A childhood love of Melville's Moby-Dick led to a lifetime passion for whales which, in turn, resulted in the writer Philip Hoare tonight being named winner of the UK's most important prize for non-fiction books.

Tower Books warehouse, based in Sydney, is due to close this month. Tower Books is a division of the Scribo Group, which was purchased by Gordon & Gotch last year

HMV's extreme makeover seems to be working. It has certainly made the company's bottom line more attractive - something few thought possible when Simon Fox launched his three-year restructuring plan in 2007 - and it has reduced doubts about the

Penguin Books has launched the first standalone premium site for its Puffin children's imprint. We Make Stories is an interactive story-making site intended to encourage creativity and literacy among children.

Bloomsbury is to buy academic and professional publisher Tottel for £9.96 mln cash. The acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing.

Michael J. Ross writes "Of all the potential challengers to Apple's phenomenally popular iPhone, perhaps the one with the best prospects is Google's Android, which is not a mobile phone per se, but rather an open-source platform that the company