Tag: books
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Harry Potter original book cover art set to auction for record-breaking sum | Books | Entertainment
[ad_1] Back in the mid-1990s JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was rejected by no less than 12 publishers before being accepted by Bloomsbury. The book, which became the fourth best-selling novel of all time, had its original cover art painted by 23-year-old Thomas Taylor, who was fresh out of art school. And…
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The incredible story of a 14th century Great Escape from the Tower of London | Books | Entertainment
[ad_1] The Tower of London was a prison until the 1950s (Image: Rudy Sulgan/Getty) The mass escape of Allied airmen from a German prisoner of war camp remains one of history’s most famous jail-breaks. Stalag Luft III was designed to be escape-proof but PoWs, using impressive ingenuity to remain undetected, dug a tunnel, then crawled…
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Harry Potter official new book announced for Christmas 2024 release | Books | Entertainment
[ad_1] The Harry Potter main novel series may be over, but that doesn’t mean that’s the end of official books set in JK Rowling’s Wizarding World. Following last year’s Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac comes Christmas at Hogwarts. Unveiled today by Bloomsbury and Scholastic, the festive illustrated book focuses on Harry’s first stay at the wizarding…
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Fake aristocrat who hoodwinked the Nazis | Books | Entertainment
[ad_1] The Majdanek death camp (Image: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Amid the barbed wire, gas chambers and shooting pits of the horrific Majdanek concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, Countess Janina Suchodolska was a surprising yet frequent visitor in 1942. A pretty brunette with blue-green eyes, an aristocratic air and the authority derived from…
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The woman who saved Morris Dancing from extinction | Books | Entertainment
[ad_1] Morris dancers, a quintessentially English tradition (Image: In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images) A sun-dappled village fair. Children gaily spinning around a maypole. Cricketers on the village green. Few things evoke the splendour and tradition of an English summer so perfectly. And then come the Morris dancers, a quintessentially English tradition, as much mocked…
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Library delighted as book returns 44 years late | Books | Entertainment
[ad_1] Staff at Manningtree, Essex were delighted when Great Prime Ministers by John Whittle was handed in by relatives of the borrower who took it out on June 30 1979. The UK has since had 10 Premiers – and current PM Rishi Sunak was not even born then. Essex Library Service said: “Staff at Manningtree…