Joe Allstons diary

By Joe Allston Published: 4:19PM GMT 08 March 2010

* Lee Childs publisher, Transworld, rumoured this week that the thriller-writer competence have killed off his hero, Jack Reacher, in his stirring novel, 61 Hours. This came as a bit of a shock to Childs editor at Transworld, who has paid for 4 some-more novels featuring Reacher, but small warn to Ian Rankin on Twitter, who thought the answer to the gossip was probably: no.

* Ever given his editor left Century for Hodder, insiders have wondered either John Grisham competence follow. So it was small warn this week to see Grisham pointer up for a array of books with Hodder. More startling is that it is a childrens array featuring Theodore Boone, a teen "who knows some-more about the law than majority lawyers do". Grishams common publisher, Century, pronounced the array "would interest to young kids via the world" that doesnt just answer the subject because did he select to pointer with an additional publisher.

Literary Life Why Ive had sufficient well read sex Bridget Jones supplement in the functions Thrillers: examination Iranian media hoodwinked by Barack Obama Blackberry anything forged

* After the success of Victoria Hislops The Return, hope for for a slew of novels about the Spanish Civil War but by Spaniards. Javier Cercass Soldiers of Salamis and Javier Maríass Your Face Tomorrow are assimilated by Manuel Rivass Books Burn Badly and Almudena Grandess The Frozen Heart, that has sole some-more than 350,000 copies in Spain.

* The prime for the Diagram Prize awarded annually by The Bookseller for the oddest pretension of the year wouldnt go to Collectable Spoons of the Third Reich or What Kind of Bean is this Chihuahua? or Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter. The prime is Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes.

* Fact of the week: in 2002 the normal cost of a book was �7.80 and currently it is �7.20. Now we know because edition is in a bit of a tizz.