To LIS-CILIP members FYI. CILIP is an official partner in the Whitbread Book Awards.
Tim Buckley Owen
***
6th January 2004
Embargo: Not for publication or broadcast before 00.00 hours on
Wednesday, 7th January, 2004
2003 Whitbread Book Awards Category Winners
*Whitbread Novel Award won by acclaimed 'children's' book -
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
*Vernon God Little, winner of Man Booker Prize, collects
Whitbread First Novel Award
*David Almond scoops his second Whitbread Children's Book Award
*For the first time: Vote for your 'Whitbread Book of the Year', and win tickets to the awards ceremony to see the Whitbread Book of the Year.
Whitbread is delighted to announce the 2003 Whitbread Book Award winners - First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book. The Whitbread Book Awards, which were established by the UK's leading leisure business in 1971, highlight some the most enjoyable books of the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.
The five successful authors who will now contend for the Whitbread Book of the Year are:
· 2003 Man Booker Prize winner DBC Pierre for Vernon God Little in the First Novel Award category;
· Mark Haddon for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which, after receiving numerous children's and teenage fiction awards, has won the Novel Award;
· DJ Taylor - a judge for the 2003 Man Booker Prize - for his biography of Orwell, following the centenary of Orwell's birth;
· Multi-award-winning poet Don Paterson for Landing Light; and
· David Almond for The Fire-Eaters, his second Whitbread Award in the Children's Book Award category (he first won in 1998 for Skellig)
Whitbread's director of corporate affairs, David Reed, said: "Quantity doesn't always guarantee quality, but after receiving a record number of entries this year, we're proud to unveil such an outstanding collection of books which we know people will enjoy reading. The Whitbread Book Awards are unique in highlighting some
of the best examples of British writing as well as some of the most enjoyable reads, and this year's winners are, as always, terrific examples."
The five Whitbread Book Award winners, each of whom will receive £5,000, were selected from a record 468 entries.
The five books are now eligible for the ultimate prize - 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year. The winner will be announced at The Brewery, in central London on Tuesday 27th January, 2004 by a panel of judges chaired by the broadcaster Joan Bakewell and including Ralph Fiennes, Bill Bryson, Meera Syal and Liza Tarbuck, plus representatives from each of the category judging panels.
For the very first time members of the public can now vote via the Whitbread Book Awards website - www.whitbreadbookawards.co.uk <http://www.whitbreadbookawards.co.uk> - for which of the five books they would select as Whitbread Book of the Year. Everyone who votes will be entered into a special draw to win tickets to the awards dinner and presentation. A bar chart showing the current standing of votes cast will be accessible on the website.
The Whitbread Book Awards actively promote the enjoyment of reading, working in partnership with amazon.co.uk, CILIP (previously the Library Association), the National Reading Campaign and the Booksellers Association.
As part of a wider programme, the Whitbread Reading Partnership enables specially-trained Whitbread employees from its offices in Luton and Dunstable to visit local schools each week and listen to reading by children - many of whom have disadvantaged backgrounds and for many of whom English is their second language - as well as help them improve their literacy skills.
The Reading Partnership is funded by the Whitbread Community Investment Programme whose aim is to help young people achieve their potential. To find out more, visit www.whitbread.co.uk/Responsibility/index.cfm?id=2 <http://www.whitbread.co.uk/Responsibility/index.cfm?id=2>
ENDS
Notes for Editors:
1. Photography of the judges, authors and book jackets are available royalty-free from our website www.whitbreadbookawards.co.uk. To access high-resolution photography though the website, please visit PRESS OFFICE and then PHOTO LIBRARY LATEST and click on SECURE before entering password ENJOYREADING. For further information or assistance, please contact Johnny Abbott, (direct line) 020 7202 2822 or email: [log in to unmask]
2. To be eligible for the awards, books must have been published in the UK or Ireland between 1 November 2002 and 31 October 2003. Authors must have been domiciled in the UK or Ireland since November 2000.
3. The total prize fund for the Whitbread Awards now stand at £50,000. The award winners from the five categories - Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book - each receive £5,000.
4.. The Whitbread Book of the Year title was introduced in 1985 and has been won five times by a Novel, three times by a First Novel, four times by a Biography, five times by a collection of Poetry and once by a Children's Book.
