• Actresses Joely Richardson and Hermione Norris
  and Oscar-winning screen-writer Julian Fellowes invited to judge
• Authors Joanna Trollope, Michael Dobbs, Wendy Cope, Geraldine McCaughrean and Adam Sisman on the panel

Broadcaster and journalist Ian Hislop will chair the final judging panel for the 2002 Whitbread Book Awards, which will decide the winner of the 2002 Whitbread Book of the Year, worth £25,000,  it was announced today.

Joining Ian on the panel will be actresses - and fellow book-lovers - Joely Richardson and Hermione Norris (Cold Feet) and Oscar-winning screenwriter and actor, Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park).  Authors Joanna Trollope, Michael Dobbs, Wendy Cope, Adam Sisman and Geraldine McCaughrean will each represent their category judging panel.  The final judging panel will meet on Tuesday 28th January 2003 to select the winner of the award, which will be announced at a ceremony later that evening.

Ian has judged for the Whitbread once before in 1996, though he has never previously chaired the panel.  The writer and broadcaster, best known for his appearances on BBC-2's Have I Got News for You and for editing Private Eye, said, "I have always been a fan of the Whitbread Book Awards.  The quality of the books is terrific and so is the quality of the rows.  When I was last judging we had a great one about Beryl Bainbridge.  And the Seamus Heaney versus Harry Potter rumpus a few years later was a classic.  I am sure the judges will not disappoint this year. "     

David Reed, Director of Corporate Affairs for Whitbread PLC, said, " Whitbread aims to celebrate the best current British writing, with books that can be enjoyed by everyone.  One of the ways we achieve this is by selecting judges from a variety of backgrounds, who are passionate about books.  That can result in some pretty heated discussions at times but I think our shortlisted authors deserve nothing less. "

Established by Whitbread in 1971, previous winners of the award include Philip Pullman, who earlier this year became the first children's book winner to win the overall award, Seamus Heaney, Salman Rushdie, Ted Hughes, JK Rowling, Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan.  enjoy!reading remains the Whitbread strapline and key remit with the awards continuing their partnerships with amazon.co.uk, CILIP (previously the Library Association), the National Reading Campaign and the Booksellers Association, to actively promote the enjoyment of reading.

The nine judges for the two awards are:

Ian Hislop                        Broadcaster and journalist
Wendy Cope                    Writer, representing the Poetry Award judges
Michael Dobbs                  Writer, representing the Novel Award judges
Julian Fellowes                 Actor and Screenwriter
Geraldine McCaughrean    Writer, representing the Children's Book
                                      Award judges
Hermione Norris               Actress
Joely Richardson              Actress
Adam Sisman                  Writer, representing the Biography Award judges
Joanna Trollope               Writer, representing the First Novel Award judges

Final judges in previous years have included Saffron Burrows, Jonathan Ross, Jerry Hall,  Kirsty Young, Imogen Stubbs and Alan Davies, amongst others.  A short biography of each judge on this year's panel, including his or her favourite books, is attached.

ENDS

For further information on the Whitbread Book Awards contact Sunita Rappai at Karen Earl Sponsorship on 020 7202 2822 or e-mail [email protected].

Notes for Editors:
Photography of the judges is available royalty-free from website www.whitbread-bookawards.co.uk. High-resolution photography suitable for media reproduction. 

Final judging panel: 2002 Whitbread Book Awards

Ian Hislop (Broadcaster and journalist) Chairman
Best known for his appearances on the BBC-1 quiz show, Have I Got News For You, Ian Hislop was born in Wales in 1960 and subsequently studied English Language and Literature at Oxford.  He has written for the Spectator, the Mail on Sunday, the FT, the Guardian and Literary Review.  Most of his time however is devoted to editing Private Eye - a post he has held since 1986.  Under Hislop, the magazine recently celebrated its 40th anniversary, fought off a decade-long libel action brought against the magazine by a Cornish accountant and became Britain's best-selling current affairs magazine.  He is also a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, a regular on BBC-2's Late Review and writes for television in conjunction with old friend, Nick Newman. He was also Chairman of the Judges for the Blue Peter Book Awards this year and a judge for the previous two years. He is currently working on a programme for BBC Radio 4 about the patron saints of the UK and Ireland.  He lives in Kent with his wife Victoria, son William and daughter Emily.
Ian lists some of his favourite authors as George Eliot, George Orwell, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Jonathan Swift, Evelyn Waugh, A G Macdonell, William Boyd, Shiva Naipaul, Robertson Davies, A N Wilson, Barry Unsworth, Tom Wolfe and Carol Shields

