Further reports on the demise of ebooks: teenagers don’t like them, Waterstones is no longer selling them and printing company Clays is reporting stabilisation in the demand for printed books . Is it because of some dire self-published books? ‘The Bookshop is Back’ according to a very uplifting talk given by Foyles’ Sion Hamilton, a view supported by research from Nielsen.

Han Kang’s The Vegetarian won this year’s Man Booker International prize and Max Porter won the Dylan Thomas Prize for young writers with his debut book Grief is the Thing with Feathers. Theakston’s Old Peculier crime novel shortlist has also been announced. And surely the best book prize ever - the winners of the Wodehouse Prize will receive a pig and quite a lot of Champagne.

Amazon has started delivering fresh food across the UK, and Jeff Bezos has confirmed that the online retailer plans to open more physical stores, though he did not put a figure on how many new outlets are to come. In the US, Amazon’s Good Reads recommendation site is offering personalised ebook discounts.

Children brought up surrounded by books are higher-earners in adulthood. Aspiring millionaires could start with The Roald Dahl Dictionary, Penguin’s bite-size classics or a YA version of the Da Vinci Code. And for babies and toddlers, ‘Super Nanny’ Jo Frost is heading up Book Trust’s Bath, Book, Bed Campaign. Will Simon Cowell’s non-boring offering become required bedtime reading?

Stephen Barr, President of SAGE International, has been elected as the new President of The Publishers Association. He takes over at a time when UK publishing is in good health. Although the picture in libraries is less rosy with usage falling; Stephen Fry and others are appearing in a cinema documentary to highlight their history (libraries, not Fry et al) and call for cuts to the service to be halted.

WHS has opened 3 new shops at Malta Airport. The first Bailys pop-up Book Bar, in Waterstones Tottenham Court Road, was a resounding success. UK and Irish Indies recently celebrated the James Patterson Grants with James Paterson himself, before
he was awarded the BA’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Book Trade at
the British Book Industry Awards.

The BBC and its partners (the BA is one) have given details of the #LovetoRead campaign in the summer and autumn. You’ll be hearing more from us about this….

Floella Benjamin suggests that booksellers are not giving proper prominence to BAME titles in their shops.

Apparently adult colouring books are not a recent phenomenon. Obviously in 1612, VAT was less of an issue.