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Results of the 2006 Betty Bolingbroke-Kent Award (Novel) |
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(the final judging by Katie Fforde, International bestselling author of numerous novels including 'Highland Fling'.)
The total number of entries for this category was 189. Results are as follows:
First Prize
| Sophie Duffy |
The Generation Game |
UK |
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Katie Fforde comments: This is very powerful writing. You draw your reader in immediately and combine wit and poignancy to very powerful effect. It is very slightly reminiscent of Behind the Scenes at the Museum, by Kate Atkinson, but not in a bad way. I really look forward to reading the rest in book form. Excellent. Well done!
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Sophie Duffy tells us: I started writing as a young mother of three children and have won a number of competitions and had a couple of short stories published. I wrote a novel for my MA in Creative Writing which I completed by distance learning at Lancaster. Last year, my family and I returned to my home town, Teignmouth, where I started work on The Generation Game in between haggling with builders and settling in three disgruntled children. 'Winning this prize has given me great encouragement to fulfil my ambitions of being a published novelist and doing a PhD.
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Second Prize
| Megan Taylor |
How We Were Lost |
UK |
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Katie Fforde comments: Some beautiful writing and the subject will grab the heart straight away. I feel, however, that in spite of creating a very recognisable school world, too much time was spent on the beginning, thus losing a little of the sense of urgency. Once you got into the story a bit more, you created page turning tension and I was frustrated when I had no more to read.
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Megan tells us: I have always loved to write, but it's only since the birth of my second child that I've taken my writing more seriously. I recently completed two distance-learning courses with Lancaster University and I'm due to begin an online Novel Writing MA with Manchester Metropolitan University this September. I am also currently planning my next novel. I have previously had stories short listed in several competitions, but never been placed. Achieving second in the Yeovil Prize feels fantastic.
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Third Prize
| Lou Reade |
The Mental Traveller |
UK |
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Katie Fforde comments: Intriguing and atmospheric. You describe India in a way that was completely recognisable to me and I like the concept of this novel very much. However, I did get a bit confused as to exactly which was flash back and which was happening currently. Bear in mind, that readers can get irritated when they have to zip about between the past and the present so you must strive for total clarity. Your power of description is excellent. Do persevere.
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Lou Reade tells us: I grew up in Bristol and later attended Swansea University. I have worked as an editor and journalist since moving to London in 1990. This month, I moved to the Kent coast with my partner and three children. I won an award for a short extract of this work (the first 1,000 words), which inspired me to write more. To be placed in this contest gives me confidence that I'm moving in the right direction.
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Highly Commended
| Suzanne Cosquer |
Reaching Mazury |
Canada |
| David Evans |
Reluctant Hero |
UK |
| Heather Kaye |
French Tobacco |
Australia |
| James McKinty |
Debt of Blood |
UK |
| Jenny Newman |
The Hunt |
UK |
| Robert Ronsson |
Year of Burning Hay |
UK |
Commended
| Margaret Batteson |
Darkly the Glass |
UK |
| Douglas Bruton |
The Icon Painter's Dreams |
UK |
| Annie Copeland |
Punished with a Sixpence |
UK |
| Alison Daniell |
A Good Call |
UK |
| Dee Gordon |
My Little Brother, My little Life |
UK |
| Peter Harper |
Wild Connections |
UK |
| Jackie Hill |
Ne'ash |
UK |
| Pat Jackson |
Behind the Lines |
UK |
| Kate Kelly |
Ultraviolet Spring |
UK |
| Helen Kitson |
Earth Angel |
UK |
| Johanna Lipford |
The Search |
Italy |
| Joyce Mackenzie |
A Bride for Sunil |
UK |
| AJ Marshall |
The Osiris Revelations |
UK |
| Paul Maunder |
The War on Error |
UK |
| Lynne Patrick |
The Big Sky |
UK |
| Eira Reed |
The Cuttings |
UK |
| Reysh Roberts |
Mad as a Hatter |
Australia |
| Alison Theaker |
Undertow |
UK |
| Glynis West |
A Family's Trust |
France |
| David Henry Wilson |
Okonko - Father of the Nation |
UK |