Pocket Canons
Praise for a new L1 pocket series that offers bloodthirsty history and fiction, philosophy, passionate love p try and law. That perennial bestseller the Bible has been cleverly repackaged by the small Scottish publisher Canongate, which is marketing the Authorised King James version as a series of masterpieces of English literature. Each book is introduced by a modern writer more concerned with the beauty of the language than its religious significance. The choices include Louis de Bernieres and Job, Doris Lessing and Ecclesiastes, A.S. Byatt and the Song of Solomon. Despite a threat by one fanatical bookseller to prosecute for blasphemy, the format looks likely to make many converts to writing that has shaped and formed the English language.

Drama Buyout
American Michael Earley now heads one of Britain's most prestigious drama lists as publishing director of Methuen Drama, which has freed itself from Random House with a management buyout financed by venture capital and cricketing publisher John Wisden. Together with managing director Peter Tummons and a staff of seven, Earley is planning to continue publishing new plays with the support of a backlist that includes Arthur Miller, Bertold Brecht, Caryl Churchill and Peter Brook. Current turnover for the list, which also includes Monty Python and Fawlty Towers titles, is around L2 million, and Earley is aiming to push this up to around L5 million. He is currently looking for a new U.S. distributor, and plans to commission more titles of U.S. interest.

Into the Darkness
The most touching book of the autumn is likely to be Iris: A Memoir, a moving account by noted critic John Bayley of his life with his wife, novelist and philosopher Irish Murdoch, who developed Alzheimer's disease four years ago. The book was suggested to Bayley by his U.S. editor, Bob Weil of St. Martin's Press, but it will not be published in the U.S. until early next year. Meanwhile, British publisher Duckworth is benefiting from serialization in the Times, which has already resulted in sales of 10,000 copies.

A Boost for New Writing
The latest solution to the problem of how to get off the ground as a new writer is to join the Citron Press Book Club. Launched this autumn by Nikki and Steve Connors, after Nikki couldn't find a publisher for a children's story she had written, the press has already been inundated with manuscripts from budding authors, who, if chosen, pay L400 to have their work transformed into a stylish paperback that is offered to members of the club for L5.99. Costs are kept low by the ability to print on demand, and the aim is to promote writers whose work d sn't fit into the increasingly rigid tastes of mainstream publishers.

What Price Tradition?Heffers bookstore is to generations of Cambridge students what Blackwells is to Oxford, but things are about to change. Chairman Nicholas Heffer -- the only member of the family working in the firm, which was founded by his great-grandfather in 1876 -- has announced that the store, one of Britain's largest independent booksellers, is up for sale. Heffers has 10 branches, including the world-famous flagship in Trinity Street, and a turnover of L20.6 million. They are looking for a buyer who will appreciate the history and reputation of the company. Blackwells is an obvious suitor, but the HMV Media Group, which owns Waterstones and Dillons, might well be interested. And there is always Borders....

What's Selling
Home-grown authors Maeve Binchy, Dick Francis and Sebastian Faulks head the hardcover fiction bestsellers, while a trio of tough sportsmen, two footballers and a boxer, are scoring on the nonfiction side. Fourth Estate seem to know how to market something more serious: its Longitude is still in the paperback top 10, while David Ewing Duncan's The Calendar, a topical history for the millennium, reached number two on the hardback list. Envious originating publisher Bard is hoping it will also take off in the U.S.