Wendy Cope (Writer )  representing the Poetry Award judges
Poet Wendy Cope was born in Erith, Kent in 1945 and read History at St Hilda's College, Oxford.  She trained as a teacher at Westminster College of Education, Oxford and taught in primary schools in London (1967-81 and 1984-6), before becoming a freelance writer in 1986.  Her poetry collections include Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (1986), Serious Concerns (1992) and If I Don't Know  (2001), which was shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread Poetry Award.  She has edited a number of poetry anthologies and is also the author of two books for children, Twiddling Your Thumbs (1988) and The River Girl (1991).  Wendy is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in Winchester, England.
Favourite books:  Persuasion by Jane Austen;  Barchester Chronicles by Wendy Cope; The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe.  Among her favourite poets are George Herbert, AE Housman and Emily Dickinson

Michael Dobbs (Writer) representing the Novel Award judges
Michael Dobbs is one of Britain's best-known novelists and political commentators, and a former presenter of BBC TV's Despatch Box.  He is the author of the House of Cards series and creator of Francis Urquhart, one of the most controversial fictional figures of recent years.  He was formerly Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party and also Deputy Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi.  He was an adviser to Margaret Thatcher, Norman Tebbit and John Major, and has a doctorate in defence studies.  His books have all been bestsellers.  Michael's new book, Winston's War, which was published in November, is based around the relationship between Winston Churchill and the Soviet spy Guy Burgess in the crucial year of 1938 and has been shortlisted for the Channel 4 Political Book of the Year Award
Favourite books:  The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien; The Bible

Julian Fellowes  Actor and Screenwriter 
Julian Fellowes, actor, writer, lecturer, producer, was educated at Ampleforth College in Yorkshire and Magdalene College, Cambridge.   He is probably best known for his portrayal of the incorrigible Lord Kilwillie in the BBC drama Monarch of the Glen. Other credits include Our Friends in the North and Sharpe's Regiment as well as Shadowlands, Damage and Tomorrow Never Dies on the big screen.  His screenplay for Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman, won the Oscar for that year as well as several other major awards.  He has just completed a screenplay for Universal Pictures as well as working on a new version of Vanity Fair for Granada Films.  Julian is married to Emma, nee Kitchener, a lady-in-waiting to HRH Princess Michael of Kent.  They have a son called Peregrine and a dachsund called Fudge.
Favourite books: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte; Our Bones are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacres and the Indian Mutiny of 1857 by Andrew Ward; Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess; The Chimneys of Green Knowe by Lucy M Boston

Geraldine McCaughrean  (Writer) representing the Children's Book Award judges
Geraldine was born in 1951 in Enfield and lives in Berkshire.  She worked as a secretary with a TV company until training as a teacher at Christ Church College of Education.  Her first novel, A Little Lower than the Angels, won the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 1987.  She has since written over 100 books and plays for children and adults, including A Pack of Lies, which won both the Carnegie Medal and Guardian Children's Fiction Award,  Gold Dust, which won her another Whitbread Children's Book Award, Forever X and more recently, The Kite Rider and Stop the Train.  Geraldine is married and has one daughter, called Ailsa.
Favourite books:  Tales of the Early World by Ted Hughes; Mr Pye by Mervyn Peake; Jeremiah in the Dark Worlds by Janet Ahlberg. 

Hermione Norris  Actress
Hermione Norris, 34, was born in Essex and is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Karen Marsden in the multi-award winning series Cold Feet, the fifth series of which has just finished filming.   Having trained as a dancer, she went on to work in the theatre, appearing in Chekhov's The Seagull at the Moscow Arts Theatre and Stephen Poliakoff's Blinded by the Sun at the National, amongst others. Her feature film credits include Born Romantic, Mad Cows and Quicksand, alongside Michael Caine, while her television credits include Lucky Jim, The Men's Room and the BBC dramas, Berkeley Square and Clarissa.  Most recently, she completed a two-handed single-drama for Channel 4 called Falling Apart in which she played opposite Mark Strong.  She can currently be seen on screen starring opposite Robson Green in Wire in the Blood. Hermione's recreations include scuba diving, bungee jumping and yoga.
Favourite books:  The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot; The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker; After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell

Joely Richardson  Actress
It's impossible not to mention Joely Richardson's pedigree.  She is the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and Tony Richardson, the granddaughter of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, the niece of actors Corin and Lynn Redgrave, and sister of actress Natasha Richardson.  Her film credits range from Peter Greenaway's arthouse favorite Drowning By Numbers (1988), the winning 1996 remake of 101 Dalmatians to a starring role alongside Mel Gibson in war drama The Patriot.  In 1984, she won critical acclaim for her performance in the drama Sister, My Sister (1994), which cast her as a maid caught up in an incestuous lesbian love affair with her sister.  She is currently filming Fallen Angel opposite Gary Sinise in the wilds of Northern Canada.  She has a daughter, Daisy, born in 1992.
Favourite books: Joely is currently reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Adam Sisman  (Writer) representing the Biography Award judges
Adam Sisman writes and reviews books for newspapers and magazines in Britain, Ireland and America.  He worked as a book publisher for almost fifteen years before taking up writing.  His most recent book, Boswell's Presumptuous Task, was shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread Biography Award as well as several other prizes, and won the prestigious American National Books Critics Circle Award in 2002.  His earlier book, AJP Taylor: A Biography, was also highly acclaimed and was shortlisted for a number of literary prizes.  Adam lives near Bath, with his wife, the novelist Robyn Sisman, and their two children.  He is currently working on a new book about the friendship between Wordsworth and Coleridge. 
Favourite books: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens,  Favourite authors include Jane Austen, Waugh, Orwell, Kingsley Amis, Boswell, AJP Taylor and "any number of others including Herge and Richmal Crompton".

Joanna Trollope (Writer) representing the First Novel Award judges
Joanna Trollope, 58, is the best-selling author of The Choir, The Rector's Wife, Other's People Children - which were all made into successful television series - A Spanish Lover, and latest novel girl from the south.  She was born in her grandfather's rectory in the Cotswolds in December 1943.  She is the eldest of three siblings, the mother of two daughters, stepmother of two stepsons and now a grandmother.  She was state educated in Surrey, then won a "tiny, tiny" scholarship to Oxford and went on to be first a civil servant, then a teacher, before succumbing to full time writing about twenty years ago.  She has been married twice and now lives alone - except for a Labrador the size of a sofa - partly in London and partly in the Cotswolds.  She lists her recreations in Who's Who as "reading, conversation and very long baths".  
Favourite books: Middlemarch by George Eliot; The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay; Period Piece by Gwen Raverat; Shakespeare
2002 Whitbread Book Awards: Category Shortlists

2002 Whitbread Novel Award shortlist (4 books)
Judges: Michael Dobbs, Author; Vanessa Eversfield, Operations Director, Ottakar's; Peter Kemp, Fiction Editor, Sunday Times

White Lightning                 Justin Cartwright     Sceptre
Spies                               Michael Frayn           Faber & Faber
Rumours of a Hurricane     Tim Lott                   Viking
The Story of Lucy Gault     William Trevor          Viking

2002 Whitbread First Novel Award shortlist (4 books)
Judges: Joanna Trollope, Author; Bonnie Greer, Playwright, Novelist, Broadcaster; James Daunt, Daunt Books

The End of My Tether         Neil Astley               Flambard
Homage to a Firing Squad  Tariq Goddard          Sceptre
The Imperssionist Hari       Kunzru                    Hamish Hamilton
The Song of Names           Norman Lebrecht      Review

2002 Whitbread Poetry Award shortlist (4 books)
Judges: Wendy Cope, Poet; Tom Sutcliffe, Critic and Broadcaster; Jonathan Barker, Deputy Director, Literature, British Council

Something for the Ghosts   David Constantine      Bloodaxe
The Ice Age                      Paul Farley                 Picador
Voodoo Shop                    Ruth Padel                 Chatto & Windus
The Beautiful Lie               Sheenagh Pugh           Seren
  
  
2002 Whitbread Biography Award shortlist (4 books)
Judges: Adam Sisman, Author; Dylan Jones, Editor, GQ; Karen Tyerman, Assistant Director, (Libraries and Lifelong Learning), Brent Council

Anthony Blunt: His Lives                   Miranda Carter             Macmillan
Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA    Brenda Maddox   Harper Collins
The Real Mrs Miniver                        Ysenda Maxtone Graham  John Murray
Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self   Claire Tomalin             Viking

2002 Whitbread Children's Book Award (4 books)
Judges: Geraldine McCaughrean, Author; S F Said, Author and Commentator; Jane Robertson, Buyer, Children's Books, Harrods

Exodus                 Julie Bertagna        Young Picador
Saffy's Angel        Hilary McKay          Hodder Children's Books
Sorceress            Celia Rees              Bloomsbury
Mortal Engines      Philip Reeve           Scholastic

ends