- Newscaster Sir Trevor McDonald OBE to chair
- Former political opponents – Roy Hattersley and Michael Portillo - join forces as judges
- Writers Jenny Colgan, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Lavinia Greenlaw and Joanne Harris, together with journalist and broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, complete the panel
Film actor Hugh Grant will be a member of the final judging panel which selects the overall winner of the 2004 Whitbread Book of the Year, it was announced today.
The panel will be chaired by award-winning ITN newscaster, Sir Trevor McDonald OBE and will include journalist and broadcaster Mariella Frostrup; the Rt Hon Michael Portillo MP, Conservative Member of Parliament for Kensington and Chelsea; and writer and former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Roy Hattersley, who also sat on this year’s Whitbread Biography Award judging panel.
The other four category judging panels are represented by writers Jenny Colgan (Novel), Kevin Crossley-Holland (Children’s Book Award), Lavinia Greenlaw (Poetry) and Joanne Harris (First Novel). The final judges will meet on Tuesday, 25th January 2005 to select the winner of the award, which will be announced at a ceremony later that evening.
Alan Parker, chief executive of Whitbread PLC, said: “The Whitbread Book Awards celebrate well-written and enjoyable books across five different categories. It’s never an easy task to pick just one winner, but we’re delighted to have a panel of nine avid readers who are passionate about books, and, most importantly, whose opinions we believe the book-loving public will both respect and be interested in.”
Former final judges include Ralph Fiennes, Jerry Hall, Ian Hislop, Jonathan Ross, Imogen Stubbs, Liza Tarbuck and Kirsty Young. Recent winners of the Whitbread Book of the Year include Claire Tomalin, Philip Pullman, Seamus Heaney and the late Ted Hughes. Last year, Mark Haddon took the title with his crossover novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which has since gone on to sell over one million paperback copies in the adult's and children's market.
The Whitbread Book Awards, in partnership with the National Reading Campaign, CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals), amazon.co.uk and the Booksellers Association, continue to explore new ways of promoting the enjoyment of reading in the UK.
Whitbread PLC, which was originally founded in 1742, is the UK's leading hospitality business, managing some of the UK's strongest brands in hotels, restaurants and racquets, health and fitness clubs. The 50,000 people who work in Whitbread’s businesses serve 10 million customers each month at more than 1,400 locations across the UK.
Full details of the shortlists follow.
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Notes for Editors:
1. The Whitbread Book Awards, which were established in 1971, aim to encourage, promote and celebrate the best and most enjoyable books of the year in five different categories.
2. To be eligible for the 2004 Awards, books must have been first published in the UK or Ireland between 1 November 2003 and 31 October 2004.
3. The total prize fund for the Whitbread Awards stands 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 overall Whitbread Book of the Year is selected from the five category award winners with the winner receiving a further £25,000. The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony at The Brewery, central London on January 25, 2005.
5. Since the introduction of the Whitbread Book of the Year award in 1985, it has been won six 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.
About Whitbread PLC:
Whitbread PLC is the UK's leading hospitality business, managing the number one brands in hotels, restaurants and racquets, health and fitness clubs, including Premier Travel Inn, Marriott (UK), Brewers Fayre, Beefeater, Costa, TGI Friday's and David Lloyd Leisure, and a strategic investment in Pizza Hut (UK).
Our success is due to the 50,000 people we employ in our businesses and the skill with which they serve the 10 million customers who each month visit our 1,400 outlets across the UK.
Whitbread's strategy is to create value for our shareholders by focusing on growth in expanding sectors of the hospitality industry, primarily in the UK but also in selected international markets. In the financial year to March 4, 2004, Whitbread generated pre-tax, pre-exceptional profit of £240.8m on sales of more than £1.8bn.
Founded in 1742, the company is listed on the London Stock Exchange (as WTB.L) and is a member of the FTSE 100 and FTSE4Good indices. Further information is available from www.whitbread.co.uk.
