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Tag: Books and literature

  • Children’s author David Walliams denies inappropriate behavior after publisher drops him

    LONDON — British children’s author and comedian David Walliams has denied allegations of inappropriate behavior after publisher HarperCollins dropped him.

    Walliams, 54, is one of the U.K.’s bestselling children’s book authors and a former judge on the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent.”

    In a statement on Friday, HarperCollins said: “After careful consideration, and under the leadership of its new CEO, HarperCollins UK has decided not to publish any new titles by David Walliams. The author is aware of this decision.”

    A spokesperson for Walliams said in a statement that he “has never been informed of any allegations raised against him by HarperCollins.”

    “He was not party to any investigation or given any opportunity to answer questions. David strongly denies that he has behaved inappropriately and is taking legal advice,” the statement said.

    The publisher said it would not comment on internal matters, “to respect the privacy of individuals.”

    “HarperCollins takes employee wellbeing extremely seriously and has processes in place for reporting and investigating concerns,” it said.

    Walliams has published over 40 children’s books and sold more than 60 million copies worldwide, according to his website. Several of them, including “Gangsta Granny,” have been adapted into a BBC comedy dramas and stage productions.

    Walliams left his role as judge on “Britain’s Got Talent” in 2022 after apologizing for making “disrespectful comments” about auditioning contestants.

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  • Try This Quiz and See How Much You Know About Jane Austen

    “Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.

    The New York Times Books Staff

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  • Bestselling British writer Joanna Trollope dies at 82

    LONDON (AP) — British writer Joanna Trollope, whose bestselling novels charted domestic and romantic travails in well-heeled rural England, has died, her family said Friday. She was 82.

    Trollope’s daughters, Antonia and Louise, said the writer died peacefully at her home in Oxfordshire, southern England, on Thursday.

    Trollope wrote almost two dozen contemporary novels, including “The Rector’s Wife,” “Marrying the Mistress,” “Other People’s Children” and “Next of Kin.” They were often dubbed “Aga sagas,” after the old-fashioned Aga ovens found in affluent country homes.

    Trollope disliked the term, noting that her books tackled uncomfortable subjects including infidelity, marital breakdown and the challenges of parenting.

    “That was a very unfortunate phrase and I think it’s done me a lot of damage,” she once said. “It was so patronizing to the readers, too.”

    Trollope’s most recent novel, “Mum & Dad,” examined the “sandwich generation” of middle-aged people looking after both children and elderly parents.

    Trollope also published 10 historical novels under the pseudonym Caroline Harvey.

    Trollope, a distant relative of Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, was born in Minchinhampton in the west of England in 1943. She studied English at Oxford University, then worked in Britain’s Foreign Office and as a teacher before becoming a full-time writer in 1980. She became a household name after “The Rector’s Wife” was adapted for television in 1991.

    Trollope’s novel “Parson Harding’s Daughter” won a novel of the year award from the Romantic Novelists’ Association in 1980. In 2010, the association gave her a lifetime achievement award for services to romance.

    In 2019, she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, by Queen Elizabeth II.

    Her literary agent, James Gill, called Trollope “one of our most cherished, acclaimed and widely enjoyed novelists.

    “Joanna will be mourned by her children, grandchildren, family, her countless friends and — of course — her readers,” Gill said.

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  • Bestselling British writer Joanna Trollope dies at 82

    British writer Joanna Trollope, known for her bestselling novels about romantic escapades in rural England, has died at 82

    LONDON — British writer Joanna Trollope, whose bestselling novels charted domestic and romantic travails in well-heeled rural England, has died, her family said Friday. She was 82.

    Trollope’s daughters, Antonia and Louise, said the writer died peacefully at her home in Oxfordshire, southern England, on Thursday.

    Trollope wrote almost two dozen contemporary novels, including “The Rector’s Wife,” “Marrying the Mistress” and “Next of Kin.” They were often dubbed “Aga sagas,” after the old-fashioned Aga ovens found in affluent country homes.

    Trollope disliked the term, noting that her books tackled uncomfortable subjects including infidelity, marital breakdown and the challenges of parenting.

    “That was a very unfortunate phrase and I think it’s done me a lot of damage,” she once said. “It was so patronizing to the readers, too.”

    Trollope also published 10 historical novels under the pseudonym Caroline Harvey.

    In 2019, she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, by Queen Elizabeth II.

    Her literary agent, James Gill, called Trollope “one of our most cherished, acclaimed and widely enjoyed novelists.

    “Joanna will be mourned by her children, grandchildren, family, her countless friends and — of course — her readers,” Gill said.

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  • 5 notable books by author Sophie Kinsella, who died at age 55

    Sophie Kinsella, who has died at age 55, had a special talent for characters who persevered through the most embarrassing mishaps — often of their own making.

    Here are five novels that helped keep readers laughing, and relating, over the past 30 years.

    “The Tennis Party” (1995)

    Fellow writers could only envy Kinsella’s success, how early it came and how seemingly easy. As the author would remember, she was a 24-year-old financial journalist who, while commuting by train one day, thought to herself, “I want to have a go at this, I want to write a book.” Within two years, she was the bestselling author of “The Tennis Party,” under her real name, Madeleine Wickham.

    Released in the U.S. as “40 Love,” her debut novel centered on the misadventures of a weekend tennis party and introduced readers to her conversational touch about everything from love to money to … tennis.

    “They all have a lot of baggage,” the author explained on her website. “They sleep with each other, they behave very badly, drink a lot of Pimms, thrash tennis balls around, and things come to a head quite intensely.”

    “The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic” (2000)

    She published her first several books as Wickham, before becoming a global brand as “Sophie Kinsella.” Spurred by this first “Shopaholic” novel, millions would cheer on the hopelessly indebted financial journalist Becky Bloomwood, who helps keep the economy turning with her “investments” in clothing, household and other products.

    Among the most cherished fantasies in her dreamworld: that some “dotty old woman in Cornwall” will mistakenly receive her “humongous” credit card bill and pay if off without checking the name. Becky, meanwhile, will be sent the woman’s bill for three tins of cat food, “which, naturally, I’ll pay without question.”

    The 2009 film “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” based on the first two of Kinsella’s nine-novel series, starred Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy.

    “Can You Keep a Secret?” (2003)

    As Kinsella, the novelist had a mission to get her characters in trouble. Emma Corrigan has a proper job as a marketing assistant and a proper and “heartbreakingly handsome” boyfriend. She is also prone to panic and distraction, to going about in public with her blouse unbuttoned or unleashing a spurt of soda on a client’s shirt. And she has a few secrets she would like to hold on to, whether it’s pouring orange juice on the plant of a colleague who annoys her or how she sometimes holds back laughter while having sex — “just normal, everyday little secrets.”

