#DiscoverADebut - The Desmond Elliott Prize€¦ · Tatler Magazine) Suzi Feay, Journalist,...
Transcript of #DiscoverADebut - The Desmond Elliott Prize€¦ · Tatler Magazine) Suzi Feay, Journalist,...
The Prize for the New Novelist of the Year
#DiscoverADebutDesmondElliottPrize.org
“The most prestigious award for first-time novelists” - Daily Telegraph
About the Prize
The Desmond Elliott Prize was founded to celebrate the best first novel by a new author and to support writers just starting what will be long and glittering careers. It has succeeded in its mission in a manner that would make Elliott proud.
In the years since its inception, it has managed to stand out from other prizes due to the quality of its selections, the prestige of its judges and its unusually focused shortlist—only three titles make it to that stage. With judges of the calibre of Geordie Grieg, Edward Stourton, Joanne Harris, Chris Cleave, Elizabeth Buchan and Viv Groskop, to name just a few, fantastic winners have been chosen year after year.
At the 2015 winner’s ceremony, Chair of Judges and best-selling author Louise Doughty passionately claimed that we must support our new authors “or we risk letting the next Hilary Mantel slip through our fingers.”
Every winner since the first in 2008 has gone on to be shortlisted for, and in many cases win, other high-profile literary awards, among them the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Man Booker Prize and the Costa First Novel Award. In less than a decade, the words ‘Winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize’ have become synonymous with original, compelling writing by the most exciting new talents around.
About Desmond Elliott
In life, Desmond Elliott incurred the wrath of Dame Edith Sitwell and the love of innumerable authors and colleagues who regarded him as simply “the best”. Jilly Cooper, Sam Llewelyn, Penny Vincenzi, Leslie Thomas and Candida Lycett Green are among the writers forever in his debt. So, too, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber: if Elliott had not introduced the aspirant lyricist and composer, the West End—and Broadway—would have been the poorer.
In death, Desmond Elliott continues to launch careers for he stipulated that the proceeds of his estate be invested in a charitable trust that would fund a literary award “to enrich the careers of new writers”, launching them on a path on which the footholds are now ever-more precarious. For the agent’s goal was always that his authors be relieved of financial worries, allowed to write in happy security. To that end, he played a dual role, believing that agents should be “Machiavelli and Elizabeth Arden rolled into one”. It served his authors well and continues to do so.
Elliott himself was “a dapper little elf”—five-foot-nothing, sporting Brooks Brothers’ boys’ wear—but a huge personality. His widowed mother could not afford to keep him so he was schooled at Dublin’s Royal Masonic Orphanage from where he was offered a scholarship to Trinity College. But Desmond was the classic young man in a hurry and, at 16, he boarded the ferry and crossed the Irish Sea with just £2 in his pocket.
He started his career in publishing “below stairs” at Macmillan in 1947. Discovered one morning reading the directors’ mail, he was obliged to leave and joined another family firm, Hutchinson, where he assisted with the adver-tising. A self-confessed “snotty little brat”, Elliott passed swiftly through the offices of every great London publisher of the day, causing a little light mischief en route. Then, in 1960, a £1,000 golden goodbye (“Pioneering as always, I was the first redundant publisher”) enabled him to strike out on his own.
A brilliant raconteur, who drank only champagne, he always crossed the Atlantic by Concorde and used Fortnum & Mason as his local grocer. His genius was spotting talent and then nurturing and promoting it.- Daily Express
Arlington Books operated out of one room in Duke Street Mayfair, a locale from which Desmond would never stray—other than to board Concord for New York. He made his first fortune with The Pocket Calorie Guide to Safe Slimming, which enjoyed 40 reprints. Then came a Barnardo’s Boy, Leslie Thomas, seeking a business manager. His best-selling memoir was followed by a best-selling novel which became a box-office smash: The Virgin Soldiers. Desmond Elliott was now both agent and publisher.
The rest is, indeed, history—history which continues to be made as each Desmond Elliott Prize-winner steps forth.
Described by Leo Cooper as “a brilliant though eccentric publisher, a consummate showman and a clever literary agent”, Desmond Elliott was a one-off, a man who took pleasure in business and whose business was his life.
Candida Lycett Green thought him “the best possible godfather or kind uncle”. With the Desmond Elliott Prize, he always will be.
