Monique Roffey has been awarded the Costa Book of the Year and Costa Novel Award for her sixth novel The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story, published by Peepal Tree.

The award is given to new bookshops based on their sales.

Congratulations are in order to Darling Reads and Maldon Books for winning the National Book Tokens Newcomer of the Year.

Reading Roots’ owner, Keira Andrews, has created a crowdfund to donate books to children who receive free school meals to provide them with a way of escapism from lockdown and home-schooling.

The festival will include online events but, if Covid-19 restrictions allow it, will also run some socially-distanced events.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival will run from the 14 th to the 30 th of August at Edinburgh College of Art.

After the reschedule of the London Book Fair and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, publishers and literary agencies have decided to run their own online rights fairs: Hachette (March), Pan Macmillan (March and April), Aitken Alexander (second half of March), PFD (8 th-12 th March) and RCW (mid-late March).

The events to celebrate World Book Day (4 th March) will start today, 1 st February ( Find out more.).

Find out more about the scheduled events here.

The Stanfords Travel Writers Festival will take place online from the 28 th January to 4 th February.

While pre-school and primary resources are soaring, secondary textbooks and resources have reported lower sales. Education publishers are experiencing odd times after the Secretary of State for Education has confirmed that students won’t take GCSE, AS and A-Levels.ON (GENERAL) PUBLISHING, BOOKSHOPS & FAIRS Profile Books has reported a 7% growth in its sales compared to last year’s sales.

The Drowing Day by Anne Cassidy