This weeks Literary Ledger 19 to 26 June 2026

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) Sense and Sensibility Trailer Release 

Nobody panic, but the Sense and Sensibility trailer has just dropped. I will always and forever appreciate period drama adaptations (unless it’s the Netflix adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, in that case, we shan’t speak of it).

The film stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood, Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne Dashwood, and George MacKay as Edward Ferrars. And the best part? Not a single iPhone face between them. If you’re confused about what I mean by “iPhone face,” once I explain it, you won’t be able to unsee it. It’s a face that feels too modern for period pieces, someone who clearly knows what an iPhone is, and it pulls you out of the story. This can come from a myriad of reasons: lip filler, Botox, dyed hair with visible roots, overly perfect modern makeup, veneers, inaccurate costuming, the list goes on.

Anyway, I saw the trailer and it looks very… organic, if I can put it into words. I’m very excited for this adaptation because I’ve studied the book and really loved it, especially the relationship between the sisters, which, funnily enough, despite it being a romance, feels like the focal point of the story.

It reminds me of the naturalness of the Pride and Prejudice (2005) adaptation, and that is a huge compliment because nothing can really compare to that. But we’ll see once the film is out before making any final judgments.

II) Sarah Wynn-Williams, Previously Silenced, Now Sues Meta

Back in late June/early July, I wrote about this story. To summarise: at the Hay Festival, Sarah Wynn-Williams was prevented from speaking at a talk she was due to attend and was also at risk of being fined $50,000 (£37,100) following legal action from Meta linked to her book Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism. The book is a memoir and insider account of her time at Meta, in which she alleges she was terminated after reporting that her boss had sexually harassed her.

Wynn-Williams is now suing Meta, claiming the company attempted to silence her. According to Ravi Naik, legal director of AWO Legal and her UK lawyer, the lawsuit marked “the first time Sarah has been able to explain to the world what has happened to her.”

III) Commonwealth Foundation Gives Final Say on AI Allegations in Short Story Prize Entry

This is another story previously mentioned in L.L. Back in May, there was a controversy surrounding the 2026 Commonwealth Foundation regional category entry The Serpent in the Grove, which was accused of being partially or fully generated using AI.

Since then, a formal review has been conducted by the Foundation. They examined the issue as thoroughly as possible, including discussions with the author, a review of drafts and notes, an assessment of the writing process, and conversations with the judges. After this, they concluded that they found no evidence of AI use and stood by the results.

That said, authorship is becoming increasingly difficult to verify in a reliable way. It raises a wider concern for literature: in the future, some writers may be wrongly accused of using AI, while others who do may slip through unnoticed. It’s a problem that still feels unresolved, and one we’ll likely continue to see debated.

IV) Teenage Boys Lag Behind in Reading Variety

An interesting article I came across today suggests that teenage boys are increasingly falling behind girls when it comes to the variety of genres they read. The survey looked at ages 11–14 and found that eight out of the top ten books read by boys were from Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

By contrast, girls’ reading choices showed a much wider range of genres, including Heartstopper by Alice Oseman, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling.

The findings come from a large-scale report analysing more than 23 million reading quizzes completed by almost 1.1 million children across the UK and Ireland during the 2024–25 academic year.

V) Simon & Schuster Partners with The Black List to Expand Adaptation Pipeline

Simon & Schuster has collaborated with the Black List, a multifunctional web platform focused on screenplay development and a way to discover new writers and producers. Think of it as a platform to discover new talent in things like plays, screenplays, manuscripts, and in 2024 books made that list. SS are to add more than 6,000 titles from the publisher's backlist to the platform's searchable online database. This is to help film and television professionals find new projects for potential film adaptation.

It's nice to hear of a publishing house that is collaborating with a company other than AI for once.