    This book was adapted into a 2019 movie starring Alexandra Daddario and Tyler Hoechlin.

    “The Undomestic Goddess”

    (2005)

    Her alliteratively named characters were ever fish out of water, sometimes on the driest land. Samantha Sweeting is a London lawyer who can’t take it anymore, boards a train to the countryside and finds herself working as a housekeeper, for which she has no known skills.

    “I had so much fun charting Samantha’s comedy disasters in the kitchen, her battles with the ironing board, her gradual slowing down and relaxing and finding love,” the author writes on her website. “It’s a story of an uber-professional realizing there’s more to life than work, and starting to appreciate the little things.”

    “Twenties Girl” (2009)

    Just your typical supernatural adventure, in which 27-year-old Lara Lington is visited by the ghost of her flapper-great aunt Sadie and sent off to retrieve Sadie’s long-lost necklace. Subplots include Lara being dumped by her boyfriend and Lara wondering if she can succeed in business as a headhunter.

    She also lies a lot, to her parents. Yes, her work is going great. Yes, she loved their Christmas gift. No, she doesn’t just subsist on pizza and yogurt and vodka. And so on: “Seven lies. Not including all the ones about Mum’s outfit.”

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  • Nobel laureate Han Kang’s first nonfiction book in English to be released next spring

    NEW YORK (AP) — Nobel laureate Han Kang’s first book of nonfiction to come out in English will be released next spring.

    The Korean author’s “Light and Thread” is scheduled to be published March 24 by Penguin Random House imprints in the U.S., the United Kingdom and other English-speaking regions. Published in Korean this year and translated into English by Maya West, e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris, “Light and Thread” includes Han’s Nobel lecture from 2024, along with other writings and photographs.

    “As I arranged the essays, poems, diary entries, and photographs to be included in this book, I imagined all of its spaces — from the first page to the last — enveloped in light,” Han said in a statement released Friday. “I am grateful and glad that this light, imbued into this English translation, continues to encounter readers.”

    Han, the first South Korean to win the Nobel literature prize, is best known for the novel “The Vegetarian,” winner of the International Booker Prize in 2016.

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  • US Santa Barbara selects ‘Crying in H Mart’ for 2026 common book program

    Next year, booklovers at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) will be encouraged to read “Crying in H Mart,” a bestselling memoir about cultural identity and grief, the university announced this week.

    As the university’s community-reading initiative, UCSB Reads, which invites students and faculty to read the same book for discussions every year, has selected “Crying in H Mart” as the 2026 book.

    In “Crying in H Mart,” its author Michelle Zauner (also the frontwoman of the indie pop band Japanese Breakfast) explores grief and losing her Korean mother to terminal cancer. 

    Zauner, a biracial Korean American who grew up in Oregon, stayed connected to her roots through Korean food, especially after her mother’s death. In her New York Times bestselling memoir, Zauner processes her grief by embracing the Korean traditions with the backdrop of Korean grocery chain H Mart.

    Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast at The 16th Governors Awards held at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood on November 16, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)

    “In a series of personal essays, Zauner recounts growing up as one of a few Asian-Americans in her Oregon town and reconnecting with her Korean identity as a young adult,” UCSB Reads said in explaining its 2026 pick. “The book chronicles her coming of age and complex family dynamics, showing how she navigates the profound grief of a parent’s illness and death by embracing the traditions that define her.”

    UCSB Reads 2026 will launch in January, giving away free books to students. Then, readers can attend free and social events to explore the book together throughout the winter and spring quarters. 

    Instructors are also encouraged to incorporate the book into their courses, the university said.  Free copies of the book will be available for students through the university library as well.

    Zauner herself will speak at a free public event at the school in May 2026. 

    Published in 2021, “Crying in H Mart” was a critical and commercial hit as it spent 60 weeks on the New York Times hardcover non-fiction bestseller list and was named a top book by TIME and the Atlantic. 

    Helen Jeong

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  • Rick Atkinson’s Revolutionary War trilogy to be adapted into graphic editions

    Military historian Rick Atkinson, known for his Revolutionary War trilogy, is venturing into graphic books

    NEW YORK — Prize-winning military historian Rick Atkinson, a comic book fan growing up, hadn’t imagined his own work being suitable for the illustrated format.

    Ten Speed Graphic announced Tuesday that a graphic edition of “The British Are Coming,” the first volume of Atkinson’s acclaimed Revolutionary War trilogy, will be out next June, shortly before the country’s 250th anniversary. Five more graphic books are planned, to be written by Nora Neus and illustrated by Federico Pietrobon, with Atkinson in close collaboration.

    “They are entirely amenable to my suggestions, ‘This isn’t quite right,’ or ‘I think this needs to be explained,’” Atkinson told The Associated Press. “With the drawings, I pointed out that John Adams, at the time the revolution began was a relatively young man. And they had made him look like the paunchy, bald John Adams of the vice presidency. And they fixed it.”

    Atkinson, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his World War II book “An Army at Dawn,” has been working on his revolutionary trilogy for a decade and published the second volume, “The Fate of the Day,” this spring. Widely regarded as among the best living military historians, he was a featured commentator in Ken Burns’ “The American Revolution” documentary and has made numerous joint appearances with the filmmaker. He is currently working on the final book of his trilogy.

    The author says that he was initially skeptical about the new project. With early memories of Superman comics, he wondered how any illustrator might adapt deeply-researched books that run longer than 500 pages. But the graphic format has been used on everything from “The Odyssey” to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. Atkinson changed his mind after Ten Speed Graphic, a Penguin Random House imprint, sent him several adaptations, including of the life of Frederick Douglass and Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny.”

    “I saw that the comic books of my youth have evolved considerably and I was enthused about it,” Atkinson said. “They said, ‘We acknowledge this is serious history that you do. We don’t intend to dumb it down. Our ambition is to widen the audience, to pitch this story of the American founding to an audience that perhaps might be intimidated by a 560 page book.’”

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  • Can You Identify Lines From These Classic Science Fiction Novels?

    Welcome to Literary Quotable Quotes, a quiz that tests your recognition of memorable lines. This week’s installment highlights lines from notable 20th-century science fiction novels. In the five multiple-choice questions below, tap or click on the answer you think is correct. After the last question, you’ll find links to the books if you want to experience the entire work in context.

    J. D. Biersdorfer

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  • Ex-French President Sarkozy to publish prison memoir as appeal looms

    PARIS (AP) — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will publish a book about his recent time behind bars, titled “Diary of a Prisoner,” on Dec. 10, his publisher Fayard announced Friday. The house is part of the media group controlled by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré.

    Sarkozy trailed the release in a post on X, writing that in La Santé prison “the noise is, unfortunately, constant” and that “the inner life of man becomes stronger in prison.” He spent three weeks in detention there this autumn.

