Queen’s 'despair' over Charles's split from Diana and love for Camilla revealed

[ via Mail Online ] 7 Jan

A new biography of the Queen reveals for the first time her despair over the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and the Monarch’s fears that  her eldest son was about to ‘throw  everything away’.

Queen was afraid of a repetition of Royal History in love

The Archbishop reveals the Queen was terrified that history was about to repeat itself – that Prince Charles would give up his place in the line of succession for Camilla, just as King Edward VIII gave up the throne in 1936 to marry his mistress, Wallis Simpson.

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Charlotte Bronte Manuscript 'The Young Men's Magazine, Number 2' Sells For A Record $1.1 Million

[ via Huffington Post ] 15 Dec

An unpublished Charlotte Bronte manuscript has sold for a record 690,850 pounds ($1.1 million) at auction, more than double the expected price, Sotheby's auction house said Thursday.

The Manuscript "The Young Man's Magazine" (L) - Charlotte Bronte portrait (R)

The Young Men's Magazine, Number 2, was written in 1830 – when the author was 14, 17 years before she wrote "Jane Eyre." It is set in Glass Town, the earliest fictional world created by the Bronte siblings.

Sotheby's had predicted the manuscript would sell for between 200,000 and 300,000 pounds, but said Thursday the final sale price set new auction records for Bronte and for a literary work by any of the Bronte sisters.

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Steve Jobs Bio: Amazon’s Best-Selling Book of the Year

[ Mashable ] 6 Dec

Walter Isaacson’s bio of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs topped Amazon’s list of the top-selling books of 2011, though the title is still number three for best-selling Kindle titles.

Nielsen BookScan had reported that Steve Jobssold 379,000 copies in its first week of release. With 25 days left this year, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the best-selling Kindle book. Number two isThe Litigators by John Grisham.

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Renowned poet Ruth Stone dies at 96

Full Story: BBC Entertainment and Arts

Renowned poet Ruth Stone dies in Vermont at 96. She made her maiden debut in 1959, the year her husband poet Walter Stone committed suicide.

Ruth Stone dies at 96 (Photo AP)

She had been honoured by National Book Critics Circle award, two Guggenheim Fellowships and a Whiting Award. She was named as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2009 for What Love Comes To.

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Read an Excerpt of an Unseen Miss Marple Story by Agatha Christie

Full Story: Huffington Post 21 Nov

Out this week, "Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making" is the second volume compiled from Agatha Christie's notes and letters based on 73 unpublished notebooks. 

Below, is the opening of an excerpt from a previously unseen Miss Marple story, introduced by the book's editor, John Curran. 

Miss Marple looked at her curiously.
Clarice Vane had recently come to live with her Uncle, Dr. Haydock. She was a tall dark girl, handsome, warm hearted and impulsive. Her big brown eyes were alight now with indignation.
She said: "All these cats – saying things – hinting things!"
Miss Marple asked: "About Harry Laxton?"
"Yes, about his old affair with the tobacconist’s daughter."

For the remaining excerpt, click Here

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Dracula Author's Journal Found

Full Story: CNN

The horror movies of Dracula still wander in the memories of many who saw these now-not-very-dreadful-horror-movies in 60s. Now, if not the movie, but something related to the Draculaen writer Bram Stoker has been found to revive the blood-sucking character. 

It is Stoker's Journal, that had been lying on his great-grandson's bookshelf in England for a long time, before it was discovered lately. The report says, "The Journal is full of notes that would inform Stoker's legendary novel "Dracula" and other stories." 

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"Anonymous" Reveals Shakespeare Wasn't the Actual Writer

Full Story: VOA October 29, 2011

While William Shakespeare remains the undoubted literary king of the English drama, there have been some doubts whether he really wrote what is attributed to him? The debate has gone on and on for centuries, but with no definite answer to the alleged mystery.

Now filmmaker Roland Emmerich rekindles the debate in his film "Anonymous."  The movie is based on a theory that emerged about a century ago. It claims that William Shakespeare could not have written the literary works attributed to him because he had neither the education nor the worldliness reflected in the manuscripts. 

Read full story for more and a video clip from the movie

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