David Maybury | Blog

Plenty of links to catch up on after a festive and fun-filled weekend - thanks to the Bookish Brunette and friends.

From the papers last weekend:

Geraldine Brennan rounds up her teenage reads in the Guardian - featuring Malorie Blackman, Anna Godbersen and Jean-Claude Mourlevat.

John Mullan, sticking with the Guardian, reviews JK Rowling’s Tales of Beedle the Bard:

Throats are cut and hearts removed from bodies in Rowling’s tales, but they manage nothing as blithely cruel as the best fairy tales.

Frances Wilson gives Beedle a similar run down in the Sunday Times:

It is hard to imagine how readers who do not know the Harry Potter books would respond to the clubbish feel of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, but Potter fans will not be disappointed. The book is refreshingly original, given how derivative Rowling can be, and surprisingly satisfying

Donald Clarke in the Irish Times has a chat with Robert Pattinson - famous for his role as Cederic Diggory in Harry Potter and known to teenage girls everywhere as Edward Cullen, teenage vampire.

The Sunday Business Post has another round-up of what to read - with the critics choice at the bottom, including Diana Wynne Jones, Astrid Lindgren, LM Montgomery and more Astrid Lindgren.

Nicola Smyth in the Independent on Sunday (UK) has a run down of picture books - wishing you a hairy Christmas.

On the Guardian blogs: Julia Eccleshare lists her choice of gift books this year - including Kate Thompson’s Highway Robbery - and Henry Porter bemoans the changes made to the new Oxford Junior Dictionary.

And to finish up - Nicholas Barber reviews InkHeart in the Independent (UK)

The tangled story boils down to Fraser and co running around a crumbling Italian mountain village, being captured and escaping at regular intervals. But as an energetic family adventure, replete with monsters, magic and dotty grown-ups – chiefly Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent – Inkheart beats both The Golden Compass and Prince Narnia. Children peeved by the postponement of the next Harry Potter film could do a lot worse.