    The former head of state, who governed France from 2007 to 2012, was convicted on Sept. 25 of participating in a criminal organization over alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign. He was released pending appeal on Nov. 10, and his appeal against the conviction is scheduled to be heard from March 16 to June 3.

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  • All eyes in publishing are turned to the 76th annual National Book Awards

    NEW YORK (AP) — The 76th National Book Awards will unveil this year’s winners Wednesday night, with novels by Megha Majumdar and Karen Russell, and a memoir by Yiyun Li among the finalists in one of the most high-profile literary events.

    Hundreds of writers, publishers, editors and other industry professionals are expected to gather at Cipriani Wall Street in Manhattan for a dinner ceremony that will include honorary awards for fiction writer George Saunders and author-publisher Roxane Gay. Emmy-winning actor-comedian Jeff Hiller will host, and Grammy winner Corinne Bailey Rae is the musical guest.

    Competitive awards will be announced for five categories — fiction, nonfiction, translated literature, young people’s literature and poetry. Winners will each receive $10,000.

    Nominees range from Majumdar’s futuristic narrative “A Guardian and a Thief” to Russell’s spellbound tale set in 1930s Nebraska, “The Antidote,” to Julia Ioffe’s feminist history, “Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy.” Li is a finalist for “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” her tragic account of the suicides of her two sons.

    The National Book Awards are presented by the nonprofit National Book Foundation. Each competitive category is voted on by judging panels that include writers, booksellers and critics and select winners from hundreds of books submitted by publishers.

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  • How chummy is too chummy? Epstein emails shine light on relationships between journalists, sources

    The emails to and from Jeffrey Epstein released this week shine a light on the delicate relationship between reporters and their sources. And, as can be the case, bright light isn’t always flattering.

    Messages between Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died by suicide in 2019, and journalists Michael Wolff and Landon Thomas Jr. are frequently chummy and, in one case, show Wolff giving Epstein advice on how to deal with the media —- a line journalists are taught not to cross. Wolff specializes in the “you are there” inside accounts that are possible with intensive reporting, though some of his work has been questioned.

    People frequently see journalists in public settings, conducting an interview or asking questions at a news conference. Private phone calls, texts or messages — where reporters try to ingratiate themselves with sources who may not otherwise be inclined to give information — are inherently different. But ethical rules remain and are followed by most in American journalism.

    Wolff’s advice came in a December 2015 exchange, where the writer said he heard CNN was going to ask then-presidential candidate Donald Trump about his relationship with Epstein. If we could craft an answer for him, Epstein wondered, what would it be?

    “I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff replied. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt.”

    Advice on media relations for convicted sex offender

    The exchange left some experts aghast.

    Independence is vital for a journalist, and Wolff compromised it, said Dan Kennedy, a media writer and professor at Northeastern University.

    Kathleen Bartzen Culver’s voice rises in anger just contemplating the example. Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin, said there are plenty of ethical issues to maneuver every day, like whether a reporter should give $20 after interviewing a poor person who lost benefits during the government shutdown.

    “Giving PR advice to a convicted sex offender isn’t one of them,” she said.

    Wolff, a two-time National Magazine Award winner, wrote books like “Fire and Fury,” about the opening days of the first Trump administration, and “The Man Who Owns the News,” a biography of Rupert Murdoch. “Historically, one of the problems with Wolff’s omniscience is that while he may know all, he gets some of it wrong,” the late David Carr of The New York Times wrote in a review of the Murdoch book.

    Wolff, who did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press, admitted on the “Inside Trump’s Head” podcast that some of the email messages were embarrassing. But he said his knowledge of the media offers “the kind of cachet that gives me a place at the table, which has gotten me the Epstein story, if anybody wanted to pay attention.”

    At one point in 2016, Wolff turns the table, seeking counsel from Epstein on what he should ask during an upcoming interview with Trump. That’s a legitimate journalistic exercise, part of the reporting that goes into preparing for an interview.

    A 2016 exchange with Epstein mixed a plea for an interview with some advice: “There’s an opportunity to come forward this week and talk about Trump in such a way that could garner you great sympathy and help finish him off. Interested?”

    Wolff said on the podcast that part of his role is “play-acting” to get sources to reveal things they would not tell other people. And he took on his critics.

    “These are not people that have written the kind of books that I have written,” he said, “and I often make the distinction between journalists who do what they do — daily reporters working for organizations, working within a very prescribed set of rules — and what I do. I’m a writer who manages to make relationships that let me tell a story in the ways that The New York Times or other very reputable journalistic organizations are unable to tell.”

    Author Michael Wolff discusses his latest book on March 14, 2025, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP, File)

    A distinction that not every reader makes

    Not everyone sees the difference when considering works of nonfiction. Culver cited journalism that took courage and skill to report and said, “I find it heartbreaking when that kind of work is sullied by this kind of garbage.”

    Should a journalist act differently in public or private? They’re not supposed to. That explains why Connie Chung had a hard time living down her 1995 exchange with then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s mother. Gingrich initially ducked when Chung asked how her son felt about Hillary Clinton until Chung asked — on camera — “why don’t you just whisper it to me — just between you and me.”

    Many of the exchanges between Epstein and the journalists are chatty, gossipy — seemingly harmless, yet not the sort of things one would like to see published years later. Northeastern’s Kennedy read some of the emails between Wolff and Epstein and said “it just seemed like kibbitzing with a child molester for no apparent purpose.”

    In one email conversation, the former New York Times reporter Thomas mentions that he’s been getting calls from another journalist who is writing a book on Epstein. “He seems very interested in your relationship with the news media,” Thomas wrote. “I told him you were a hell of a guy :).”

    Thomas also didn’t hide his feelings about Trump in one conversation — a personal opinion that most reporters learn to keep to themselves. “I am getting worried,” Thomas wrote in July 2016. “Is he ever going to implode?”

    Relations between journalist and source: Step carefully

    Journalists should take care to maintain boundaries, especially when dealing with people who are inexperienced with the media. There’s admittedly a fine line: A reporter needs a source’s trust, but it’s a form of deception if a source begins to think of the journalist as a friend who would never betray them.

    People most commonly think of politics when considering bias in journalism. More frequently, bias shows up in relationships, whether a reporter likes or dislikes someone they are dealing with, Culver said.

    “I advise my students to be human with their sources,” she said. “Not to be friendly or sweet, but to come at it with respect and understanding.”

    Thomas stopped working at The Times in 2019 after editors discovered a violation of its ethical standards. National Public Radio reported that Thomas had solicited a $30,000 contribution from Epstein for a charity the journalist supported.

    In one exchange that was widely noticed online, Epstein asked Thomas in 2015 if he would like photos of Trump and girls in bikinis taken in his kitchen. “Yes!!!” the reporter replied.

    But The Times said no such photos were forthcoming.

