Robert McCrum, who for the past ten years has been the Literary Editor of The Observer, recently left his post. Signing off, he wrote this wonderful history of the last decade in book publishing for The Guardian, in the form of 10 short chapters. Travelling from Amazon to Zadie Smith with detours through Oprah, Ian McEwan and the blogosphere, McCrum arrives at the unexpected but happy conclusion that
to be a writer in the English language today is to be one of the luckiest people alive.
As a recent graduate of my first literary festival, I was also thrilled to see McCrum’s mention of the proliferation of prizes and festivals – which he describes as “the new rock ‘n’ roll” – during the past decade.
