The Pillars of the Earth TV series optioned

Munich-based Tandem Productions has taken an option on the rights to produce The Pillars of the Earth as a television series, in conjunction with Ridley and Tony Scott's production company, Scott Free Inc.

Sir Ridley Scott is an Academy Award-nominated film director and producer. His films include Alien, Blade Runner, Legend, Black Rain, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Matchstick Men, Kingdom of Heaven, and American Gangster. His brother Tony's films include Top Gun, True Romance, Crimson Tide and Spy Game.

More information will be posted here as the project develops.

Ken Follett beats Ken Follett at Audible.com

In Audible.com's first 'Annual Tournament of Audiobooks' Ken was in the unusual position of competing against himself. In the competition the top two titles were The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End! Eventually, in the single-elimination, winner-take-all, bracket-style tournament, The Pillars of the Earth was crowned the 'Champion of Audiobooks' by Audible.com members. Both audiobooks are narrated by John Lee.

World without End on New York Times best-seller list for 6 months

World Without End was on The New York Times hardcover best-seller list for 26 weeks – exactly half a year. It first topped the best-seller list on 28 October 2007.

Un mundo sin fin breaks all records

By the end of March a record 1,574,000 copies of Un mundo sin fin, the Spanish edition of World Without End, had been printed in 14 editions. About 525,000 copies of Un mundo sin fin sold out within days of being put on sale on Friday 29 December. Mondadori, the publisher, said that the single-day sales were unsurpassed and added that The Pillars of the Earth, a 1989 prequel to World Without End, had sold 5.5 million copies and is the novel most read by Spaniards in the last 20 years.

Watch a streaming video version of Mondadori's promotional video for Un mundo sin fin (the player will open in a new window). This also features Ken's visit to the Catedral Santa Maria in Vitoria, Spain. Most browsers will play these clips, but if not, you will need a recent version of the free Adobe Flash player.

Oprah chooses The Pillars of the Earth

On November 14, 2007, Oprah Winfrey chose The Pillars of the Earth as the 60th Oprah’s Book Club selection. She said, "It’s such a great read… it’s like nothing I would ever read or had ever read before… I got to 800 pages, and I slowed myself down because I didn’t want it to end."

Ken said: "I'm thrilled that The Pillars of the Earth has been selected for Oprah's Book Club. Oprah is a unique cultural leader who has a special place in the hearts of people all over the world, and I have enormous respect for what she has achieved. Her endorsement will bring my work to the attention of her many millions of fans, and for that I am very grateful."

As the biggest book club in the world, Oprah's Book Club has approximately one million online members. Each of its selections have skyrocketed to the top of bestsellers lists. Enrollment is free and provides members with access to benefits such as online discussion groups, reading questions, and Q&A sessions with the author. To join, log onto www.oprah.com/bookclub.

Oprah's Book Club works with the American Library Association (ALA) to distribute thousands of free Book Club selections donated by each publisher, to school, public, and community college libraries nationwide. The Chicago-based ALA, www.ala.org, is the oldest and largest library association in the world with more than 64,000 members.

›› See the news item on the BBC web site.

The Pillars of the Earth tops the New York Times list

Eighteen years after it first publication The Pillars of the Earth is #1 on the The New York Times trade paperback list and #8 on its mass market paperback list (9 December 2008)!

A tremendous honour in Vitoria, Spain

Ken was in Vitoria, Spain from 8th to 11th January 2008 to launch the Spanish language edition of World without End, Un mundo sin fin.

On Thursday 10th a life size statue of Ken created by the Basque sculptor Casto Solana was unveiled. The statue stands in the Plaza de Burullerías, the square beside the Cathedral. Ken has been active in promoting and assisting the Santa María Cathedral Foundation for several years. Ken was also awarded the Olaguibel Prize by the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos Vasco-Navarro for contributing to the promotion and awareness of architecture.

For more information, see www.kenfollettvitoria.com, www.catedralvitoria.com and Wikipedia on Vitoria-Gasteiz

Interviews

Ken was interviewed by George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC's 'The Hour' on 19 February 2008, by Jeffrey Stinson for USA TODAY, published on 9 October, and by Elizabeth Renzetti for Toronto's Globe & Mail, published on 22 October.

The Pillars of the Earth board games are winners!

'Die Säulen der Erde' wins Deutscher Spiele Preis 2007
The board game version of Die Säulen der Erde – the German edition of The Pillars of the Earth – was chosen as the winner of the prestigious 'Deutscher Spiele Preis' award in Essen, Germany, on Wednesday October 17.

The game was designed by Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler, and is produced by Kosmos.

'Stormenes tid' wins Årets Spill 2007
The Norwegian board game version – Stormenes tid – was chosen as the winner of the 'Årets Spill' award by Brettspillguiden on Friday October 19.

Stormenes tid is produced by Cappelens Forlag.

An English version is produced by Mayfair Games.

Meeting Nelson Mandela

Ken was delighted to meet Nelson Mandela in August 2007. Ken contributed toward the cost of the statue of the former South African President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient unveiled in Trafalgar Square, London.

In his speech, the former South African president and Nobel Peace prize winner said: “When I came to London in the sixties with Thabo Mbeki, we looked around this square and I said: 'Maybe one day there will be a statue of a black man here'.”

Audiobooks available for download

Most of Ken's novels are available as audiobooks in English, published by Macmillan Digital Audio. More recent titles are available on CD, and older ones on cassette tape (though these are being transferred to CD). Audiobooks are usually available from the same bookstores and online booksellers that stock the print edition. Many of the English editions are now also available as digital downloads that can be played on computers, Apple's iPod and many other music players. These are available at Audible.com and Audible.co.uk.

Eisfieber #1 in Germany

Eisfieber, the German edition of Whiteout published by Lübbe, is top of the bestseller lists in both Der Spiegel and Stern [Week beginning 23 April 2007].

Die Saulen der Erde goes platinum

At the Frankfurt Book Fair, on 4 October 2006, I was presented with a Platinum Disc to mark 200,000 sales of the audiobook of Die Saulen der Erde (The Pillars of the Earth), by my German publishers, Verlagsgruppe Lübbe. Publisher Stefan Lübbe, who presented the award, is to my right.

Die Saulen der Erde has sold more than 3,5-million copies in the German translation, and in Germany was voted the third-most popular book after JRR Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings and the Bible. The audiobook was narrated by Joachim Kerzel.

German company to film A Dangerous Fortune and Whiteout

The Cologne-based production company, Network Movie, has acquired the rights to two of my novels and intends to film them jointly with Munich-based Constantin Film and ZDF Enterprises for ZDF, Germany's second national television network. The series will begin with the filming of A Dangerous Fortune, followed by my latest novel, Whiteout.

The ‘Ken Follett Collection’ will be produced jointly by Network and Constantin Television; the producers are Reinhold Elschot and Peter Nadermann for Network Movie and Kerstin Schmidbauer and Robin von der Leyen for Constantin Television. The films will be produced in English as international co-productions aimed at the television series market, says ZDF editor-in-chief Claus Beling.