William Boyd - GalleyCat

Stef Penney’s Surprise Costa Win

Sarah — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:47:13 +0000

While some punters bet heavily on William Boyd to take the prize, while the William Hill crew bet on Brian Thompson‘s autobiography KEEPING MUM, the overall winner of the Costa Book Awards turned out to be Stef Penney, who had taken the Debut prize for her first novel, THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES. Penney’s win is all the more remarkable, the Telegraph reports, because she revealed to the paper last month that her book was rejected by “quite a lot” of publishers before being bought by the small new publisher, Quercus. Then there’s her much-discussed agoraphobia that prevented her from travelling to Canada to research the book – instead, she did much of her work at the British Library. “My first hope was that the Canadians wouldnâ€™t shoot me,” she said before collecting her prize.

But the 10-strong judging panel, including chairman Armando Iannucci, broadcasters Kate Adie and Clive Anderson, and Carol Thatcher, daughter of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, took little more than an hour to pick Penney’s novel. “We felt that it was not just an extraordinary first novel but an extraordinary novel,” said Ianucci. “It was an amazingly ambitious undertaking which was achieved completely.”

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Boyd, Penney Among Costa Book Award Winners

Sarah — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 07:59:20 +0000

The awards formerly known as the Whitbread Prize – now the Costa Book Awards – have been given out in individual categories. William Boyd (left) took home best novel honors for his espionage tale RESTLESS, while Stef Penney was the expected first novel winner for THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES. Other winners included John Haynes (poetry) Brian Thompson (biography) and Linda Newberry (children’s). Each winner will now compete for the overall Costa Book of the Year prize, slated for announcement on February 7.

More coverage by way of the Times (London), the Guardian, the Telegraph, Metro UK, and Bloomberg News.

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Richard & Judy Select their next Bestsellers

Sarah — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:02:08 +0000

Because of course, as soon as these eight books got their designation as the next picks for Richard & Judy’s Book Club, they begun their beeline towards UK bestsellerdom. Need we remind you that of the top 100 best-selling titles last year, 21 were by authors discussed on the Richard & Judy Book Club? And so, the eight newly anointed books, which premiere on the show beginning January 31 are:

The Interpretation of Murder, Jed Rubenfeld
The Testament of Gideon Mack, James Robertson
Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This Book Will Save Your Life, A M Homes
Restless, William Boyd
Love in the Present Tense, Catherine Ryan Hyde
The Girls, Lori Lansens
Semi-Detached, Griff Rhys Jones

Rodney Troubridge, a fiction buyer for Waterstone’s bookshops, told the Independent it was a “fabulous” list. “I think they have got some really challenging books,” he said. Meanwhile, WHSmith plans to give an even greater emphasis to this year’s Richard & Judy Best Read shortlist following its success with the titles last year, reports Publishing News.

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