News

London, Aug 02: British boozers have been sharing bizarre drunk photographs in colourful costumes with the world on a series of "50 Shades Of..." pages.

50 Shades Of Burnley features bizarre pics of an overturned car and a reveller dressed in a dayglo mankini, while the Ribble Valley's site shows a pair of party queens flashing their pants, the Daily Star reported.

Although more than 42,000 users have 'liked' the groups, campaigners have called for Facebook to take down the pages.

Blackburn MP Jack Straw has branded the pages as "unpleasant and abusive," while Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle called the groups "outrageous and disgraceful".

A spokesman for the social networking site said that the pages did not.

Life and work of Iain Banks to be honoured at 30th festival, with Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman also featuring in two-week event partnered by the Guardian

The life and works of the late Iain Banks will be celebrated by close friends including Ian Rankin and Val McDermid in a special event at this August's Edinburgh international book festival, for which the Guardian is media partner.

"Scotland and the world were rocked by his death last weekend," said Nick Barley, the festival director. "We'd been planning a celebration anyway as we're marking our 30th birthday, and his first novel, The Wasp Factory, was out in 1984. I spoke to him many times about what he'd like to do. He wanted to be there – sadly he can't be."

Instead, the event on the festival's closing Sunday will see Scottish authors including Rankin, McDermid and Ken MacLeod looking back over Banks's 29-year career.

An absorbing portrait of Patrick Leigh Fermor found the man behind the myth, while Edna O'Brien's perfect memoir cherished her many lives and loves

The outstanding achievement in literary biography this year was Artemis Cooper's Patrick Leigh Fermor (Murray £25). Like Dickens (whose life as told by Claire Tomalin was a highlight of 2011), Paddy Leigh Fermor lived life to the limit. Before he was 30, he had not only walked from London to Constantinople, but had fallen in love with a Romanian princess and, famously, abducted a German general in the battle for Crete. Leigh Fermor is a colourful and romantic proposition, but how do you write about a man who has already been mythologised in bestsellers such as Ill Met By Moonlight? Cooper's answer is to find the man behind the myth in a sharp, absorbing portrait of the scholar-gypsy. I was particularly grateful for the news that, until well into old age,...

The crème of the Asian community has been shortlisted and this year’s nominees announced for the coveted Asian Achievers Awards 2012. Taking place on 14th September at Grosvenor House Hotel, the Asian Achievers Awards will recognise the outstanding work of individuals from across all businesses and professions and acknowledge the accomplishments of the finest of the UK’s Asian community.

Hosted by Asian Business Publications Ltd (Abpl), the event is now into its 12th year and promises to be bigger and better than ever before as 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the publishing group’s iconic newspapers, Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar. The esteemed award ceremony will be interspersed with a line-up of world-class entertainment, a sumptuous dinner and charity auction in aid of The Sarvam Trust, an Ngo that assists the integral development of rural India, including education for children. Their aim is to make villages across India self...