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Today, Thursday 10th September, sees the UK publication of the new, seventh edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, edited by Elizabeth Knowles.

To celebrate, OUP have teamed up with Waterstone’s to conduct a national poll asking what Britain’s favourite memorable quotation is. Below is a selection of the thirty quotes you can choose from, as well as details about how to take part.

Classic Quotes

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Jane Austen

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men…
Robert Burns

1940s and 50s

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
Winston Churchill

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley

1960s and 70s

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged on the colour of their skin
Martin Luther King

The Answer to the Great Question Of…Life, the Universe and Everything…
[is] forty-two.
Douglas Adams

1980s and 1990s

There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded
Diana, Princess of Wales

I’ll have what she’s having
When Harry Met Sally, Nora Ephron

2000s

We have not found any smoking guns
Hans Blix

The arc of history is long but it bends towards justice
Barack Obama

British readers can vote in the poll via the Waterstone’s website, and Waterstone’s loyalty card holders are also able to enter a prize draw to win a luxury stay in Oxford. So, what’s your favourite quotation? Tell us below.

Anthony will be in Waterstones, Piccadilly, London signing copies of ‘Necropolis’ the 4th book in his thrilling Power of Five series.

Link to Waterstones Events page

Please make sure to contact the venue before travelling.
Waterstone’s

203-206 Piccadilly,

London W1J 9LE

Tel: 0207 851 2400

The Waterstones auction happened. The J.K. Rowling Harry Potter un-prequel card went for a bit less than the $10 million that some newspapers were predicting (about $9,951,000 less), but I don't think the auction was really being run to raise money as much as to raise awareness -- of the charities and PEN and of (most importantly) the existence of the upcoming all-profits-to-charity-and-PEN 5 pound-a-pop postcard book, and I think it did that and did it well...

Read the stories at http://www.waterstoneswys.com/

(You can pre-order the postcard book here -- limit of 2 per person.)

And the answer to my puzzled wondering of how on earth did Ms Rowling squeeze a reported 800 words onto that card? I was pushing to write a legible short story in about 300 words... was revealed. She turned it over. Fair enough. (Richard Ford also cheated and used two cards.)

There's a full report over at The Guardian:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2284857,00.html

As I said, you can read all the stories at http://www.waterstoneswys.com/. I've not read them all yet, but my favourite of the ones I've read so far was the Tom Stoppard "Idiomatic Farm" one. I was interested in the Atwood one when I read that,

Margaret Atwood appeared at the ceremony via videolink from Paris, wielding her celebrated LongPen - which reproduces handwriting remotely via sophisticated electronics - to handwrite her card "live". Her story, which she said she had struggled to condense into a form barely more capacious than a simple joke, provides a fresh spin on the Canute story, working in both domestic and ecological politics.

I'm talking to Waterstones about the story card auction. It's very invitation only -- for people bidding in person on the cards and for people bidding from a distance. So if there's anyone out there who was hoping to be able to bid on my card (which I can confidently guarantee will go for less than the 5 million pounds -- ten million dollars -- that J. K. Rowling's card is predicted to go for) then let us know through the FAQ line and I'll put you in touch with the relevant people at Waterstones, who will put you in touch with the relevant people at Sotheby's. It is, after all, for a couple of good causes.

(You'll be able to read the story cards at the Waterstones site from the 11th of June.)

...

Incidentally, I just got sent the starred Kirkus review of Craig Russell's Coraline graphic novel:

CORALINE
by Neil Gaiman
Adapt. by P. Craig Russell
Illus. by P. Craig
Russell

A deliciously dark graphic adaptation of Gaiman’s modern classic is delivered with
pitch-perfect accuracy and presented in a striking palette. Staying true to the
original text, Russell’s adaptation follows young Coraline Jones as she
discovers a strange door in her otherwise boring flat. Once over the door’s
mysterious threshold, she meets her ghastly “Other Mother,” a horrid-looking
beldam with sinister, button eyes, long, yellowed teeth, spindly, tapered
fingers with sharp, brown nails and a wry, baleful smile. Coraline’s Other
Mother intends to keep her in this horrible new world forever, and captures her
real parents, prompting young Coraline to seek them out in this strange
dimension. Russell, a veteran illustrator and collaborator with Gaiman, makes
the novel positively jump off the page, sending shivers down its readers’
spines. Colorist Lovern Kindzierski deserves special kudos for utilizing a
masterful array of hues, working in smart synchronicity with the nuances of the
tale. A stellar reworking of the original text, this is sure to delight
established fans and to mesmerize newcomers. (Graphic fiction. 10 &
up)