John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2008
As you will be aware, the last few months have been particularly challenging for Booktrust. Our new funding settlement with the Department for Education has allowed us to protect the universal offer of the national bookgifting programmes, but it has nonetheless forced us to undertake a thorough review of all of the prizes and projects in the Booktrust portfolio.
As a result of this review, we have taken the difficult decision not to run the John Llewellyn Rhys in Autumn 2011. This Prize is incredibly important, highlighting and celebrating the best new books by writers under 35, as well as being very dear to Booktrust. We have not taken this decision lightly and we strongly intend to bring back the Prize with a bang in the very near future.
Do contact Claire Shanahan, the Prizes and Awards Manager, if you have any questions or suggestions.
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Winner
The Secret Life of Words
John MurrayThe author of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary returns with a magisterial and entertaining study of how English became English, and why it has absorbed words from more than 350 other languages, many originating from the most unlikely places.
The Secret Life of Words
Henry Hitchings
Winner, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
The author of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary returns with a magisterial and entertaining study of how English became English, and why it has absorbed words from more than 350 other languages, many originating from the most unlikely places.
Publisher: John Murray
Henry Hitchings
Henry Hitchings was born in 1974. Educated at the universities of Oxford and London, he is the author of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary and has contributed to many newspapers and magazines.
Shortlist
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The Broken Word
Jonathan Cape
The Broken Word
Adam Foulds
Shortlisted, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
Adam Foulds' stunning poetic sequence follows the experience of Tom, recently returned to his family’s farm in Kenya and propelled into the violence of the Mau Mau uprising.
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Adam FouldsAdam Foulds
Adam Foulds read English at St. Catherine's, Oxford, has a Creative Writing MA from UEA and received the Harper-Wood fellowship from St. John's College, Cambridge. His poetry, praised by Christopher Reid and Craig Raine, has appeared in magazines such as Arete, Stand and Quadrant. He is the author of The Truth About These Strange Times which won The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.
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The White Tiger
Atlantic Books
The White Tiger
Aravind Adiga
Shortlisted, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
Over the course of seven nights, the White Tiger tells his story in Adiga's Man Booker Prize-winning debut novel. What we learn about India is the twin worlds of the bleak, soul-destroying poverty of village life and the glittering prizes to be found in the big city.
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Aravind AdigaAravind Adiga
Aravind Adiga was born in Madras in 1974 and was raised in Australia. He studied at Columbia and Oxford Universities. A former correspondent in India for Time magazine, his articles have also appeared in publications like the Financial Times, the Independent, and the Sunday Times. He lives in Mumbai. The White Tiger, his first novel, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize.
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The Secret Life of Words
John Murray
The Secret Life of Words
Henry Hitchings
Shortlisted, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
The author of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary returns with a magisterial and entertaining study of how English became English, and why it has absorbed words from more than 350 other languages, many originating from the most unlikely places.
Publisher: John Murray
Henry Hitchings
Henry Hitchings was born in 1974. Educated at the universities of Oxford and London, he is the author of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary and has contributed to many newspapers and magazines.
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The Bloody White Baron
Faber
The Bloody White Baron
James Palmer
Shortlisted, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
Few people will have heard of Baron Ungern-Sternberg, a violent, anti-Semitic fanatic who took over Mongolia in 1919, but few will forget him after reading James Palmer’s full-blooded biography.
Publisher: Faber
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God's Own Country
Penguin
God's Own Country
Ross Raisin
Shortlisted, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
Replete with dialect (‘I glegged another look at my watch’), Raisin’s dark tale has an unhinged quality that never strays from its perfectly realised world. Nothing is superfluous in this tense, unsettling and at times very funny novel.
Publisher: Penguin
Ross Raisin
Ross Raisin was born in 1979 in West Yorkshire. He lives in London. God's Own Country is his first novel. It won the Guildford Book Festival First Novel Award and a Betty Trask Award, and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Portico Prize.
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Selling Your Father's Bones
Harper Press
Selling Your Father's Bones
Brian Schofield
Shortlisted, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
In the summer of 1877, around seven hundred members of the Nez Perce Native American tribe set out on an epic 1,700-mile journey through the American West. Forced from their homeland by the great nineteenth-century wave of settlement from the east.
Publisher: Harper Press
Brian Schofield
Brian Schofield won the best British Travel Writer 2003 covering North America. He has spent the last eight years writing for GQ, FHM, Arena and The Sunday Times. He’s currently works as assistant travel editor, culture and news review writer at The Sunday Times.
Judges
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Joolz DenbyJoolz Denby has been a professional writer, spoken-word artist, photographer and illustrative artist for over twenty-seven years. Her debut novel Stone Baby (HarperCollins) won the Crime Writer’s Association New Crime Writer of the Tear and was shortlisted for the John Creasy Award. Her third novel Billie Morgan (Serpent’s Tail) was shortlisted for the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction. Joolz has toured extensively giving critically-acclaimed dramatic readings at venues including Glastonbury (for the past 22 years), The Royal Albert Hall and The House of Commons. She appears regularly on BBC Radio Four and BBC Radio One. She received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Bradford University in 2007 for her outstanding contributions to writing, the visual Arts and her ambassadorial role in promoting her beloved home city of Bradford.
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Sarah HallAuthorSarah Hall was born in Cumbria in 1974. She is the author of four novels, Haweswater, The Electric Michelangelo, The Carhullan Army and How to Paint a Dead Man, and a collection of stories, The Beautiful Indifference. She is the winner of, amongst others, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Betty Trask award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Portico Prize for Fiction. The Electric Michelangelo (2005) was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.
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Henry SuttonHenry Sutton is a novelist and critic. He's the author of five novels (including Kids' Stuff) and a collection of short stories. He is also the Books Editor of the Daily Mirror and is a regular contributor to the Independent On Sunday. He held the Writing Fellowship at the UEA. He lives in Norwich with his family.
About the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2008
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