International community greets news of former London mayor’s big appointment with a mixture of fear, bemusement and panic
The Guardian
Thursday 14 July 2016
Bonnie Malkin, Philip Oltermann in Berlin and Tom Phillips in Beijing
Photograph: Lauren Hurley/PA
The world of politics, diplomacy and celebrity has reacted with a mixture of amusement and horror to the news that Boris Johnson has been appointed Britain’s new foreign secretary.
Johnson himself said he was “excited” to take up the new role , which will involve travelling the globe, meeting foreign leaders and representing Britain on the international stage.
However, his track record when it comes to interacting with other cultures is patchy to say the least, and politicians around the world will no doubt be intrigued by the prospect of working with a man who once wrote a poem about the Turkish president having sex with a goat.
In the US, the official reaction was one of carefully restrained laughter.
CUMNOCK Chronicle editor-turned crime author Douglas Skelton will be rubbing shoulders with the elite of Scottish writers as a contender for a top award.
He is one of 10 authors who have made the final candidates for Scottish Crime Book of the Year, a list chosen by an independent panel of readers, for his book Open Wounds.
Among the competition are illustrious names such as Stuart MacBride, Val McDermid and Chris Brookmyre.
Published June 17, 2016 by Katherine Cowdrey – The Bookseller
The Dead Good Reader Awards shortlists have been announced, featuring Val McDermid, Lee Child and Peter James along with Robert Galbraith, C L Taylor and Stuart MacBride.
The six awards, created in collaboration with the Dead Good community to celebrate “unique elements” in crime writing, are nominated and voted for by readers that will be presented at the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate in July.
Up for The Dead Good Recommends Award for Most Recommended Book is Career of Evil (Little, Brown), the third novel by J K Rowling’s pseudonym “Robert Galbraith”; Die of Shame (Little, Brown) by Mark Billingham, also a recent finalist for the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library; psychological thriller In Her Wake (Orenda) by Amanda Jennings; The Missing (Avon) by C L Taylor, described by Fiona Barton to have “an agonising twist”; Tastes Like Fear (Headline) by former bookseller Sarah Hilary who won Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year 2015; and debut Untouchable Things (Legend Press) by Tara Guha, which was authored on the 2014 Luke Bitmead Bursary.
The Tess Gerritsen Award for Best Series shortlists the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child, who recently confirmed he would be continuing the series under a new contract with Transworld to fans’ delight, and the Roy Grace series by Peter James, who is on his 11th novel in the series Want You Dead (Macmillan). Also shortlisted are Sarah Hilary’s Marnie Rome (Headline), Stuart MacBride’s Logan McRae (HarperCollins), Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway (Quercus) and Marnie Riches’ George Mackenzie (Maze) series.
