Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power, the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his campaign for dominance is the One Ring, the ring that rules them all, which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. In a peaceful village in the Shire, Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense duty, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his custody. Frodo must depart from his home and make a hazardous journey across ... read more

JK Rowling looks set to be honoured by the city of Edinburgh for her contributions to literature. The fantasy author’s handprints will be immortalised in the quadrangle outside the City Chambers and she will also receive a special award due to the honour that her achievements have brought the Scottish city. Edinburgh hopes that this will lead to an increase in tourism with tourists visiting the city where her phenomenally successful Harry Potter series was started and finished. The ... read more

In the US, fantasy author Terry Goodkind is moving from Tor Books to Putnam. Ivan Held, the president of Putnam acquired the US hardcover and paperback rights in a joint venture with Berkley Books - Berkley will publish the paperbacks, Putnam the hardcover. Goodkind had been with Tor Books for almost 15 years, a period of time in which approximately 25 million copies of his books were sold worldwide. Confessor, the final chapter in the Sword of Truth series was published in November and this ... read more

Guillermo del Toro, the director of the planned two-film adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit, says thay he will try his uptmost to remain faithful to the spirit of the work. In an interview with SciFi Wire, del Toro said “I’m trying to be faithful. I’m trying to re-create on the screen the feeling I had when I was 11 in my bed reading the book. How excited I got. How great I thought it was. That’s what I’m trying to honor.” del Toro also went onto ... read more

Three signed, first-edition copies of books by CS Lewis are expected to fetch up to £3,000 each at an auction that will be held next month. The three books, all signed by CS Lewis, are The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle. The books are being sold by American Walter McGehee Hopper, who was a friend to and private secretary to CS Lewis. The proceeds from the auction will go to the Roman Catholic church in Oxford where CS Lewis worked and spent much of his ... read more

There is a website called Takatok.com that allows toddlers and tweens to write, illustrate and publish their own stories. Sharon Kan and partner Orit Zuckerman, both mothers of two, launched the site in March 2008. Membership to the web site is currently growing at more than 300% a month. Adora Svitak is ten years old, a Tikatok member, and an internationally published author. Her first book, Flying Fingers, was written and published when she was only seven years old. She will be helping ... read more

Whilst many of you will be aware that there is to be a big screen production of the best-selling book by Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell no one seems to know when it’s eventually going to happen! New Line Cinema/Warner Bros. are in charge of bringing what now appears to be two films to the screen but have been beset with delays. They are now hopefully due to go into production in 2009. The screenplay for both films has been written by Clarke and Julien Fellows ... read more

Garth Nix has announced that there are to be a further two titles in the Abhorsen series due out in 2010 and 2011 respectively. First will be Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, set some three centuries before Sabriel it tells the story of a young women who eventually becomes known as Chlorr of the Mask. The second book will be a sequel to Abhorsen and will be set several years after then end of events in that book. If you can’t wait that long for a new Garth Nix fix then breath easy, Nix has ... read more

The next release from prolific writer Terry Pratchett comes to us on 11th September this year and is the eagerly awaited young adults, non-Discworld book Nation. Set on a remote tropical island recently hit by a Tsunami, it throws together several characters from very different walks of life  who find themselves stranded together tackling topics such as culture, religion, reality and sex. Whilst there are very real and serious issues in this book  there is also plenty of humour, not least ... read more

  Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, authors of Tunnels and its sequel Deeper, will be making appearances this summer at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 22nd August and the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature on 28th September. Since Tunnels re-release in 2007 (originally released in 2005 under the title of The Highfield Mole) it has become the second in the children’s book charts in France, the number one seller in Romania and a New York Times ... read more