watched being filmed — so, although I really enjoyed the film, I was still a little self-conscious. Although that could have been because I was sat next to Alex Turner and Alexa Chung. Did I mention I was sat beside Alexa Chung and Alex Turner? It probably slipped my mind because I was totally relaxed about sitting beside Alex Turner and Alexa Chung.
3. The third time I watched it was at the Welsh premiere in Swansea, my hometown. At this screening, there was my family, my oldest friends, my first girlfriend, all my parent’s friends. I sat on my own, at the side of the audience, sweeping my eyes across all these people from my childhood, trying to read their expressions. I don’t think I’m letting the secret out if I say that my novel, Submarine, was a little autobiographical — so this was an audience made up of people who had been turned in to characters in my book. My experience of the film was through them, which was lucky, because they seemed to really enjoy it. Afterwards, me and my first girlfriend compared notes about how similar the sex scene in the film had been to the, shall I say, source material.
4. The fourth time I watched it was the breakthrough. Associate Producer (and my housemate), Ally Gipps, had smuggled me a copy of the DVD and we watched it, at home, on the projector, with tea. This was the true moment of revelation. It’s a great film. Really, properly great. I instantly wanted to take full responsibility for its greatness. So I did. The acting, the casting, the music, the sets, the shot choices, the lighting, cinematography, production, the PR, the posters, the costumes… All me! I even did all the on-set catering. I’ve always been passionate about the sort of food that suits being warmed by a heat lamp. Reminds me of school dinners, which I also loved. What joy to play lunchtime-football with a stomach full of beans, chips and turkey burger. What was I saying? Oh yeah — the film. It’s really good. Go see it. Though you should probably read the book first.
Regular readers of the Penguin blog will remember my yearning for legwarmers and leotards when Puffin visited the Brit School of performing arts late last year. We were scouting for talent, and found it, casting brilliant young actress Chloe St. Clair Stannard as the eponymous Sara in Melvin Burgess’ latest paperback Sara’s Face. The novel is a gritty thriller about a young girl, desperate for fame and obsessed with plastic surgery.
Today we’ve launched the first of eight mini Sara’s Face ‘webisodes’ starring Chloe on Penguin’s teen site www.spinebreakers.co.uk. As far as we know, no publisher’s tried this before. Sure, we’ve all seen snazzy online trailers but this project’s just a little bit different.
In effect, Spinebreakers.co.uk is broadcasting a mini drama-series, gradually revealing a story which both stands alone, and enhances what’s in the novel. Much of the book consists of transcripts from Sara’s vlog. She’s always recording herself, always creating new versions of Sara to present to the camera. Melvin worked with an experienced director to adapt these so that they were suitable to use as scripts for film shorts.
But teenagers are used to myriad extras, be they bonus features on dvds or the option to customise their mii to allow them to wander off into other peoples’ games. Melvin also wrote some brand new and exclusive material, which doesn’t appear anywhere in the book, to give readers/viewers an extra insight into the story. According to Melvin, writing on the timesonline’s book site this morning, adapting his words from page to, well, webpage, wasn’t easy. But as each new webisode is broadcast Sara, and her destructive hunger for fame, become bigger, better, and even more believable.
Here at Penguin, we’re sure the challenge will pay off. And spinebreakers (any story-surfing, web-exploring, word-loving, day-dreaming, reader/writer/artist/thinker between the ages of 13 and 18, in case you were wondering) can also enter a competition to win a state of the art DV camera by uploading their own video-rant about fame here.
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Kids dancing outside classrooms. Uberstylish girls singing with perfect pitch on the stairs. A young couple rowing at the tops of their voices before stopping to ask ‘shall we take that from the top?’. And an almost unbearable urge on my part to pull on the leggings and leg warmers and start limbering up.