By Liz Thomson
Our 2015 Winner
The 2015 shortlist was, arguably, the strongest in the prize’s history. Both Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey and A Song for Issy Bradley were shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, which the former won while the latter was named Best First Novel by the Authors’ Club.
The ultimate winner was Our Endless Numbered Days, by Claire Fuller—a true original, as all other winning titles have been. In haunting, beguiling prose the reader is drawn into the world of eight-year-old Peggy Fairfax, a child who has followed her father to, he assures her, the last safe place on Earth. As the years pass in their small wooden cabin, deep in a remote European forest, Peggy matures and begins to realise all is not right with her world.
Following its win, the book was catapulted to further success. It was selected for the Spring 2016 Richard and Judy Book Club, and was also chosen as a 2016 Waterstones Book Club Pick.
“A triumph” - The Times
“Extraordinary [...] Fuller writes with a singing simplicity that finds beauty amid the terror” - Sunday Times
“A debut novel that brings to mind such unlikely bedfellows as Thoreau’s Walden and Emma Donoghue’s Room...gripping.” - Guardian
Claire Fuller (second from left) with judges Viv Groskop, Louise Doughty, and Jonathan Ruppin.
Our Endless Numbered Days is both shocking and subtle, brilliant and beautiful, a poised and elegant work that recalls the early work of Ian McEwan in the delicacy of its prose and the way that this is combined with some very dark undertones.- Praise from Chair of Judges, Louise Doughty
Events
We host two receptions annually—first, a spring drinks party for the 10 long-listed authors, giving them a chance to meet each other, celebrate with their publishers and enjoy their moment in the spotlight. We are the only major prize to hold a party for its longlist, which is particularly appreciated by new authors. For many it marks the first time they step out as an author for their first literary accolade.
We then traditionally host a summer prize ceremony at Fortnum & Mason’s (renowned for its free-flowing champagne and excellent canapés) at which the winner is announced. The best and the brightest from publishing attend, as well as top literary journalists from the Guardian to the Financial Times and the BBC. At the 2015 ceremony, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row interviewed winner Claire Fuller live from the ceremony after her win.
Emma Healey, 2015 shortlisted author of Elizabeth is Missing
Jessie Burton, 2015 longlisted author of The Miniaturist
Nathan Filer and Kate Clanchy at the Festival du Premier Roman
We also work closely with the Festival du Premier Roman in Chambéry, France, for which two of our longlisted authors are selected to represent English writers at this international literary festival. In 2015 seven languages were represented in total and 2014 authors Nathan Filer and Kate Clanchy were the elected laureates in attendance.
Judges
2008
2009
2010
2011
Penny Vincenzi (Chair), Author
Candida Lycett Green (Chair), Author
Elizabeth Buchan (Chair), Author
Edward Stourton (Chair), Broadcaster and presenter of BBC Radio 4 Sunday programme (Previously Presenter for the BBC Radio 4 Today programme)
Geordie Greig, Editor of the Mail on Sunday (Formerly Editor for Tatler Magazine)
Suzi Feay, Journalist, Broadcaster, and Critic
William Skidelsky, Author and Journalist (Previously Books Editor for The Observer)
Fanny Blake, Journalist and Writer
Cristina Odone, Novelist, Journalist, and Broadcaster
Rodney Troubridge, Bookseller (Waterstones)
James Daunt, Founder of Daunt Books and Managing Director of Waterstones
Amy Worth, Director of Kindle Content at Amazon.co.uk
2012
2013
2014
2015
Sam Llewellyn (Chair), Novelist
Joanne Harris (Chair), Author
Chris Cleave (Chair), Author
Tom Gatti, Culture Editor at The New Statesman (Formerly Deputy Editor at The Times Saturday Review)
Robert Collins, Producer at Intelligence Squared (Formerly Deputy Editor at the Sunday Times)
Isabel Berwick, Assistant Features Editor at FTComment (Formerly Associate Editor at Financial Times)
Caroline Mileham, Merchandising Manager at Google Play (Formerly Head of Books at Play.com)
Miriam Robinson, Programme Director for The Bookseller Marketing & Publicity Conference (Formerly Head of Marketing at Foyles)
Patrick Neale, Bookseller (Jaffe & Neale), President of the Booksellers Association
Louise Doughty (Chair), Author Viv Groskop, Comedian and Columnist
Jonathan Ruppin, Web Editor (Foyles)
Past Winners of The Desmond Elliott Prize
The Desmond Elliott Prize has gained a reputation for its exceptionally keen talent-spotting. The past eight winning titles have received praise from all quarters, most going on to be listed for and winning other prestigious awards and valuable retailer promotions such as the Richard and Judy Book Club and Waterstones 11. All authors have carried on to write second, third or even fourth books, which is one of the key aims of the Prize−to nurture our country’s most promising literary careers.
