It is 30 years since the artist Kit Williams ventured out into the night to bury his golden hare in a park in Bedfordshire.

In a week in which the Vatican made its peace with that dangerous consorter with witches Harry Potter, the Holy See has also revealed an unexpected soft spot for Oscar Wilde.

Frank McCourt, author of best-seller Angela's Ashes, has died of cancer in a New York hospice.

HIT Entertainment has cut one in five jobs in an attempt to avoid breaching its banking covenants this September.

The New York retailer, which earlier this year eliminated nearly 100 corporate jobs because of the faltering economy, said Friday it has brought its small in-house publishing operations under its Sterling Publishing unit and laid off a "handful" of employees.

More than 200 publishers and distributors have listed their books in the Frontlist Plus Universal database, the online titl-management tool developed by the National Association of Independent Publishers Reps. Among those participating beginning with the fall list are all publishers

A webinar is planned for July 29 at 2 p.m. (EST), to discuss what the Google Library Project Settlement means for publishers and authors. The panel will feature four people who were involved in crafting the agreement: Richard Sarnoff, co-chair,

After selling nearly 10m copies of Life of Pi since winning the Booker prize in 2002, its author Yann Martel has finally concluded a deal for a new book to be published worldwide next year.

In separate announcements, a coalition of four university presses have received a planning grant to study the feasibility of a collaborative scholarly e-book program, and the University of Chicago Press announced a multi-faceted program to make 700 e-books available immediately.