This weeks Literary Ledger 19 to 26 December 2025

Welcome to your weekly roundup of all things books! We’re keeping it short and sweet, just five stories to keep you in the loop without overwhelming you. Think of this as your quick fix for staying connected to the book world.

I) David Walliams Dropped: Updates

After last week, the first thing we spoke about was David Walliams and his removal from HarperCollins following allegations of “inappropriate behaviour” towards junior women at the company. Walliams has denied all allegations. However, the fallout has not stopped there. He has now also been removed from the line-up for the Waterstones Children’s Book Festival in Dundee in February 2026, a decision confirmed by HarperCollins UK.

Walliams remains one of the most commercially successful authors, having sold 25.7 million books and generated £153.3 million in sales since he began publishing with HarperCollins in 2008.

II) National Year of Reading 2026: FMcM on PR Duty

FMcM, a UK-based books and culture communications agency, has officially been appointed as the public relations agency for the National Year of Reading 2026, something we’ve been following closely over the past few weeks. It’s a wonderful initiative, backed by the government and led by the National Literacy Trust, with support from the Department for Education. The campaign aims to spark a “reading revolution” across the UK, encouraging people of all ages to read more and helping reverse declines in reading for pleasure and literacy engagement.

As part of this, FMcM will lead the PR work for the campaign, shaping and amplifying its media presence throughout the year. I’m curious to see how their role will influence press coverage and public discourse around literature, raising awareness and participation across the country.

III) AI, Authors, and the Cost of Greed

A bit of news from across the pond in America, where, as usual, there’s never a dull moment. Most of the time when I write about the US, it somehow involves Trump, but not this time, at least not by name. Six authors have filed individual copyright infringement lawsuits against Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI, and Perplexity AI. The suits were filed in the Northern District of California. According to the filings, these companies copied the authors’ books from well-known pirate libraries to train their language models, all without permission, licensing, or compensation. The authors involved are John Carreyrou, Lisa Barretta, Philip Shishkin, Jane Adams, Matthew Sack, and Michael Kochin.

From this, it’s clear that AI is not a friend to writers or creatives, and, worse, these systems are being used to exploit them. The problem isn’t just that companies are using other people’s words to train their models; it’s that they do so without permission or compensation, taking people’s skills, hard work, and genius to make themselves even richer. Meanwhile, the arts suffer.

What these big companies are willing to do in the name of money is unreal, especially when there’s little risk to them. They could act legally and ethically while still earning money, but instead, they take shortcuts, exploit authors, and save even more at the expense of creativity.

This reminds me of when the Waterstones said they would stock AI-generated books, as long as they were clearly labelled and customers wanted them. Whether or not they expect this to happen, it’s an atrocious thing to say. How dare the owner of a massive bookstore, a symbol of curiosity, learning, and imagination, invest in AI books just because people might want them? If every world leader wanted nuclear warheads, would we just hand them over? Oh, right… Nevermind. Still, the point remains: just because we can doesn’t mean we should.

It’s a stark reminder of the times we live in: money often speaks louder than ethics, and greed is insatiable. Ruining the very industry you profit from? Apparently, that’s fine, as long as it benefits only you in your lifetime. The idea that someone who profits off authors would invest in AI books feels like the ultimate insult.

IV) Charlie Mackesy’s First Christmas Number One

Charlie Mackesy’s new book, Always Remember, has become the UK’s Christmas number one bestseller in the final full week of 2025. It sold tens of thousands of copies that week, massively outselling its competitors.

This isn’t surprising: the book is a sequel to Mackesy’s hugely popular The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, which was even adapted into a short drama by the BBC in 2022. Always Remember marks Mackesy’s first Christmas number one in the UK charts.

V) Sony Snags Peanuts in £340m Deal

Sony has officially taken control of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts franchise (Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and the gang) in a deal worth C$630m (£340m). The move bumps Sony’s stake, which it’s been building since 2018, up to 80%, with the Schulz family keeping the remaining 20%.

For a bit of history: Peanuts first appeared as a comic strip in seven newspapers back in 1950 and ran daily until Schulz passed away in 2000. Since then, it’s grown into a global franchise with TV shows, toys, films, and even theme park attractions.

In the UK, Sony also owns or has majority control of the production companies behind shows like Downton Abbey, Outlander, Industry, and His Dark Materials.