Notes for Editors:
1. Information follows on each of the winning books and authors
2. The Whitbread Book Awards, now in their 31st year, aim to encourage, promote and celebrate the best of contemporary British writing. The Awards, established in 1971, confirm Whitbread - a leading UK leisure company - as one of the longest-running sponsors of British writing.
3. The prize fund for the Whitbread Book Awards now stands at a total of £50,000 consisting of Whitbread Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book of the Year Award winners: £5,000 each and the Whitbread Book of the Year winner: £25,000.
4. To be eligible for the 2001 Awards, books must have been published between 1 November 2000 and 31 October 2001, in the UK or Eire.
5. Images can be downloaded from the Internet at www.whitbread-bookawards.co.uk
6. Past Whitbread Book of the Year Winners
Since its introduction in 1985, the Whitbread Book of the Year has been won five times by a Novel, three times by a First Novel, three times by a Biography and five times by a collection of Poetry. They are:
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 Moseley, 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
2001 WHITBREAD NOVEL AWARD
WINNER: TWELVE BAR BLUES BY PATRICK NEATE
Viking, RRP £9.99
About the book:
Spanning three continents and two centuries, Twelve Bar Blues is an epic tale of jazz and juju, fate, family and friendship which finally unfolds in the Louisiana bayou' At its heart is Lick Holden, a young jazz musician in 1900 New Orleans. The story of Lick's search for his step-sister echoes throughout the other stories in the book - of Sylvia, the English hooker and Jim, her young companion; of the mysterious seashell head-dress; of Musa, the itinerant witchdoctor and of Tongo, the frustrated African chief.
About the author:
Patrick Neate describes himself as "a novelist by nature, a screenwriter by chance and a poet by mistake". Born in Putney and educated at Cambridge, Patrick spent his gap year teaching in Zimbabwe. He is passionate about Africa and also about music - especially hip-hop. He is a part-time DJ and sometime music journalist, having written extensively about black music for The Face and Q, amongst others. He is also the author of one previous acclaimed novel -Musungu Jim and The Great Chief Tuloko. Patrick is currently working on his next novel, as well as finishing the screenplay for Alex Garland' The Tesseract.
What the Whitbread judges said:
" sprawling and unusual extravaganza of a novel, in which form and content are brilliantly reflected by one another: the ranginess of the story mirrors the arbitrariness of life, while the electrifying prose brings to life characters whose experiences span one century, several cultures and many colours. Vivid, bold and energetic, Patrick Neate sets a high standard for modern fiction"
What the critics said:
".a hugely enjoyable offering..Thorough research and Neate's delicious dialogue fuse into a compelling genealogy, mostly of jazz musicians and prostitutes, all seeking their destinies." Independent on Sunday
Judges:
Esther Freud Author
Mary Loudon Author
Tim O'Kelly One Tree Bookshop, Petersfield
Shortlist, selected from a total of 106 entries:
Helen Dunmore The Siege Viking
Ian McEwan Atonement Jonathan Cape
Andrew Miller Oxygen Sceptre
Previous Whitbread Novel Award winners include:
2000 English Passengers Matthew Kneale
1999 Music and Silence Rose Tremain
1998 Leading the Cheers Justin Cartwright
2001 WHITBREAD FIRST NOVEL AWARD
WINNER: SOMETHING LIKE A HOUSE BY SID SMITH
Picador, RRP £12.99
About the book:
A thriller set in a little-known Chinese world, Something Like A House is Jim Fraser's story; an extraordinary, often chilling account of his life as a deserter living through the Cultural Revolution in China. Fraser makes his home in a community so isolated that even that great upheaval impinges little on the village's way of life - except that its very isolation has made it the perfect location for experiments of sheer, indescribable terror.
About the author:
Born in 1975 in London, Sid Smith currently works as a freelance sub-editor. He spent his early working life as a dustman, docker, builder's labourer and railway worker before moving into journalism full-time. He lives in Islington, North London and is currently working on his second novel, a metaphysical thriller, which is also set in China. Astonishingly, Smith has never been to China -Something Like A House, his highly praised debut novel, was written from research alone.
What the Whitbread judges said:
"A gripping page-turner that takes the reader into another world containing both beautifully observed detail of the textures of the lives of Chinese peasants, and a range of big ideas about eugenics, biological warfare, politics and the nature of loneliness. As young Tao says in the course of the book, "Every pleasure equals its rarity". It's a rare pleasure to read such an extraordinary first novel."
