Andrea Levy has won the 2004 Whitbread Book of the Year Award for Small Island. The announcement was made this evening (Tuesday 25 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, Small Island beat biography My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots by John Guy, children’s book Not The End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean, first-time novelist Susan Fletcher for Eve Green and poet Michael Symmons Roberts for Corpus for the ultimate prize.
Following the judging, Sir Trevor McDonald, chair of the final judges, said: “All the books are winners and the decision was very difficult, but Small Island was written with enormous charm and was a clear choice for Whitbread Book of the Year.”
The Whitbread Book Awards, which were established by Whitbread - the UK’s leading hospitality business - in 1971, have the single aim of celebrating the most enjoyable books of the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland. Alan Parker, Whitbread PLC’s Chief Executive, presented Levy with her award and cheque for £25,000. Small Island – the first book ever to complete a Orange Prize and Whitbread double - is the seventh novel to win the Whitbread Book of the Year having previously been won 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.
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. This year, Whitbread has joined forces with the National Library for the Blind (NLB) and will fund the Braille transcription of two 2004 Whitbread Award-winning books, including the Whitbread Book of the Year winner.
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.
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For further information please contact Johnny Abbott: Tel: 07787 564978 / 0207 202 2822
Email: [email protected]
Notes for Editors:
1. Photography of the all the authors, as well as judges and book jackets are available royalty-free from this website. Images from the awards ceremony reception are available from Retna Pictures Litd: visit www.retna.com
2. To be eligible for the awards, books must have been published in the UK or Ireland between 1 November 2003 and 31 October 2004. Authors must have been domiciled in the UK or Ireland since November 2001. The 2004 Whitbread Book Awards received a record 450 entries.
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.
Further Background
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Review
About the book:
It is 1948 in an England that is still shaken by war. Queenie Bligh takes into her house lodgers who have recently arrived from Jamaica. Among her tenants are Gilbert and his new wife Hortense. Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the war to fight against Hitler. On returning to England after the war he finds himself treated very differently now that he is no longer in a blue uniform. Queenie’s neighbours do not approve of her choice of tenants, and neither would her husband were he there.
About the author:
Andrea Levy works and lives in London, and has used the city as the setting in all her novels. Small Island is her fourth novel and won the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction. Besides novels she has also written short stories that have been read on radio, published in newspapers and anthologised.
What the Whitbread judges said:
“What could have been a didactic or preachy prospect turns out to be hilarious, moving, humane and eye-popping. It’s hard to think of anybody not enjoying it.”
Judges:
Toby Bourne Buyer Books, ASDA
Jenny Colgan Writer
Amanda Craig Author
Shortlist, selected from a total of 124 entries:
Kate Atkinson Case Histories Doubleday
Louis de Bernières Birds Without Wings Secker and Warburg
Alan Hollinghurst The Line of Beauty Picador
Previous Whitbread Novel Award winners include:
Mark Haddon The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time 2003
Michael Frayn Spies 2002
Patrick Neate Twelve Bar Blues 2001
2004 Whitbread Book Awards Winners
Whitbread Novel Award Small Island Andrea Levy
Whitbread First Novel Award Eve Green Susan Fletcher
Whitbread Biography Award My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots John Guy
Whitbread Poetry Award Corpus Michael Symmons Roberts
Whitbread Children’s Book Award Not the End of the World Geraldine McCaughrean
Previous Winners of the
Whitbread Book of the Year
2003 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon Novel
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
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