    ___

    David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.socia l

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  • US investment firm RedBird pulls out of buying Britain’s Telegraph newspaper

    LONDON — U.S. investment firm RedBird Capital said Friday that it has dropped its offer to buy the publisher of Britain’s 170-year-old conservative Daily Telegraph newspaper for about 500 million pounds ($660 million).

    RedBird, which was leading a consortium for the purchase, said in May that it had reached an in-principle agreement to become the controlling owner of the Telegraph Media Group.

    “We remain fully confident that the Telegraph and its world-class team have a bright future ahead of them and we will work hard to help secure a solution which is in the best interests of employees and readers,” RedBird said in a statement Friday.

    The Telegraph group publishes the daily and Sunday Telegraph newspapers, both of which are closely allied to Britain’s Conservative Party.

    The group sold The Spectator, one of the world’s oldest political magazines, last year for 100 million pounds to hedge fund investor Paul Marshall. He is the co-owner of U.K. channel GB News, which launched four years ago as a right-leaning, Fox News-style alternative to mainstream news channels.

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  • As China cracks down on stories about men in love, female fans mourn the idealized romances

    For Cindy Zhong, like many young Chinese women, a relaxing night used to mean curling up with a steamy story about two men in love. Then her favorite authors, and their tales, started disappearing.

    Fans of the popular Danmei same-sex romance genre, written and read mainly by straight women, say the Chinese government is carrying out the largest crackdown yet on it, effectively neutering the enjoyment.

    In the vast world of fantasy, Danmei is relatively straightforward: Two men stand in for idealized relationships, from chaste to erotic. Some scholars believe the stories appeal to Chinese women as a way to sidestep the country’s conservative gender values and imagine relationships on a more equal footing.

    “Women turn to Danmei for pure love, especially as they face pressure from families, peers and society to get married and have kids,” said Aiqing Wang, a senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool who studies Chinese popular culture and internet literature.

    The once-niche Chinese literary subculture has seen a boom in recent years, with novels adapted into blockbuster television series and translated into Western languages.

    Danmei — also known as “Boys Love” in English — has also caught the eye of Chinese authorities. At least dozens of writers have been interrogated, arrested and charged with producing and selling obscene materials in China in the past year, according to media reports and witness accounts online.

    Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.


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    Some writers have stopped publishing or taken work offline. Websites have shut down or removed many stories, leaving the tamest behind.

    “Chinese female readers can no longer find a safe, uncensored space to place our desires,” said Zhong, an educator in her 30s.

    Writers have said they enjoy directing lives that aren’t their own.

    “When I was writing, I felt so powerful that I could create a world,” said Zou Xuan, a teacher who used to write Danmei for fun and has been reading them for a decade.

    From erotica to flowery romance

    China’s government has been tightening its grip on the LGBTQ+ community, shutting down rights groups and social media accounts, despite removing homosexuality from its list of mental illness in 2001. Same-sex relationships are not criminalized.

    Even though China’s censorship apparatus has long disapproved of same-sex love stories, the most popular Danmei stories have become bestselling books and been adapted into cartoons, video games and TV series. Adaptations often get around censorship by changing the characters to a heterosexual couple or presenting the relationship between male leads as an intense “friendship.”

    The stories, usually published online by amateurs, are some of the most widely read fiction in China. Ranging from the flowery to the heavily erotic, they can include scenes of men fighting with a sword and a flute in ethereal ancient costumes or sex scenes in nature after rainfall.

    Danmei is “a utopian existence,” said Chen Xingyu, a 32-year-old freelance teacher living in the southwestern city of Kunming. “I would be less happy without it.”

    Some of the most popular stories, such as Heaven Official’s Blessing and Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, have been translated into English, building a global fan base and cracking The New York Times paperback bestseller list.

    The stories’ language “is very flowery and poetic, which I really enjoy,” said Kayla McHenry, who works in a law firm in Pennsylvania and reads stories in translation.

    But the author of those, Yuan Yimei, better known under her pen name Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, was sentenced in 2020 to three years in prison for “illegal business operation” after selling her self-published Danmei books. She was released on parole in 2021.

    Silencing writers

    It is hard to know how many writers have been caught up in China’s crackdown.

    Danmei writers, mostly young females, claimed in social media posts that were later censored that they were detained and questioned by police in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, and expressed humiliation and fear that a criminal record could ruin their future.

    An official at the Lanzhou Public Security Bureau declined to comment, saying the cases are under investigation. Gansu provincial police didn’t respond to an AP request seeking comment.

    The Associated Press was unable to independently confirm the reports.

    Even in Taiwan, beyond the reach of China’s censors, there are effects of the crackdown on the mainland.

    Haitang, a major platform for the stories and headquartered in Taiwan, closed temporarily in June, warning writers not to continue writing “if the content does not comply with the laws and regulations of where the writers are located.”

    The website recently returned with drastically fewer stories and writers. Readers noticed that stories saved in their accounts were taken down. It was unclear if the authors or the website had done it.

    Another popular Danmei site, Sosad.fun, based outside China with at least 400,000 registered readers, shut down in April.

    Neither website responded to emails seeking comment.

    Despite the crackdowns, Danmei stories are still available in China, but fans say they’re tamer and lack erotic appeal. And with most of the best writers gone, they say that what remains just isn’t that good.

    Some now publish overseas

    Some fans said they have given up reading Danmei stories, but others chase the racy details that brought them to the genre.

    “Stories I read in high school were much more explicit than those I read nowadays,” said Chen in Kunming. “I have to spend more time and try harder to find them. I need this content to fill my life.”

    Chen said some authors are publishing their work abroad, leaving it to readers to get them into China and pass around paper books or digital files informally.

    Other readers said they were turning to online comics translated from Japanese or Korean.

    Despite the narrowing space for the same-sex stories in China, experts said women and their desires have changed in ways that won’t disappear.

    “The awakening of female consciousness, the desire of reading and not being ashamed of what they want to read is irreversible,” said Xi Tian, an associate professor of East Asian Studies at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.

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  • What to Stream: ‘Freakier Friday,’ NF, ‘Landman,’ ‘Palm Royale’ and Black Ops 7

    Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan re-teaming as the body-swapping mother and daughter duo in “Freakier Friday” and albums from 5 Seconds of Summer and the rapper NF are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

    Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys team up for the new limited-series thriller “The Beast in Me,” gamers get Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Apple TV’s star-studded “Palm Royale” is back.

    New movies to stream from Nov. 10-16

    — Richard Linklater’s love letter to the French New Wave and the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless,” “Nouvelle Vague,” will be streaming on Netflix on Friday, Nov. 14. In his review, Associated Press Film Writer Jake Coyle writes that, “To a remarkable degree, Linklater’s film, in French and boxed into the Academy ratio, black-and-white style of ‘Breathless,’ has fully imbibed that spirit, resurrecting one of the most hallowed eras of movies to capture an iconoclast in the making. The result is something endlessly stylish and almost absurdly uncanny.”

    — Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan re-team as the body-swapping mother and daughter duo in “Freakier Friday,” a sequel to their 2003 movie, streaming on Disney+ on Wednesday. In her review, Jocelyn Noveck writes, “The chief weakness of ‘Freakier Friday’ — an amiable, often joyful and certainly chaotic reunion — is that while it hews overly closely to the structure, storyline and even dialogue of the original, it tries too hard to up the ante. The comedy is thus a bit more manic, and the plot machinations more overwrought (or sometimes distractingly silly).”

    — Ari Aster’s latest nightmare “Eddington” is set in a small, fictional New Mexico town during the coronavirus pandemic, which becomes a kind of microcosm for our polarized society at large with Joaquin Phoenix as the sheriff and Pedro Pascal as its mayor. In my review, I wrote that, “it is an anti-escapist symphony of masking debates, conspiracy theories, YouTube prophets, TikTok trends and third-rail topics in which no side is spared.”

    — An incurable cancer diagnoses might not be the most obvious starting place for a funny and affirming film, but that is the magic of Ryan White’s documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light,” about two poets, Andrea Gibson, who died in July, and Megan Falley, facing a difficult reality together. It will be on Apple TV on Friday, Nov. 14.

    — AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

    New music to stream from Nov. 10-16

    — There’s nothing worse than a band without a sense of humor. Thankfully 5 Seconds of Summer are in on the joke. Their sixth studio album, “Everyone’s a Star!,” sounds like the Australian pop-rock band are having fun again, from The Prodigy-esq. “Not OK” to the self-referential and effacing “Boy Band.” Candor is their provocation now, and it sounds good — particularly after the band has spent the last few years exploring solo projects.

    — The R&B and neo soul powerhouse Summer Walker has returned with her third studio album and first in four years. “Finally Over It,” out Friday, Nov. 14, is the final chapter of her “Over It” trilogy; a release centered on transformation and autonomy. That’s evident from the dreamy throwback single, “Heart of A Woman,” in which the song’s protagonist is disappointed with her partner — but with striking self-awareness. “In love with you but can’t stand your ways,” she sings. “And I try to be strong/But how much can I take?”

    — Consider him one of the biggest artists on the planet that you may not be familiar with. NF, the musical moniker of Nate Feuerstein, emerged from the Christian rap world a modern answer to Eminem only to top the mainstream, all-genre Billboard 200 chart twice, with 2017’s “Perception” and 2019’s “The Search.” On Friday, Nov. 14, he’ll release “Fear,” a new six-track EP featuring mgk (formerly Machine Gun Kelly) and the English singer James Arthur.

    — AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

    New series to stream from Nov. 10-16

    — Apple TV’s star-studded “Palm Royale” is back just in time for a new social season. Starring Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb, Kaia Gerber, Ricky Martin AND Carol Burnett, the show is campy, colorful and fun, plus it has great costumes. Wiig plays Maxine, a woman desperate to be accepted into high society in Palm Beach, Florida, in the late 1960s. The first episode streams Wednesday and one will follow weekly into January.

    — “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” cast member Heather Gay has written a book called “Bad Mormon” about how she went from a devout Mormon to leaving the church. Next, she’s fronting a new docuseries that delves into that too called “Surviving Mormonism with Heather Gay.” The reality TV star also speaks to others who have left the religion. All three episodes drop Wednesday on Peacock.

    — Thanks to “Homeland” and “The Americans,” Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys helped put the prestige in the term prestige TV. They grace the screen together in a new limited-series for Netflix called “The Beast in Me.” Danes plays a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who finds a new subject in her next door neighbor, a real estate tycoon who also may or may not have killed his first wife. Howard Gordon, who worked with Danes on “Homeland,” is also the showrunner and an executive producer of “The Beast in Me.” It premieres Thursday.

    — David Duchovny and Jack Whitehall star in a new thriller on Prime Video called “Malice.” Duchovny plays Jamie, a wealthy man vacationing with his family in Greece. He hires a tutor (played by Whitehall) named Adam to work with the kids who seems likable, personable and they invite him into their world. Soon it becomes apparent that Adam’s charm is actually creepy. Something is up. As these stories go, getting rid of an interloper is never easy. All six episodes drop Friday, Nov. 14.

    — “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” returns to Fox Nation on Sunday, Nov. 16 for a second season. The premiere details the story of Saint Patrick. The show is a passion project for Scorsese who executive produces, hosts, and narrates the episodes.

    — Billy Bob Thornton has struck oil in the second season of “Landman” on Paramount+. Created by Taylor Sheridan, the show is set in modern day Texas in the world of Big Oil. Sam Elliott and Andy Garcia have joined the cast and Demi Moore also returns. The show returns Sunday, Nov. 16.

    — Alicia Rancilio

    New video games to play from Nov. 10-16

    — The Call of Duty team behind the Black Ops subseries delivered a chapter last year — but they’re already back with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The new installment of the bestselling first-person shooter franchise moves to 2035 and a world “on the brink of chaos.” (What else is new?) Publisher Activision is promising a “reality-shattering” experience that dives into “into the deepest corners of the human psyche.” Beyond that storyline there are also 16 multiplayer maps and the ever-popular zombie mode, in which you and your friends get to blast away at relentless hordes of the undead. Lock and load Friday, Nov. 14, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S or PC.

    — Lumines Arise is the latest head trip from Enhance Games, the studio behind puzzlers like Tetris Effect, Rez Infinite and Humanity. The basic challenge is simple enough: Multicolored 2×2 blocks drift down the screen, and you need to arrange them to form single-color squares. Completed squares vanish unless you apply the “burst” mechanic, which lets you build ever-larger squares and rack up bigger scores. It’s all accompanied by hallucinatory graphics and thumping electronic music, and you can plug in a virtual reality headset if you really want to feel like you’re at a rave. Pick up the groove Tuesday on PlayStation 5 or PC.

    — Lou Kesten

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  • Australia’s Helen Garner wins Baillie Gifford nonfiction prize for her ‘addictive’ diaries

    LONDON (AP) — Helen Garner, an acclaimed Australian writer whose celebrity fans include singer Dua Lipa, won the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction on Tuesday for what judges called her addictive and candid diaries.

    Garner, 82, was named winner of the 50,000 pound ($65,000) prize at a ceremony in London for “How to End a Story.” Journalist Robbie Millen, who chaired the prize jury, said Garner was the unanimous choice of the six judges.

    Millen said the judges were captivated by the sharp observation and “reckless candor” of Garner’s 800-page book, which covers her life and work between 1978 and 1998.

    He said it is “a remarkable, addictive book. Garner takes the diary form, mixing the intimate, the intellectual, and the everyday, to new heights.

    “There are places it’s toe-curlingly embarrassing. She puts it all out there,” Millen said, adding that Garner ranks alongside those of Virginia Woolf in the canon of great literary diarists.

    Garner, who has published novels, short stories, screenplays and true crime books, said she was “staggered” to have won the prize for diaries she wrote entirely for herself.

    “I never thought that I was writing for anyone but myself and that’s what’s good about them, I think — that I’m free when I’m writing,” she told The Associated Press from Melbourne, Australia.

    “Those are the hours of practice that in a sense turned me into a writer. Because I’ve been keeping a diary since I was a girl — and I’ve burnt most of it, of course. I burnt it up until about the late 1970s. But it’s my 10,000 hours and it’s my enormous daily practice. So you never expect that to be out in the public eye. But it is.”

    “How to End a Story” is a deeply intimate book that among other things recounts, with unsparing detail and flashes of humor, the breakdown of a marriage.

    Despite the risk involved in such public soul-baring, Garner says the reaction of readers has made the experience life-affirming.

    “What I write about — my life and my experience and my, not to put too fine a point on it, soul — there are so many people who know what I mean and who’ve been there. And that’s been a great joy to me to discover that,” she said. “The deeper I go, the more other people I find there.”

    Garner’s book is the first set of diaries to win the prize, which was founded in 1999 and recognizes English-language books in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.

    Garner’s 1977 first novel “Monkey Grip” – the semi-autobiographical story of a single mother in bohemian inner-city Melbourne – is considered a modern Australian classic. Her work includes the novella “The Children’s Bach,” screenplays including “The Last Days of Chez Nous” and true crime books including “This House of Grief,” which Lipa chose this year for her monthly book club.

    The singer said Garner’s work was “a thrilling discovery. She’s one of the most fascinating writers I have come across in years.”

    Garner is co-author of “The Mushroom Tapes: Conversations on a Triple Murder Trial,” a book about Erin Patterson, the Australian woman who killed three of her estranged husband’s relatives with a lunch containing death cap mushrooms. It is published in Australia and the U.K. this month.

    Garner is less well known outside her home country, with U.S. and U.K. publishers only recently publishing many of her books.

    “It has taken us a long while to work out how good she is,” Millen said. “Finally her status is being recognized, and I hope this will cement it.”

    Garner is the second Australian in a row to win the Baillie Gifford prize. Last year’s winner was Tasmanian writer Richard Flanagan for his genre-bending memoir “Question 7.”

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  • Test Your Knowledge of Family-History Novels That Were Adapted as Movies or TV Series

    “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, has been adapted into a stage musical that was itself made into a two-part feature film. In all versions, what is the name of the witch Elphaba’s younger sister, whom she accompanies to Shiz University?

    J. D. Biersdorfer

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  • M. Night Shyamalan’s latest plot twist? Teaming with Nicholas Sparks on a novel and upcoming film

    Even M. Night Shyamalan — known for making darker movies like “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs” — goes looking for the light sometimes.

    “I just finished three really dark movies, ‘Old,’ ‘Knock at the Cabin’ and ‘Trap,’ which are really edgy movies where the characters are super, super dark and complicated, and I wanted to do something different,” said the director.

    He found an interesting opportunity to collaborate on a new supernatural romance novel called “Remain” with Nicholas Sparks. Yes, that Nicholas Sparks — king of romantic dramas like “The Notebook” and “A Walk to Remember.”

    Co-authored books are a hot trend right now in the publishing world. Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben have a new novel out. James Patterson has teamed up with Bill Clinton and Dolly Parton on books. This collab, however, is different in that Shyamalan had written the screenplay and Sparks agreed to write a novel based on that story. A “Remain” film — starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Phoebe Dynevor — already wrapped production and will be released next year.

    “I don’t think anybody has ever done what we just did, which was take the same story and simultaneously go do our separate things,” said Sparks. “It isn’t in linear fashion. It’s two people doing two different art forms from the same story. I trusted him 100% to make the best film version of that story possible and he trusted me.”

    The two crossed paths years ago when Shyamalan was asked if he would want to adapt Sparks’ novel “The Notebook” into a feature film. The job ended up going to Nick Cassavetes, but Shyamalan said Sparks’ work “always represented something magical to me.” It meant something to him that he would be entrusted with a story so beloved.

    In an interview with The Associated Press, Sparks and Shyamalan talk about teaming up, scary movies and chicken salad. Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

    ____

    AP: At first thought, you two working together seems like an unlikely duo. but the supernatural and romance genres have a lot in common.

    SPARKS: We’re not the first to dabble in this. The biggest movie of 1990 was “Ghost.” Shakespeare used to put ghosts into his plays.

    SHYAMALAN: I think love is a supernatural conceit. It’s a mythology we all buy into, but it is still a mythology, a supernatural mythology that there’s a “one.” The “destined one” that you meet in the coffee shop and that you know it was meant to be, and then all the things that happened because you met.

    AP: Night, you say you approached Gyllenhaal at the beginning of the year about this role. When you did that, did you tell him it would also be a novel written by Sparks?

    SHYAMALAN: I must have. But it was such an unusual moment because I had finished writing the screenplay, pressed save, rushed to get in the car to go to New York for my daughter’s birthday. In the car the phone rings, and it’s Jake. And I’m like, “What’s up, man?” We hadn’t talked in five years, something more. And he’s like, “I’d love to be in one of your movies.” And I went, “That is so weird. Where are you?” And he’s like, “I’m in New York.” I said, “Well, I’m going to New York. Want to have tea?” I had a gut feeling that the universe was doing something. So, I called my assistant. I said, “Print the script.” So, we’re just having tea and catching up. And he’s telling me how in love he is and how he’s just so happy and in love. And I said, “You know what? Here.” He was in shock. He called me two days later and said, “I’m in. I love it.” It was a weird kind of beautiful thing.

    AP: Does the book follow the screenplay to the letter or vice versa?

    SPARKS: Like any adaptation, no. The first thing I said when I read his script was, “Hey, this is great. Of course, it’s gonna be nothing like my novel. It’s entirely different.” Night said basically the same thing.

    SHYAMALAN: I think for audiences, it’ll be really interesting. They can point out the differences and ask, “Why did Nicholas do that with the character and the backstory? Why did Night do this?” Our dialogue isn’t the same.

    AP: Night, we’re in spooky season with Halloween coming up. Are there any films — besides your own — that you recommend watching?

    SHYAMALAN: “The Exorcist,” of course, it’s always there. There’s “The Innocents.” “The Haunting” 1963 film by Robert Wise. And the Japanese movie “Cure.”

    AP: Nicholas, have you made Night your famous chicken salad with Splenda?