2014
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride (Faber/Galley Beggar Press)
Winner: 2014 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction
Winner: 2014 Geoffrey Faber prize
Winner: 2013 Goldsmiths Prize
Winner: 2014 Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award
Shortlist: 2014 Folio Prize
McBride’s second novel, The Lesser Bohemians, is set to be
published in 2016.
“The kind of novel that is written once in a generation and takes the art to an entirely new place”- Chris Cleave, Chair of Judges
2013
The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber (Sceptre)
Winner (joint): 2013 Authors’ Club First Novel Award
Longlisted: 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction
Barber’s second novel, Devotion was published in 2015.
“It is as enticing as a top-flight thriller, with the welcome addition of gorgeous, evocative language as visual and concise as a screenplay” - Joanne Harris, Chair of Judges
2012
The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen (Chatto & Windus)
Winner: 2013 Betty Trask Award
Shortlisted: 2012 National Book Awards
McCleen has since published two novels: The Professor of
Poetry in 2014 and The Offering in 2015, both with Sceptre.
“Grace McCleen’s voice sparkles with imagery and ideas, and she uses it to tell a story that is simultane-ously multi-layered and absolutely compelling” - Sam Llewellyn, Chair of Judges
2011
Saraswati Park by Anjali Joseph (Fourth Estate)
Winner: 2011 Betty Trask Prize
Winner (joint): 2010 Vodafone Crossword Book Award for Fiction
in India
Joseph’s second novel, Another Country (Fourth Estate), was
published in 2012 and a new novel, The Living, is due in 2016.
“It has that feeling that the characters are completely in-dependent of the author. They live with you after you’ve finished reading it, and that’s the mark of a real novelist” - Edward Stourton, Chair of Judges
2009
Blackmoor by Edward Hogan (Simon & Schuster)
Shortlisted: 2008 Dylan Thomas Prize
Shortlisted: 2009 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award
Hogan’s second novel, The Hunger Trace, was published in 2011.
He also published two novels for young adults in 2013, Daylight
Savings and The Messengers.
“It is an extremely profound book for someone so young. What is special about it is the total originality of his prose and the lyricism of it. He uses metaphors which are completely unlike any I’ve ever read” - Candida Lycett Green, Chair of Judges
2010
The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (Atlantic Books)
Shortlisted: 2009 Costa First Book Award
Longlisted: 2009 Guardian First book Award
Longlisted: 2010 Dylan Thomas Prize
Shaw’s second novel, The Man Who Rained, was published in 2012.
“This is an extraordinary first novel—bold, original, tragic and endlessly surprising. In its exploration of frozen landscapes, both interior and exterior, and in its precisely detailed and articulated fantasy, it is possible to see a substantial author of the future” - Elizabeth Buchan, Chair of Judges
2008
Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (Viking)
Shortlisted: 2007 Costa First Novel Award
Longlisted: 2007 Man Booker Prize
Lalwani’s second novel, The Village was published in 2012.
