Good Friday the 13th News

Friday 13th seems to have created some interesting pieces in the news.

For instance, take the report in the British Medical Journal on James Bond who they label as "an impotent drunk". Doctors analysing the Ian Fleming novels show James Bond polishes off the equivalent of one and a half bottles of wine every day.

Would you trust him with a Walther PPK? Shurley not?

We also have our dear P.D. James (oh, just spotted a little segue) commenting in The Spectator on "Who Killed the Golden Age of Crime?" She remembers the gentlemanly world of Albert Campion and Lord Peter Wimsey. Which also ties in very nicely with the publication of THE LATE SCHOLAR by Jill Paton Walsh.

The Reading Room is less than a tenth the size of the leading books-focused social networking site, Goodreads, but it has something its largest competitor currently lacks: An ebook store and an e-reading app. Sydney-based The Reading Room will be announcing this week that it sells ebooks out of a catalog of nearly half-a-million titles from more than 180 publishers, including “all of the majors,” according to the press release.

BBC National Short Story Award 2014 in partnership With Booktrust is now open for submissions. So dust off that old mannuscript and get started. You've only got until 28th February 2014 to enter.