2004 Whitbread Book Awards:
Final Judging Panel Biographies
Sir Trevor McDonald OBE: Newscaster (Chairman)
Sir Trevor has presented the flagship evening news bulletin for ITV since 1990, first as co-presenter and, from 1992, as sole presenter. He has received more awards than any other news broadcaster in Britain, including in 2003 the National TV Award for Outstanding Commitment to Television, which was presented to him by Prime Minister Tony Blair. Sir Trevor has reported on some of the world’s most momentous events, including in 1990, when he carried out the first British television interview with Nelson Mandela on his release from prison. Sir Trevor likes political biographies and reads a great deal of American political publishing; he has read half a dozen books on both the Clinton administration and on the current Bush Presidency. He also enjoys 'racy' novels, such as The Da Vinci Code, and one of his favourite books is The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes.
Jenny Colgan: Writer (representing the Novel Award panel)
Jenny worked for the National Health Service in administration for six years and tried her hand at cartooning and stand-up comedy before becoming a writer. She works in television and radio (notably on Radio 4’s Front Row) and has written for a number of papers, including The Scotsman and the Guardian. Jenny is the author of novels Amanda's Wedding, Looking for Andrew McCarthy and Do You Remember the First Time?
Kevin Crossley-Holland: Writer (representing the Children’s Book Award panel)
Kevin is a poet, children’s writer, librettist and translator from Anglo-Saxon. His ‘Arthur’ trilogy is being translated into 21 languages and the first part, The Seeing Stone, won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award and the Tir na n-Og Award. A patron of the Society for Storytelling and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he is married to a Minnesotan and has four children. Kevin’s favourite authors include; “WB Yeats, a foolish, wise word-magician; Umberto Eco, storyteller of storytellers; Rosemary Sutcliff for understanding children and her feeling of time and place.”
Mariella Frostrup: Journalist and Broadcaster
Mariella writes regularly for The Observer, the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, as well as magazines including Harpers and Queen and the New Statesman. She has also presented television programmes on current affairs, film and the arts, including BBC2’s The Culture Show, and is currently presenting the Radio 2 arts show, The Green Room and Open Book for Radio 4. Mariella is a respected arts critic and has sat on the judging panels of various awards including the Evening Standard Film Awards, the Amnesty International Media Awards, the Esquire Non-Fiction Awards and the London Film Festival.
Hugh Grant: Actor
Hugh has been acting for twenty years and can currently be seen in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Other recent film credits include Love Actually; Two Weeks Notice; About A Boy; Bridget Jones's Diary; Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks; Notting Hill; and, of course, Four Weddings And A Funeral. He was awarded The Galsworthy Scholarship to New College, Oxford where he studied English. His favourite books are: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth, Speak Memory by Vladimir Nabokov and The Blessing by Nancy Mitford.
Lavinia Greenlaw: Writer (representing the Poetry Award panel)
Lavinia is a poet and novelist. Her third collection, Minsk, was published in 2003 and her first novel, Mary George of Allnorthover, won France's Prix du Premier Roman. She lectures at Goldsmiths College, London and has made a number of radio programmes, including documentaries about the Arctic and the Baltic. Lavinia’s favourite books include The Complete Poems of Elizabeth Bishop, The New Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day and A String of Pearls by Joseph Roth.
Joanne Harris: Writer (representing the First Novel Award panel)
Joanne studied Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge. She taught Modern Languages at Leeds Grammar School for 15 years before giving up in 2000 to write full-time. She is the author of seven novels, including Chocolat, shortlisted for the 1999 Whitbread Novel Award and subsequently made into an Academy Award-nominated movie. Joanne’s favourite authors include 19th Century French Romantics, 20th Century English Romantics, Mervyn Peake and Ray Bradbury.
Roy Hattersley: Writer (representing the Biography Award panel)
Roy is a Visiting Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield, an advisor to the OECD, and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature. One of the most prolific writers in Britain, he has a weekly column in The Guardian and contributes to numerous newspapers and magazines, as well as appearing regularly on radio and television. He is the author of sixteen books, including The Edwardians, a biography of Edwardian Britain, which was published in October 2004.
Michael Portillo: Member of Parliament and Journalist
Born in North London in 1953, Michael went to grammar school, Harrow County, before he went to Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he gained a first class degree in History. In addition to a career in politics, reaching the position of Cabinet Minister, Michael has worked as a journalist, writer and made a number of television programmes. In 2004, Michael became a weekly columnist on The Sunday Times and the theatre critic of The New Statesman.
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