“Gifted is a book of extraordinary range; it is touching, tender, funny and at the same time truly compelling” - Penny Vincenzi, Chair of Judges
Prize Longlists
2008
Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (Viking)Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (Simon & Schuster) - Shortlisted
Sunday at the Cross Bones by John Walsh (Fourth Estate) - Shortlisted
Broken by Daniel Clay (HarperPress)
Kill Your Friends by John Niven (William Heinemann)
The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi (Bloomsbury)
The Outcast by Sadie Jones (Chatto & Windus)
Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann (Doubleday)
The Truth About These Strange Times by Adam Foulds (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Submarine by Joe Dunthorne (Hamish Hamilton)
Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips (Vintage)
2009
Blackmoor by Edward Hogan (Simon & Schuster)A Girl Made of Dust by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi (Fourth Estate) - Shortlisted
The Rescue Man by Anthony Quinn (Jonathan Cape) - Shortlisted
The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams (Virago)
Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold (Tindal Street Press)
Mr Toppit by Charles Elton (Viking)
Never Never by David Gaffney (Tindal Street Press)
The Redemption of Alexander Seaton by Shona MacLean (Quercus)
Little Gods by Anna Richards (Picador)
The Alternative Hero by Tim Thornton (Jonathan Cape)
2010
The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (Atlantic Books)Before the Earthquake by Maria Allen (Tindal Street Press) - Shortlisted
Talk of the Town by Jacob Polley (Picador) - Shortlisted
The Upright Piano Player by David Abbott (MacLehose Press)
The Hungry Ghosts by Anne Berry (Blue Door)
Rupture by Simon Lelic (Picador)
The Shadow of a Smile by Kachi A. Ozumba (Alma Books)
The Breaking of Eggs by Jim Powell (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Designs for a Happy Home by Matthew Reynolds (Bloomsbury)
Beauty by Raphael Selbourne (Tindal Street Press)
2011
Saraswati Park by Anjali Joseph (Fourth Estate)Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman (Sceptre) - Shortlisted
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman (Bloomsbury) - Shortlisted
The Afterparty by Leo Benidictus (Jonathan Cape)
Coconut Unlimited by Nikesh Shukla (Quartet)
The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed (Viking)
Pub Walks in Underhill Country by Nat Segnit (Fig Tree)
The Spider Truces by Tom Connolly (Myriad Editions)
A Vision of Loveliness by Louise Levene (Bloomsbury)
Who is Mr Satoshi? by Jonathan Lee (William Heinemann)
2014
A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride (Faber/Galley Beggar Press)The Letter Bearer by Robert Allison (Granta) - Shortlisted
Ballistics by D. W. Wilson (Bloomsbury) - Shortlisted
Idiopathy by Sam Byers (Fourth Estate)
Meeting the English by Kate Clanchy (Picador)
The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer (HarperCollins)
Sedition by Katherine Grant (Virago)
The Dynamite Room by Jason Hewitt (Simon & Schuster)
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan (Doubleday Ireland)
Marriage Material by Sathnam Sanghera (William Heinemann)
2015
Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller (Fig Tree)Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey (Viking) - Shortlisted
A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray (Hutchinson) - Shortlisted
The A to Z of You and Me by James Hannah (Doubleday)
The Bees by Laline Paull (Fourth Estate)
Chop Chop by Simon Wroe (Viking)
Glass by Alex Christofi (Serpent’s Tail)
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (Picador)
Randall by Jonathan Gibbs (Galley Beggar Press)
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth (Unbound)
2012
The Land Of Decoration by Grace McCleen (Chatto & Windus)The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness (Seren) - Shortlisted
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (Doubleday) - Shortlisted
Absolution by Patrick Flanery (Atlantic Books)
Bed by David Whitehouse (Canongate)
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson (Doubleday)
The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood (Simon & Schuster)
Care Of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles (HarperPress)
The Missing Shade of Blue by Jennie Erdal (Little, Brown)
The Spider King’s Daughter by Chibundu Onuzo (Faber & Faber)
2013
The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber (Sceptre) The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence (Hodder & Stoughton) - Shortlisted
The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan (William Heinemann) - Shortlisted
The Palace of Curiosities by Rosie Garland (Harper Fiction)
Petite Mort by Beatrice Hitchman (Serpent’s Tail)
The Fields by Kevin Maher (Little, Brown)
Signs of Life by Anna Raverat (Picador)
Seldom Seen by Sarah Ridgard (Hutchinson)
Jammy Dodger by Kevin Smith (Sandstone Press)
The Painted Bridge by Wendy Wallace (Simon & Schuster)
The Desmond Elliott Charitable Trust is a charity registered with the Charity Commission (registered charity number 01115496). Its Trustees are Dallas Manderson (Chairman); Elizabeth Thomson and Christine Berry. The registered office of the Desmond Elliott Charitable Trust is c/o Taylor Vinters LLP, Merlin Place, Cambridge CB4 0DP
For prize administration queries, please contact Literary Director Emma Manderson: [email protected]
For press queries, please contact Riot Communications: [email protected] / 020 3174 0118