Literature

American poet, painter, social activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers Lawrence Ferlinghetti has died at the age of 101 of interstitial lung disease in San Francisco. Lawrence published many of the Beat poets, offered an essential meeting place for the Beats with his City Lights bookstore and was considered a Beat poet as well.

British espionage writer John le Carré has died aged 89, died from pneumonia on Saturday following a short illness, his literary agent has said.

During his career he wrote titles such as f The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

"Project Northmoor" is aiming to raise $6.1 million via crowdfunding to purchase J.R.R. Tolkien's home in Oxford, England, which soon will be on the market and transform it into a literary center in his honor. The campaign is led by author Julia Golding and will start on December 2.

Various actors, who starred in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbits, have joined a fellowship to save 20 Northmoor Road, including Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman and John Rhys-Davies.

"With the support of volunteers in the U.S., Golding has seized on this once-in-a-generation opportunity and negotiated a 3-month fundraising window with the current owner," Project Northmoor's statement reads.

Collins Dictionary has revealed its word of the year for 2020, and you guessed it, it's coronavirus related!

The dictionary printer has named "Lockdown" as word of the year is they've seen a 6,000% increase in its use. Compared to 2019 where there were only 4,000 recorded instances of the word being used, 2020 has seen it already soar past the quarter of a million mark - and still with the rest of November and December to go.