2008: a year in books

January: 2008 began with a look back to 2007 and the news that Letters of Ted Hughes was the title most frequently chosen as book of the year by newspaper critics. There was shock over the revelation that Marvel Comics was planning to turn back time and and dissolve Spider-Man's marriage to Mary-Jane.

In other endings, the last man in the running for Romantic Novel of the Year award was ditched, and the Nestle book prize for children's literature was discontinued after 23 years. However, there was a happier ending for a couple of small publishers whose funding had been threatened by Arts Council cuts.

In Nobel news, Doris Lessing received her award in London while thirteen people were arrested in Turkey, for reportedly plotting the assassination of novelist and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk.