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Lucky 13 Londoners compete for Costa prize
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent19 Nov 2008
THIRTEEN London writers from first-time authors to publishing veteran Diana Athill, now 90, are in the running for the Costa Book Awards this year.
A record number of 616 books were submitted for consideration in the five categories of novel, first novel, poetry, biography and children's books in the awards previously backed by Whitbread.
The shortlists include Louis de Bernières with A Partisan's Daughter, only his third novel since the massive hit Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
He is in contention on an all-male shortlist for the Costa novel award against Irish Booker nominee Sebastian Barry with The Secret Scripture, Patrick McGrath, who lives in London and New York, for Trauma, and Chris Cleave for The Other Hand, a story which is set in Kingston-upon-Thames, Essex and Africa.
Cleave, who lives in London with his wife and two children, first hit headlines when his debut work, Incendiary, about a terrorist attack on the capital, was published on 7 July, 2005 - the day of the bombings.
The first novel award will be contested by Poppy Adams, 34, a scientist and film-maker, for The Behaviour of Moths, Sadie Jones, 40, a screenwriter, for The Outcast, Tom Rob Smith, 29, another screenwriter, for Child 44, and Jennie Rooney, 28, a lawyer, for Inside the Whale. All live in London.
The biography award includes the latest frank instalment of the lessons of love, sex and friendship from acclaimed editor and memoir-writer Athill, entitled Somewhere Towards the End.
British Punjabi journalist Sathnam Sanghera, 32, tells his own much shorter tale of immigrant life in If You Don't Know Me By Now: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton.
Their rivals are dance critic Judith Mackrell for Bloomsbury Ballerina, a biography of Russian dancer Lydia Lopokova, and Judith Wullschlager, an arts writer, for a work on another Russian, artist Marc Chagall.
The poetry award shortlist consists of collections by Ciaran Carson, Greta Stoddart and two graduates of the University of East Anglia's writing course - Adam Foulds and Kathryn Simmonds.
The children's authors are Keith Gray, Michelle Magorian, Jenny Valentine and debut writer Saci Lloyd, who is also head of media at Newham Sixth Form College. Category award winners will be announced on 6 January and receive £5,000. The overall winner chosen from the five will get another £25,000 at a ceremony on 27 January.
THE SHORTLIST
Novel Award
Sebastian Barry: The Secret Scripture
Chris Cleave: The Other Hand
Louis de Bernières: A Partisan's Daughter
Patrick McGrath: Trauma
First Novel Award
Poppy Adams: The Behaviour of Moths
Sadie Jones: The Outcast
Jennie Rooney: Inside the Whale
Tom Rob Smith: Child 44
Biography Award
Diana Athill: Somewhere Towards the End
Judith Mackrell: Bloomsbury Ballerina
Sathnam Sanghera: If You Don't Know Me By Now
Jackie Wullschlager: Chagall
Costa Poetry Award
Ciaran Carson: For All We Know
Adam Foulds: The Broken Word
Kathryn Simmonds: Sunday at the Skin Launderette
Greta Stoddart: Salvation Jane
Children's Book Award
Keith Gray: Ostrich Boys
Saci Lloyd: The Carbon Diaries 2015
Michelle Magorian: Just Henry
Jenny Valentine: Broken Soup
Reader views (1)
Poppy Adamas should win..her book is awesome!
- Organic116, London, 19/11/2008 11:15
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