What the critics said:
"...an impressively well-researched and sensitively imagined picture of an almost unknown society... told in haunting, piercingly spare prose which never fails to make an impact. Smith's next novel should be eagerly awaited." The Times
Judges:
Brian Case Literary Editor, Time Out
Giles Foden Author and Reviewer
Jane Rogers Novelist and Screenwriter
Shortlist, selected from a total of 59 entries:
The Oversight Will Eaves Picador
Burning Worm Carl Tighe IMPress
August Gerard Woodward Chatto & Windus
Previous Whitbread First Novel Award winners include:
2000 White Teeth Zadie Smith
1999 White City Blue Tim Lott
1998 The Last King of Scotland Giles Foden
2001 WHITBREAD POETRY AWARD
WINNER: BUNNY BY SELIMA HILL
Bloodaxe, RRP £7.95
About the book:
Selima Hill's Bunny is set in the haunted house of adolescence. Always blackly comic, sometimes beguilingly erotic, each echoing poem opens a door on madness or menace, shame or blame. Bunny tells the intimate story of a young girl growing up in London in the 1950s, confused and betrayed but finding herself and becoming independent.
About the author:
Selima Hill was born in London in 1945, grew up on farms in England and Wales, and read Moral Sciences at Cambridge. She has spent most of her life working with children, and now lives near Lyme Regis in Dorset. Her poetry has collected numerous awards - in 1998 she won first prize in the Arvon/Observer International Poetry Competition with her book-length poem, The Accumulation of Small Acts of Kindness. In 1997, her collection Violet was the only collection shortlisted for all three of the UK's major poetry prizes, the Forward Prize, the TS Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Award.
What the Whitbread judges said:
"A unique voice in British poetry, Selima Hill has taken on a near-impossible subject and from it produces a work which is at once quirky, terrifying and ultimately uplifting."
What the critics said:
"Wayward, funny, terrifying. Her writing scintillates with hatred, love and absurd insights." Financial Times
Judges
Harry Eyres Poet and Journalist
Daisy Goodwin Head of Features, Talkback Productions
Tobias Hill Poet and Novelist
Shortlist, selected from a total of 56 entries:
Charles Boyle The Age of Cardboard and String Faber & Faber
Wendy Cope If I don't know Faber & Faber
John Stammers Panoramic Lounge-Bar Picador
Previous Whitbread Poetry Award winners include:
2000 The Asylum Dance John Burnside
1999 Beowulf (Whitbread Book of the Year) Seamus Heaney
1998 Birthday Letters (Whitbread Book of the Year) Ted Hughes
2001 WHITBREAD BIOGRAPHY AWARD
WINNER: SELKIRKS ISLAND BY DIANA SOUHAMI
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, RRP £14.99
About the book:
Selkirk's Island is the extraordinary story of the real Robinson Crusoe - Alexander Selkirk, the man who inspired Daniel Defoe's famous novel - who spent four years ashore on an island three hundred miles west of South America, learning to survive with little more than his bare hands. Drawing on Selkirk's own testimony, that of his rescuers and fellow crewmen, contemporary eighteenth-century writers and petitions from two women who each claimed to be his wife, Diana Souhami reveals the facts behind the fantasy of the fictional Crusoe.
About the author:
As part of her scrupulous research for the book, Diana Souhami characteristically lived on Selkirk's Island, now a Worldwide Reserve of the Biosphere, for three months. She is the author of many highly acclaimed books including The Trial of Radclyffe Hall (shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography and winner of the Lambda Literary Award), the best-selling Mrs Keppel and Her Daughter, Gertrude and Alice, Greta and Cecil and Gluck:Her Biography. Diana lives in London.
What the Whitbread judges said:
" Selkirk's Island is a book that is as hypnotic and compelling as the island that forms its real subject. A great adventure story, a great read and a real advance for the art of biography".
What the critics said:
"Selkirk's Island is a remarkable book... Her journey's end is both mythical and mundane... Souhami's Island is a place we should all explore." Daily Telegraph
Judges:
Mike Brookes-Sullivan Borders UK
Kathryn Hughes Biographer and Critic
Stella Tillyard Historian
Shortlist, selected from a total of 84 entries:
Anthony Bailey A View of Delft Chatto and Windus
Adam Sisman Boswell's Presumptuous Task Hamish Hamilton
Geoffrey Wall Flaubert: A Life Faber & Faber
Previous Whitbread Biography Award winners include:
2000 Bad Blood: A Mermoir Lorna Sage
1999 Berlioz, Volume II: Servitude and Greatness David Cairns
1998 Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire Amanda Foreman |