2003 Whitbread Book Awards Winners
Whitbread First Novel Award Vernon God Little DBC Pierre
Whitbread Novel Award The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon
Whitbread Biography Award Orwell: The Life DJ Taylor
Whitbread Poetry Award Landing Light Don Paterson
Whitbread Children's Book Award The Fire-Eaters David Almond
Previous Winners of the
Whitbread Book of the Year
2002 Samuel Pepys:The Unequalled Self Claire Tomalin Biography
2001 The Amber Spyglass Philip Pullman Children's Book
2000 English Passengers Matthew Kneale Novel
1999 Beowulf Seamus Heaney Poetry
1998 Birthday Letters Ted Hughes Poetry
1997 Tales from Ovid Ted Hughes Poetry
1996 The Spirit Level Seamus Heaney Poetry
1995 Behind the Scenes at the Museum Kate Atkinson First Novel
1994 Felicia's Journey William Trevor Novel
1993 Theory of War Joan Brady Novel
1992 Swing Hammer Swing! Jeff Torrington First Novel
1991 A Life of Picasso John Richardson Biography
1990 Hopeful Monsters Nicholas Mosley Novel
1989 Coleridge: Early Visions Richard Holmes Biography
1988 The Comforts of Madness Paul Sayer First Novel
1987 Under the Eye of the Clock Christopher Nolan Biography
1986 An Artist of the Floating World Kazuo Ishiguro Novel
1985 Elegies Douglas Dunn Poetry
2003 Whitbread Novel Award
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Jonathan Cape
About the book:
A murder mystery novel like no other: The detective and narrator is Christopher Boone, a fifteen year old boy with Asperger's, a form of autism. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour's dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside-down.
About the author:
Mark Haddon is an author, illustrator and screenwriter, has written 18 books for children and won two BAFTAs. He is currently writing the TV adaptation of Fungus the Bogeyman for BBC and lives in Oxford with his wife and son.
What the Whitbread judges said:
"It has been claimed of many recent books that they could be read equally by adolescents or by adults. We felt that this was a rare and genuine example of a book which would sit equally well on the shelves of any bedroom in the house. Haddon sets himself considerable limitations - a teenage narrator who lacks conventional emotions - but makes his observations moving and amusing. We can think of few readers who could take no pleasure from this wonderful novel."
Judges:
Philip Hensher Author
Mark Lawson Journalist, Broadcaster and Author
Kate Summerscale Literary Editor, Daily Telegraph
Shortlist, selected from a total of 130 entries:
Rachel Cusk The Lucky Ones Fourth Estate
Shena Mackay Heligoland Jonathan Cape
Barbara Trapido Frankie & Stankie Bloomsbury
Previous Whitbread Novel Award winners include:
Michael Frayn Spies 2002
Patrick Neate Twelve Bar Blues 2001
Matthew Kneale English Passengers 2000
2003 Whitbread First Novel Award
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
Faber and Faber
About the book:
Vernon Gregory Little has secrets - but none of them, or so he assumes, have anything to do with the recent massacre of sixteen students at his high school. What he cannot see is that the quirky Texan backwater of Martirio is unable to face its role in the tragedy, and has become a deadly crucible as all eyes turn on Vernon. The media, his mother's social circle, and the increasingly prosperous townsfolk lead Vernon a merry dance of self-incrimination, as he flees to Mexico, is captured and put on trial as Texas' most notorious serial killer. Then, on the afternoon of his execution, Vernon conceives a wholly modern solution to his dilemma - one that calls for the greatest crime of all.
About the author:
DBC Pierre was born in Australia, but brought up in Mexico. Despite a 'fairy-tale' childhood, he increasingly escaped home to run with the street crowd. He has travelled extensively, has worked as a designer and is internationally published as a cartoonist. He currently lives in Ireland.
What the Whitbread judges said:
"This novel is electric, right down to the brilliantly imagined names of the characters, who each sear themselves indelibly in the mind of the reader. Best described as 'white trash gothic', the journey of Vernon Little from persecution and confusion to qualified redemption is a helter skelter ride of laughs, shocks and outrageous plot twists. This is the rarest of novels: unputdownable and unforgettable. A modern classic."
Judges:
Tim Lott Author
Jane Moore Journalist and Author
Patrick Neale The Bookshop, Chipping Norton
Shortlist, selected from a total of 67 entries:
Anne Donovan Buddha Da Canongate Books
Paul Murray An Evening of Long Goodbyes Hamish Hamilton
Talitha Stevenson An Empty Room Virago
Previous Whitbread First Novel Award winners include:
Norman Lebrecht The Song of Names 2002
Sid Smith Something Like a House 2001
Zadie Smith White Teeth 2000
2003 Whitbread Poetry Award
Landing Light by Don Paterson
Faber and Faber
About the book:
Landing Light is Paterson's most spiritual and accomplished collection to date, in which he guides the reader down the labyrinths of our most private emotions, pursuing the intimacy that the spoken - as well as the printed - word brings. Ceaselessly inquiring, deftly tuned into the emotional crackle of the world, Paterson explores the swings of light and dark that mark out our most troubling feelings.
About the author:
Don Paterson is the author of three collections of poetry - Nil Nil, God's Gift to Women and The Eyes - and the recipient of several literary awards. He's a guitarist and composer and has written drama for the stage and for radio. He is currently Poetry Editor for Picador.