    SPARKS: No, I haven’t. I did an interview with the New York Times where I offered the reporter some of my homemade chicken salad and it had Splenda. And whatever reason this blew up on social media. People thought it must be the most disgusting chicken salad ever. So, I said, “No, it’s delicious.” We started making it on my book tour last year, handing it out to people. And in fact, Splenda put the recipe on its boxes. You can get them. I was invited to the Indianapolis 500 to see the Splenda car.

    SHYAMALAN: To get to the core of your question. No, he has not made it. Nor has he mentioned it. Didn’t even offer it.

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  • Kevin Federline says his sons with Britney Spears are the reason for his new memoir

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kevin Federline says concern for his two sons with Britney Spears long kept him from telling his story, and those same concerns are the reason he’s telling it now that they’re men.

    In a memoir to be released Tuesday, “You Thought You Knew,” Federline documents his difficult years as husband, ex-husband, and co-parent with Spears, who wrote her own memoir in 2023.

    Federline’s includes some salacious stories and some potentially disturbing details about her behavior that have already made headlines.

    “I want my children to be able to move forward in their lives and know that the actual truth of everything is out there,” Federline, 47, told The Associated Press in a Zoom interview, backed by palm trees in Hawaii, where he now lives with wife Victoria Prince and their two daughters. “That’s a very, very big part of this for me. And it’s really important that I share my story, so they don’t have to.”

    He and Spears’ son Preston is now 20 and his brother Jayden is 19. They have little relationship with their mother.

    Federline was a 26-year-old backup dancer for other major pop acts when he coupled with Spears in 2004. Their courtship, two-year marriage and divorce took them through one of the most intense celebrity media frenzies in modern history. Federline was ruthlessly roasted as a loser hanger-on, especially after he released his own deeply mocked hip-hop album.

    Britney Spears, center right, and her husband Kevin Federline are interviewed by Rachel from the Tyra Banks show as Tyra Banks, right, looks on while they arrive for the LG Mariah Carey and Jermaine Dupri Post Grammy Party at a private residence, Feb. 8, 2006, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

    “I wasn’t just famous — I was infamous,” he writes in the book, which will be released on the new audiobook first platform Listenin.

    He told the AP he long considered writing the book, but recently got serious about it.

    “I picked it up and put it down quite a lot over probably a five-year period,” he said. “I think that it’s a very good description of me, who I am, the father I’ve become, the husband I am, the ex-husband I am.”

    Key revelations from Kevin Federline about Britney Spears

    — Federline describes the night he and Spears first connected at a Hollywood nightclub, and how they hooked up hours later in a hotel bungalow: “Britney turned around, slipped off her underwear and started kissing me, tearing at my clothes with both hands. We stumbled toward the bed while I struggled to kick my pants off my ankles. This. Is. Happening. OK, sorry. Calm down, that’s as detailed as I’m going to get.”

    — He writes that a “San Andreas-level seismic shift in my reality” followed a few hours later when he left the hotel with Spears and dozens of paparazzi cars followed them.

    — He describes the night before their wedding, when Spears called her ex Justin Timberlake, seeking closure: “She never really got over him. She might’ve loved me, but there was something there with Justin that she couldn’t let go of.”

    Justin Timberlake, right, greets Kevin Federline as they arrive at the JT-TV launch party in Los Angeles, Feb. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

    Justin Timberlake, right, greets Kevin Federline as they arrive at the JT-TV launch party in Los Angeles, Feb. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

    — Federline said seeing Spears drinking while pregnant “tripped the silent alarms in my head.” He later was outraged when he saw her doing cocaine when the boys were still breastfeeding, saying “are you seriously going to go home after this and feed them like you don’t have a body full of drugs?”

    — He writes that Preston told him Spears mercilessly mocked him and once punched him in the face.

    — He says the boys began refusing to visit her when they were 13 and 14, and later told him stories that “shook me to the core.” “They would awaken sometimes at night to find her standing silently in the doorway, watching them sleep — ‘Oh, you’re awake?’ — with a knife in her hand.”

    Spears’ response to Federline’s book

    Spears responded with a statement on her social media accounts. She said Federline has engaged in “constant gaslighting.”

    “Trust me, those white lies in that book, they are going straight to the bank and I’m the only one who genuinely gets hurt here.” She said, adding that “if you really know me, you won’t pay attention to the tabloids of my mental health and drinking.”

    She also addressed her relationship with her sons:

    “I have always pleaded and screamed to have a life with my boys. Relationships with teenage boys is complex. I have felt demoralized by this situation and have always asked and almost begged for them to be a part of my life. Sadly, they have always witnessed the lack of respect shown by (their) own father for me.”

    An attorney for Spears did not respond to a request for comment.

    Federline’s life, and thoughts about Spears’ life

    Federline writes about growing up in Fresno, California, and finding “my therapy and my purpose” through dance.

    Kevin Federline, wearing a white button down shift, performs in the center of a stage with his arm raised during a concert. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

    Kevin Federline performs during a concert at the House of Blues Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

    He reminisces about his first big tour, with Pink, and working with Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child and Michael Jackson. He details wrestling with John Cena in the WWE and appearing in a self-mocking Super Bowl commercial.

    Federline says Preston and Jayden are living on their own as young adults, and have both been working on making music that makes him proud.

    He weighs in on Spears’ dissolved court conservatorship, saying it was necessary but hurt most of the people involved. He said the fans who fought to free her left an unfortunate legacy.

    “The Free Britney movement may have started from a good place, but it vilified everyone around her so intensely that now it’s nearly impossible for anyone to step in,” he writes.

    He says in the book that he wrote it in part as a public plea for her to get more help.

    “I’ve lost hope that things will ever fully turn around,” he writes, “but I still hope that Britney can find peace.”

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  • A new Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley want to tell you a story

    LONDON (AP) — If you listen carefully, you can hear the noise of chocolate frogs flying through the air on the Hogwarts Express.

    Hermione Granger gasps with delight as Ron Weasley catches the sweet treat thrown his way by Harry Potter, as all three travel home after an eventful first year at the wizarding school.

    This isn’t the now-vintage, Daniel Radcliffe-era movies, it’s not the “Cursed Child” play and neither is it the forthcoming HBO TV series. What you’re hearing is a brand-new cast in a new Audible recording of J.K. Rowling’s seven books.

    The legacy of Harry Potter might have been clouded by headlines surrounding Rowling’s comments on gender and opposition to trans rights, but it hasn’t stopped production on new projects set in the wizarding universe. The Associated Press visited the London recording studio for a “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” session in the summer, as young actors Frankie Treadaway, Max Lester and Arabella Stanton lay down walla — background noise that’s used to bring the stories to life. The young trio voice Harry, Ron and Hermione in the first three audiobook adaptations, before an older cast takes over.

