The Costa Book Prize shortlist has just come round again...and while the big question might be can Hilary Mantel do the double and repeat her Booker success with the wonderful Wolf Hall, many eyes are also on the 1st Novel Award in the hopes of spotting the emerging talent of the next decade.
The Costa Awards are split among 5 categories and this year attracted nearly 600 entries.
Nmaes to watch out for in the 1st Novel section include Rachel Heath, whose Finest >Type Of English Womanhood is set in the immediate post-war years and tells of two young womens' yearning to escape the confines of their respective upbrinings and how, eventually, their paths cross in South Africa with potentially disastrous consequences. Meanwhile fellow first-timer Peter Murphy (not the Bauhaus singer, one assumes) opts for a theme of love, families and betrayal as discerned through the watchful adolescent eyes of his central character in John The Revelator; small town sesibilities are ruffled when a Rimbaudian boy wonder strolls into town and into the narrator's life and, inevitably, things get complicated. Still with first novels, Beauty by Rachel Selbourne is the story of the eponymous heroine who has escaped from an abusive arranged marriage in Bangladesh only to find herself confronted with Brit offialdom. Finally, Ali's Shaw's The Girl With The Glass Feet is a metaphorical love story involving Ida, who is slowly turning to glass from the feet up and her paramour, Midas, whose heart Ida slowly melts...but will they be able to reverse Ida's condition or will their dreams be smashed??
The big guns are wheeled out for the Novel award in which Mantel vies against Penelope Lively (Family Album), Chris Nicholson (The Elephant Keeper), and Colm Toibin (Brooklyn); The Children's award pits Patrick Ness (The Ask & The Answer) against Siobhan David (Solace Of The Road), Mary Hoffamn (Troubador) and Anna Perera (Guantanamo); the Poetry section, meanwhile, sees stalwart Clive James (Angels Over Elsinore) battling it out (do poets battle??) with Christopher Reid (A Scattering), pipped Laureate-manque Ruth Padel (Darwin:A Life In Poetry) and Katharine Kilalea for One Eyed Leigh.
For Biogs, the shortlist features Graham Farmelo for Strangest Man, a biog of Paul Dirac, William Fiennes for The Music Room, Caroline Moorhead for The Precipice and the late simon Gray for Coda.
Plenty among these fine books to both fill your stocking and reassure us that there are great new writers on the horizon and loads to read and savour in 2010. Meanwhile, my money's on Hilary Mantel, for, while purists might pour scorn, Wolf Hall is easily my favourite read of the year.
Well-filled stockings
OK, OK, I know that it's only November, but now that Hallowe'en's passed and Guy Fawkes is relegated back to a mere footnote in history, of course I'm going to begin worrying about what to fill my loved ones' stockings with...and a problem shared is a problem halved (or something).
Anyway, I (and you for that matter) could do a lot worse than the following darling bits of whimsey:
Joseph Galliano must have known he'd hit upon a winning idea when he came up with Dear Me , a rather addictive little number featuring all manner of celebs (including our v. own NW6 gliterati, Emma Thomspon and Stephen Fry) writing to their 16 year old selves. Some are wry, some sad and touching, some laugh-out-loud and some all three; be warned: once you begin reading, you might well not stop til the last page! Also included: a, ahem, fascinatingly mixed bunch of contributors (wherever else would you see Desmond Tutu and Corrie's Bet Lynch on the same list??): Joanna Lumley, Sir Elton John, Yoko Ono, Mark Gatiss and many more.
The Archers Miscellany put me in my place; I always thought that my Archers' knowledge was second to none. Foolish child! This little tome alerted me to the fact that Jolene Rodgers' given name is Doreen and that Nige's mama was actually a Jaon not a Julia. Now this is valuable information and there is almost certainly an Archers addict in your life who would appreciate this...no more facts right now: you'll have to buy the book!
I'm also determined to boost my family's chances should they ever bring 'Ask The Family' back to TV ...and, scoff if you like, but I've already nabbed a fair few of the Michael O'Mara hardback-ettes which dispense knowledge and wisdom across a range of subjects: grammar, history etc in the sort of bite-size chunks that we can all get something out of and which will fit perfectly into one's stocking (call me a thickie, but I didn't know that King Cnut's missus was called Elgiva or that Richard the Second was a major fashionista...and while this might be dull stuff for some it's majorly unique chat-up lines for others)
Honourable mentions: Joined-Up Thinking (Six degrees of trivia in a paperback); What Would Keith Richards Do (wise words and aphorisms from the guy who invented cock rock and purportedly snorted his dad's ashes); The Average Life of the Average Person (does what it says on the front really; loadsa weird facts about stuff you'll do before expiring and Barbara Cartland's Etiquette Handbook (one's stocking would simply not pass muster without this...and well worth the £6.99 for the ludicrous illustrations alone.
Suddenly Christmas shopping has lost its sting...and don't fret we'll bring you more recommednations before the big day...and please! mail us at info@welbooks.co.uk if you've some of your own...just keep it clean!
Anyway, I (and you for that matter) could do a lot worse than the following darling bits of whimsey:
Joseph Galliano must have known he'd hit upon a winning idea when he came up with Dear Me , a rather addictive little number featuring all manner of celebs (including our v. own NW6 gliterati, Emma Thomspon and Stephen Fry) writing to their 16 year old selves. Some are wry, some sad and touching, some laugh-out-loud and some all three; be warned: once you begin reading, you might well not stop til the last page! Also included: a, ahem, fascinatingly mixed bunch of contributors (wherever else would you see Desmond Tutu and Corrie's Bet Lynch on the same list??): Joanna Lumley, Sir Elton John, Yoko Ono, Mark Gatiss and many more.
The Archers Miscellany put me in my place; I always thought that my Archers' knowledge was second to none. Foolish child! This little tome alerted me to the fact that Jolene Rodgers' given name is Doreen and that Nige's mama was actually a Jaon not a Julia. Now this is valuable information and there is almost certainly an Archers addict in your life who would appreciate this...no more facts right now: you'll have to buy the book!
I'm also determined to boost my family's chances should they ever bring 'Ask The Family' back to TV ...and, scoff if you like, but I've already nabbed a fair few of the Michael O'Mara hardback-ettes which dispense knowledge and wisdom across a range of subjects: grammar, history etc in the sort of bite-size chunks that we can all get something out of and which will fit perfectly into one's stocking (call me a thickie, but I didn't know that King Cnut's missus was called Elgiva or that Richard the Second was a major fashionista...and while this might be dull stuff for some it's majorly unique chat-up lines for others)
Honourable mentions: Joined-Up Thinking (Six degrees of trivia in a paperback); What Would Keith Richards Do (wise words and aphorisms from the guy who invented cock rock and purportedly snorted his dad's ashes); The Average Life of the Average Person (does what it says on the front really; loadsa weird facts about stuff you'll do before expiring and Barbara Cartland's Etiquette Handbook (one's stocking would simply not pass muster without this...and well worth the £6.99 for the ludicrous illustrations alone.
Suddenly Christmas shopping has lost its sting...and don't fret we'll bring you more recommednations before the big day...and please! mail us at info@welbooks.co.uk if you've some of your own...just keep it clean!
Posted by
West End Lane Books
on
Monday, November 16, 2009
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