What the Whitbread judges said:
"Landing Light is a collection of outstanding quality. We selected it from a very strong shortlist because it has an exceptional range of subjects and forms, all of which are handled with dazzling authority. Don Paterson is one of the best poets writing today: here he is at the top of his form."
Judges:
Andy Ching Waterstone's, Islington
Andrew Motion CBE Poet Laureate
Christina Patterson Deputy Literary Editor, The Independent
Shortlist, selected from a total of 62 entries:
Lavinia Greenlaw Minsk Faber and Faber
Jamie McKendrick Ink Stone Faber and Faber
Jean Sprackland Hard Water Jonathan Cape
Previous Whitbread Poetry Award winners include:
Paul Farley The Ice Age 2002
Selima Hill Bunny 2001
John Burnside The Asylum Dance 2000
2003 Whitbread Biography Award
Orwell: The Life by DJ Taylor
Chatto & Windus
About the book:
In the last half-century George Orwell's Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four have sold over 30 million copies. The adjective 'Orwellian' is now a byword for a particular way of thinking about life, literature and language, while Orwell himself has become one of the most potent and symbolic figures in western political thought. Drawing on a mass of previously unseen material, including interviews with friends and people who knew him in his years of obscurity, Taylor offers a strikingly human portrait of the writer too often embalmed as a secular saint.
About the author:
DJ Taylor is well-known as a novelist, critic and reviewer: his non-fiction books include After the War: The Novel and England Since 1945 and an acclaimed biography, Thackeray. He lives in Norwich.
What the Whitbread judges said:
"This is a masterly biography. Taylor distills the richness of a well documented life into something new and stylish. Freeing himself from mere chronology, he catches the flavour of Orwell's personal and literary life with a craftsman skill. Taylor is a biographer in command of his subject, whose book is witty, elegant and whole."
Judges:
Laurence Howell Freelance Book Consultant
Ysenda Maxtone Graham Author
James Naughtie Presenter: Today and Bookclub, BBC Radio 4
Shortlist, selected from a total of 98 entries:
John Campbell Margaret Thatcher - Volume Two: The Iron Lady Jonathan Cape
Caroline Moorehead Martha Gellhorn Chatto & Windus
Andrew Wilson Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith Bloomsbury
Previous Whitbread Biography Award winners include:
Claire Tomalin Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self 2002
Diana Souhami Selkirk's Island 2001
Lorna Sage Bad Blood: A Memoir 2000
2003 Whitbread Children's Book Award
The Fire-Eaters by David Almond
Hodder Children's
About the book:
The Fire-Eaters is the deceptively simple tale of Bobby Burns, a boy growing up in a seaside community near Newcastle at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Bobby's world is fraught with change and uncertainty from the looming political crisis to the much closer terrors of starting a new school and witnessing his dad's health falter. . .
About the author:
Before he became a full-time writer, David Almond was a teacher, a brush salesman, a builder's labourer, a hotel porter and a postman. His novels have won many awards; his first, Skellig, won the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and the Carnegie Medal. Almond lives with his family in Newcastle.
What the Whitbread judges said:
"This is an outstanding book and an outstandingly beautiful one too. Few authors can map the topography of the human heart as well as Almond. He has the exquisite ability to describe the nature of love and the constant wonder of being alive. His prose flows like warm honey - every sentence, every paragraph is beautifully structured and every image is perfectly chosen."
Judges:
Jenny Agutter Actress
Colin Brabazon Head of Children's Library Services, North Lincs Council
Gillian Cross Author
Lizo Mzimba Presenter: CBBC Newsround, BBC Television
Niral Panchal Young Judge: Write Here, Write Now competition winner
Jacquie Peate Young Judge: CBBC Newsround, 'Presspacker'
Shortlist, selected from a total of 111 entries:
Catherine Fisher The Oracle Hodder Children's
Michael Morpurgo Private Peaceful HarperCollins
Jeanne Willis Naked Without a Hat Faber and Faber
Previous Whitbread Children's Book Award winners include:
Hilary McKay Saffy's Angel 2002
Philip Pullman The Amber Spyglass 2001
Jamila Gavin Coram Boy 2000
Final Judging Panel
2003 Whitbread Book Of The Year
The Final Judging Panel will meet on Tuesday 27th January 2004 to decide the Whitbread Book of the Year which will be announced at a presentation ceremony later that evening. The ten judges are:
Final Judging Panel
Chairman
Joan Bakewell CBE
Author and broadcaster
Bill Bryson
Writer
Gillian Cross
Writer
representing Children's Panel
Ralph Fiennes
Actor
Tim Lott
Writer
representing First Novel Panel
Ysenda Maxtone Graham
Writer
representing Biography Panel
Andrew Motion CBE
Poet Laureate
representing Poetry Panel
Philip Hensher
Writer
representing Novel Panel
Meera Syal MBE
Actress, Comedienne, Novelist and Playwright
Liza Tarbuck
Actress and Presenter
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