 Love the shoes, Barry! Read Louise Ellis Barrett's report of the event: Choosing just five from such a huge selection was not an easy task but neither was selecting the final winner. Having spent the morning in the Savile Club discussing in earnest each of the entries the judges emerged, ready for some refreshment a little after midday. After mingling with the invited guests and very nervous entrants Barry Cunningham MD of Chicken House, and Erica Wagner books editor from the Times, thanked everyone for their support and invited each of the panel to say a few words about the books they had championed. Each spoke briefly but eloquently about the book they had chosen as their winner but, as Barry said, in every competition there can unfortunately only be one overall winner.
The winner of this competition, Barry finally announced, was ‘Reavers’ by Emily Diamand. Emily was, to say the least stunned and speechless. Usually she is a freelance environmental consultant, now she has the opportunity to become an author with this, her first book, set to be published by the Chicken House in November! This is a tight deadline and the phones were buzzing with calls being made to designers and editors, making sure that the process of publishing this book begins straight away. Emily spoke briefly about how wonderful it was to have been given the opportunity to see her writing develop into a fully fledged children’s novel and how excited she is at the prospect. Having been tantalised by the short extract on the Times Website many of us will be waiting with bated breath to find out what happens in her alternative Lunden... Well done Emily and thank you Chicken House! Malorie Blackman comments
|