It can only mean one thing. Puffin entered the world of Fame at the Brit School, an institution who’s distinguished alumni include Leona Lewis, the Kooks, and a certain Ms. Winehouse (heard of her lately, anyone?). We travelled to Croydon, the UK’s latest hotbed of performing talent to cast the part of Sara in our version of Kate Modern – regularly updated dramatic 'vlogs' - based on Melvin Burgess’ latest novel Sara’s Face.
Melvin is rightly known as the Godfather of Teen Fiction, and he first soared to fame himself in 1997 on publication of the hugely controversial Junk. Since then, his books have never shied away from combining difficult issues with fantastic storytelling.
Sara’s Face (out in Penguin paperback at the end of Jan) focuses on celebrity, image, and cosmetic surgery. Lead character Sara is 17, gorgeous and desperate for fame. The story is told partly through transcripts of her vidlogs, and it’s these, along with some new and exclusive material from Melvin, that we’re going to be shooting and releasing as ‘webisodes’ on Penguin’s teen site Spinebreakers.co.uk early next year.
Coming over all Simon Cowell wasn’t necessary, as the actresses who turned up to the auditions were seriously talented. Still, they had a difficult task. The clips need to feel entirely natural and Sara, who’s beautiful, manipulative and damaged runs the gamut of emotions from ecstasy to horror. The director reckoned these girls’ abilities easily surpassed those of the groups he gets sent when he’s casting with big TV stations. Each girl brought her own interpretation to the role and any one of three particularly talented auditionees could land the part. It’s time to roll back the tapes and watch them back to find out who’ll be lucky.
As well as the videos, spinebreakers will be hosting a vlogging competition. Entrants can upload their own rants on the subject of beauty, and how far they’d go to get it onto the site from early next year to win state of the art video recording equipment.
The eight professionally shot and acted videos based on Sara’s Face will be broadcast on spinebreakers in January. Don’t forget to watch them. In fact, remember remember remember remember remember.
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Last night saw the launch of Spinebreakers, Penguin's brand new community site for teenagers. In internal meetings, at publishing industry conferences and on this blog we've long wrung our hands over the young readers we lose to video games, youtube and myspace and finally some of the folks here have tried to do something about it.
Over the last 9 months a hardworking team from Penguin and an equally hardworking panel of teenagers have been discussing, shaping and finetuning the Spinebreakers site. From the look and feel, to the colours, to the content itself, the teen panel have been involved in every stage of what was sometimes an ardous process. Authors have been interviewed (by teenagers), vodcasts and podcasts recorded and uploaded (by teenagers), alternative endings written and alternative covers drawn (by, yes you guessed it, teenagers).
As you can probably tell, Spinebreakers will be a hugely interactive site - teenagers everywhere are encouraged to send in audio, video, writing, alternative covers and basically just get involved. We know that internet users, and teenagers in particular, are not content to be passive consumers of content, they want to get on with it and actively create stuff and Spinebreakers will be a place where book related content in all formats will be welcomed, displayed and shared. If you are a creative teenager interested in books, or know one, get stuck in and pass on the link.
I think it is a hugely exciting project and I can't wait to see how it evolves. Congratulations to the Spinebreakers Crew and everyone involved in this.
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This morning Penguin announced the launch of www.spinebreakers.co.uk, a booklovers community website, revolutionary in the UK publishing world because it’s the first site that’s not just for teenagers … it’s by them too.
Yes (gulp), it’s true. We’ve realised that as much as many of us may still think we’re the voice of edgy youth, it’s been many a year (many a decade for most of us if we’re frank) since we actually were teenagers, so who are we to write a teen website? Rather than look like dancing dads, we’ve handed control over to a crack teen-team, who will get to interview authors, read and review books, design their own jackets and, crucially, editorially manage the website, including making decisions around all the user-generated content we’ll be encouraging from the online community and even deciding what the URL should be (that took some time and many, many hours of teen debate, believe me!).
So, after many months of working on the idea, it’s finally out there and set to launch in September. What do you think? Any teens out there who want to get involved? Drop me a mail.
Anna Rafferty – Penguin Digital Marketing Director
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