Lockdown to be eased as Covid death rate halves
●First Minister to unveil ‘route map’ for lifting restrictions as fatalities fall
Nicola Sturgeon will today unveil plans for a four-phase “route map” detailing Scotland’s exit from coronavirus lockdown after deaths from the virus fell for the third week in a row.
The strategy is based on World Health Organisation (WHO) advice and experience of other countries which have emerged from lockdown, with the first phase of eased measures poised to be given the green light as early as next week.
If continued progress is seen in suppressing the virus north of the Border over the next week, the plan will confirm the first phase of easing restrictions will start from 28 May.
Within a few days of that, ministers will be looking to allow more outdoor activity – such as being able to sit in the park and to meet up outdoors with someone from another household, as long as social distancing rules are followed.
Some limited outdoor sporting activities, like golf and fishing, may also be allowed, along with the opening of garden centres and recycling facilities and the resumption of some outdoor work.
The move comes after official figures published by National Records
It was a debut novel by a Scottish author which captured the imagination of readers from across the globe when it was published three years ago.
Now Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman has been revealed as the UK’S most borrowed e-book from public libraries last year.
Meanwhile, Sally Rooney’s Normal People, Circe by Madeleine Miller and Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt were also among the Top 10, according to the latest figures on public library borrowing compiled and released by Public Lending Right (PLR).
Other Scottish authors JK Rowling and Julia Donaldson both made the top ten of the most borrowed children’s authors, while Donaldson also appeared on the list of the most-borrowed authors overall.
Administered from the British Library, the Public Lending Right scheme gives authors and other contributors the legal right to payment from the Government each time their books are borrowed from a UK public library.
For the first time, the PLR annual public library loans data – released today for the period covering 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019 – includes figures on e-book borrowing as well as print books, audiobooks and regional borrowing.
The change comes as e-book borrowing has seen a huge surge due to the closure of physical libraries due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
A recent study carried out in England last week by Libraries
Connected found that the borrowing of e-books had rocketed by 358 per cent since lockdown began. Digital audiobooks has also seen a 217 per cent increase in the number of people borrowing them.
Continuing the trend of previous years, the list of most borrowed print titles is dominated by thrillers, with James Patterson taking the title of most borrowed author for the thirteenth year running.
Three of the top ten most borrowed physical books were from the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. Eleanor Oliphant also made the top ten of physical books, ranking in fourth place.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine took the literary world by storm when it was published in 2017. Stirling-born Honeyman beat off competition from well-known authors including Marian Keyes, Jojo Moyes, Graham Norton and Robert Harris, to scoop the Popular Fiction Prize at the National Book Awards in 2018, while her book also won the Costa First Novel Award and was named the British Book Awards Book of the Year.
The story, set in Glasgow, tells the tale of 29-year-old Eleanor Oliphant, a social misfit with a traumatic past.
The PLR figures also showed that children’s literature continues to feature heavily across UK print borrowing, with Roald Dahl, Julia Donaldson, Daisy Meadows, Francesca Simon and David Walliams appearing among the top ten most borrowed authors.
Tom Holland, chair of the PLR Advisory Committee, said: “If PLR is to stay the same – to paraphrase Lampedusa’s famous quip – then it has to change.
“This year’s figures show just how successfully it is achieving this. As it ever does, it is disbursing funds to a wide range of authors and contributors, and ensuring that they are properly remunerated for the borrowing of their books from libraries.”
“If PLR is to stay the same – to paraphrase Lampedusa’s famous quip– then it has to change”
TOM HOLLAND
Chair of the PLR Advisory Committee