Read all about it

LONG after Jamie Oliver, Guinness World Record compendiums and the plethora of gift books given over the festive season have been put away, readers can look forward to a year of new titles from exciting authors.

Big names for 2011 include thriller writer Jeffery Deaver, who is writing the new James Bond novel, Jean M Auel, who brings us The Land Of Painted Caves, the sixth and final instalment of the mega-selling Earth Children series, and Tom Bower, who has written a revealing authorised biography of maverick entrepreneur Bernie Ecclestone.

Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell will no doubt be generating headlines with the second volume of his diaries, Power And The People, published this month, which open as Tony Blair enters Downing Street and covers a host of political scandals and revelations.

Meanwhile, in fiction, Scandinavian crime writing is likely to be a major genre this year, predicts Jon Howells, spokesman for Waterstone’s.

‘‘It’s been building over the last few years, and we’ve seen it crescendo in 2010 with Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy being out in paperback, the original Swedish films coming out and now the American remakes on the way. This year we will see other leading Scandinavian writers becoming more popular.

Stieg Larsson only wrote three books: people want to keep reading that sort of thing and are looking for replacements.

‘‘Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo is one to watch out for and is being marketed as ‘the next Stieg Larsson’.

The Snowman did fantastically well in 2010 and he has a new book out this month entitled The Leopard.’’ Vampire tales, popularised by the likes of Stephenie Meyer, have certainly peaked, although there’s a new guide to the Twilight universe from Meyer out in April. ‘‘It’s still a big part of the market, but it’s not going to get bigger,’’ says Howells.

Vampires may be on the wane, but the trend in supernatural tales is set to continue in 2011, says Alice O’Keeffe, books editor of trade magazine The Bookseller.

‘‘There are a couple of witch-orientated books which could be big, including The Discovery Of Witches by Deborah Harkness, which is set in a world where four species – vampires, witches, demons and humans – co-exist. It centres on a witch who is working as an academic at Oxford University and discovers a manuscript with strange magical powers.

‘‘Another in this genre is The Taker, a debut by Alma Katsu, which is said to take elements from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight and Interview With The Vampire.’’ It should hit the bookshops in April.

Chick lit has moved on and isn’t called chick lit any more, says Howells.

Successful authors who made their name penning clever romantic tales which fell into this category – Marian Keyes, Lisa Jewell, Jane Green and Sophie Kinsella, to name but a few – have grown up, as have their novels.

‘‘We call the genre modern women’s fiction,’’ says Howells.

‘‘Those authors are still out there, but their readers have grown up with them and the books have changed.’’ Watch out for new women’s fiction titles from the likes of Jill Mansell, Cecelia Ahern and Patricia Scanlan, which are all perfect to pack in the suitcase to take on holiday.

Joanna Trollope, a hugely successful author famed for tales which tackle contemporary family issues, also has a new novel, Daughters-In- Law, out in March, but if escapism is your bag, look out for the new Jackie Collins blockbuster, Goddess Of Vengeance.

IN womens’ fiction, O’Keeffe recommends Christina Hopkinson’s The Pile Of Stuff At The Bottom Of The Stairs, due out in the spring, about a former career girl who’s married with two children and has had to go part-time to enable her to look after the children and play housekeeper.

‘‘It’s a funny, thought-provoking take on modern marriage which I predict will catch a mood just as I Don’t Know How She Does It did,’’ she says.

Waterstone’s is also flagging up several spring literary titles which it anticipates will do well, including Great House by Nicole Krauss, a series of interconnected stories of love, memory and loss. It follows her 2005 bestseller, The History Of Love.

Those who revel in celebrity memoirs may plump for Rob Lowe’s autobiography, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, which details his experiences as an actor and father, to be published in May. Memoirs from Corrie and Loose Women star Sherrie Hewson, Sarah Brown, who talks about life at number 10 in Behind The Black Door, and former Hear’Say star and Corrie actress Kym Marsh, are also out in spring.

There will also be a surge in debut novels next year, predicts O’Keeffe.

Watch out for Pigeon English, a debut novel by Stephen Kelman, narrated by a newly arrived Ghanaian boy living on an inner city estate, which is likely to make waves. ‘‘It was acquired in a 12-publisher auction, which has generated almost unprecedented excitement in the media far ahead of publication,’’ says O’Keeffe.

Other debuts to watch out for include Before I Go To Sleep, by SJ Watson, a thriller about a woman who has a head trauma and becomes incapable of forming and maintaining new memories for more than a day. She wakes every day believing herself to be single, only to discover she lives with her husband Ben, and starts keeping a journal to try to make sense of it all. The film rights have already been sold to Ridley Scott’s production company.

‘‘In commercial fiction Nicci French, the husband-and-wife team, have a new series of crime novels which feature a female psychotherapist.

The first, Blue Monday, will be out in June,” says O’Keeffe.

Anyone who loves the Wallander series shouldn’t miss Henning Mankell’s last book featuring his most famous character, Inspector Kurt Wallander, tackling his final case, in which a retired naval officer goes missing and Wallander wonders if his disappearance is linked to a Cold War incident from the past.

‘‘For my money, Mankell is the very best of the Scandinavian crime writers,’’ says O’Keeffe.