    Instead of listening to someone like Jim Dale or Stephen Fry telling the whole story alone, this new audio production — the first book releases Nov. 4 — has a full, high-wattage cast. While Cush Jumbo narrates, Hugh Laurie is Albus Dumbledore, Riz Ahmed portrays Professor Snape and Michelle Gomez brings Professor McGonagall’s Scottish lilt to life. Matthew Macfadyen voices Voldemort, and Keira Knightley appears later in the series as Dolores Umbridge.

    But it’s Stanton who is pulling double duty in the Potterverse: The 11-year-old is also starring as the studious and brave Hermione Granger in the HBO show.

    “I can’t say much, because they’ve cast a Mimblewimble tongue-tying spell on me,” Stanton apologizes. “But I’ve just started filming, and it’s great at the moment.”

    AP sat down with Treadaway, 14, Lester, 13, and Stanton to find out the snacks required to keep them going, their introductions to the wizarding world and how they feel about acting. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

    AP: What were the auditions like?

    TREADAWAY (Harry): You really got like, a taste of what it was going to be like, also in the studio and even the scenes.

    AP: Had you done anything like this before?

    LESTER (Ron): I did some audio before, yeah, but I mean nothing as professional as this is.

    AP: How does this compare to your stage work?

    STANTON (Hermione): It’s just very, very different, but I suppose the similar thing is that, because you want to make your voice come alive, I think you … sort of act as you’re saying the lines to give the words some color.

    AP: How’s the recording going so far?

    LESTER: Lovely people, great food and great experience.

    AP: What’s your favorite food when you’re working?

    TREADAWAY: The snack cupboard and the chocolate fridge.

    LESTER: The chocolate fridge is dedicated to chocolate.

    STANTON: It’s filled with snacks.

    TREADAWAY: They have to restock every time I go.

    AP: Can you remember the first time you ever heard about Harry Potter?

    TREADAWAY: I think it might have been when my sister was watching the movies chronologically and then for some reason I only decided to tag along for the last one.

    AP: Did you go back to the beginning?

    TREADAWAY: I don’t think I did, because I was like, “Oh, I can’t watch this, this is a 12 (rating),” so I had to wait till I was 12 to watch them.

    STANTON:  My friends had started all reading all the books and everything and they were like, “Oh have you heard Harry Potter this, Harry Potter that?” And so I was like, right I’m going to start reading the books. So I think when I was 8 I started reading the first one. Sort of just worked my way through them and yeah it was great, I’ve loved Harry Potter. I love it.

    LESTER: I saw this book in Waterstones and everyone said that it was quite popular. It was like one of the bestsellers. So my mum bought it for me and I read the book and it was just great.

    AP: So what do your friends and family think about you voicing these characters? Have you been able to tell them?

    LESTER: I haven’t really told many of them, not really.

    TREADAWAY: I think those who know will never truly know actually what it’s about until they listen to it.

    STANTON: I think I’ve told quite close family, sort of keeping it in a bubble. But they’ll never really understand because so much effort — I mean, the teams, all the amazing people behind it, they put in so much effort to make the audio series incredible.

    AP: Have you got a favorite part of the stories?

    TREADAWAY: I can’t wait to hear how the battle scenes work because of all the SFX and all the sounds and all of the grunts and oohs and ahs and all that because I think that will sound really cinematic. … It was very weird because I would stand there for a minute just grunting and I would feel so stupid.

    STANTON: I can’t wait to hear all the spells because I think Hermione generally just says so many spells and I can’t wait to hear the sounds of people casting them, I just love spells.

    LESTER: My favorite part that I’m looking forward to is just literally just to hear it all come together and for everyone to talk to each other because I feel like that’s going to be amazing.

    AP: Are you like your characters in any way?

    TREADAWAY: That’s how I found it quite easy to just step into the character because I think I relate to them and I’m sure you guys do as well. … I’m not like the biggest ego ever. … Sometimes you’re the smaller person in the room and you just sometimes just mingle. I feel like I relate to Harry in that way.

    AP: How about you and Hermione?

    STANTON: I love books. I love writing, I love reading, I love doing all that kind of stuff. I mean, I like school, but I don’t love school. And I think … books is the main connection between Hermione and I.

    AP: How are you like Ron?

    LESTER: I think we both relate to each other because we’re quite cheeky and we love food. We love food! … In moments, we’re both serious and we’re also not afraid to stand up for the people that we love or stand up for our friends because we always do the thing that’s right, and that’s kind of what I relate to, because I go into the deeper side of Ron, and not just the eating food and being cheeky.

    AP: What’s your favorite kind of magical element?

    LESTER: My favorite kind of magical element is the spells. I think they’re just really cool. Like “stupefy” (the stunning spell) — I think that’s very, very cool.

    STANTON: One of the main props that Hermione uses is the Time Turner. I love all the magical objects like the Invisibility Cloak, the Time Turner, all those things because … (they’re) things you wouldn’t be able to use in real life, but in the magic world, it transports you into a completely different world.

    TREADAWAY: The Polyjuice Potion, because when you record that, it’s like, you have to really hone in on the actual sound of turning into someone else, and that was one of my favorite magic parts of it.

    AP: Are you aware of how much love there is for Harry Potter?

    TREADAWAY: I guess that’s sort of why you have a bit of pride in yourself knowing that such a big name and characters, you get to associate yourself with them. If you know what I mean, it gives you a little feeling inside your heart.

    AP: What does it mean for you to be representing Ron?

    LESTER: It makes me proud, honestly, to be representing such a great and funny character, but then also, I don’t know, it just makes me … feel a part of this community.

    AP: And how about you, representing Hermione?

    STANTON: I’ve dreamt of that since a really young age, and I’ve always looked up to all of the people who played Hermione, like Emma Watson and all those people.

    AP: Are you aware how huge it is around the world?

    TREADAWAY: I don’t think we’ll really feel that until it comes out, I guess, because that just makes it more unreal.

    LESTER: It’s so popular around the world, which makes it more unreal that so many people are going to be interested in this and we don’t even realize it, yeah, we can’t even process this.

    AP: So is acting the way forward for you now? Would you like to continue doing this?

    TREADAWAY: Yeah, definitely — I mean on this, it never really felt like pushing yourself to do something, it wasn’t work, it felt like an enjoyable experience and you’ve got something to see at the end of it.

    STANTON: I’d love to act, yeah, definitely. And I think, like Frankie said, I mean, just being part of the audio series is incredible. And yeah, can’t wait to do more.

    LESTER: I think it is for me because I always say it’s not work if you do something that you love and, honestly, I love acting so much. It makes me feel happy and it makes me feel like my true self and … I think it is the way forward just to keep going and do a lot of jobs, hopefully.

    AP: And you’re all bonded now aren’t you?

    ALL: Yeah.

    LESTER: The proper trio.

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