HILARY SPURLING WINS
2005 WHITBREAD BOOK OF THE YEAR

Biographer Hilary Spurling has won the prestigious 2005 Whitbread Book of the Year award for the second part of her masterful biography of Matisse, Matisse the Master, a work which took her 15 years to complete.  The announcement was made this evening (Tuesday 24 January) at an awards ceremony held at The Brewery in Central London.

In one of the most open contests since the Book of the Year award was introduced in 1985, Matisse the Master beat odds-on favourite the accidental by Ali Smith, first-time novelist Tash Aw for The Harmony Silk Factory, poet Christopher Logue for Cold Calls and children’s book The New Policeman by Kate Thompson,  for the overall prize.
 
Following the judging, Michael Morpurgo, MBE, chair of the final judges, said: “We all agreed that when you get to the end of this book you are sorry it has finished; an extraordinary achievement for a book of this length.”

Whitbread Group PLC created the Whitbread Book Awards in 1971 in order to celebrate the most enjoyable books of the year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.  Since then, it has successfully developed into one of the foremost and most prestigious literary awards in the UK today. Whitbread PLC’s Chief Executive, Alan Parker, presented Spurling with her cheque for £25,000 at the glittering ceremony. 

Matisse the Master, published by Hamish Hamilton, is the fifth biography to take the overall prize. Claire Tomalin was the last author to win the Whitbread Book of the Year with a biography taking the prize in 2002 for Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self.

Since the introduction of the Whitbread Book of the Year award in 1985, it has been won seven 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.

Last year, Andrea Levy took the title with her novel, Small Island, which has since gone on to become a major bestseller, selling over 600,000 copies since its publication in paperback.