John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Winners. Shortlists. News. rewards the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama) by a UK or Commonwealth writer aged 35 or under.

About the Award -The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize rewards the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama) by a UK or Commonwealth writer aged 35 or under.

This important prize is awarded in honour of the writer John Llewellyn Rhys, who was killed in action in the Second World War. It award was founded by John Llewellyn Rhys's young wife, also a writer, who began the award to honour and celebrate his life.

Past winners include Margaret Drabble (1966), William Boyd (1982), Jeanette Winterson (1987), Ray Monk (1990), Matthew Kneale (1992) and David Mitchell (1999). Last year’s winner was Uzodinma Iweala (right) for Beasts of No Nation.The winner receive £5000, with the other shortlisted authors receiving £500 each.

2008 Shortlist | 2007 Winner | 2007 Shortlist | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | Past Winners 1942 to 2003

2008 prize

The winner of the 2008 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize is The Secret Life of Words by Henry Hitchings (John Murray)

Henry Sutton, Chair of Judges, said:

“The brilliance of Hitchings'The Secret Life of Words lies in its energy, urgency and accessibility, beyond the fact that it reminds us of just how important etymology is to understanding the history of a fractured world. Written with an unnerving precision, clarity and grace, Hitchings’ scope is vast, tackling issues of communication, immigration, war, religion and community. Yet he never forgets that underpinning it all is the dynamism of English – truly a world language.

“This is a big, important book, a landmark in many ways, which will be read and enjoyed for years."

2008 -It's Man's World as 2008 Prize Shows It's

Shortlist Hand

Book Award Tragic Blog Boyz Rule BritLit Highbrow Awards 2008. OK?

The 2008 shortlist in full:
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
The Broken Word by Adam Foulds
The Secret Life of Words by Henry Hitchings- Winner
The Bloody White Baron by James Palmer
God's Own Country by Ross Raisin
Selling Your Father's Bones by Brian Schofield

Amazon UK \| Bookrabbit uk \| Alibris-uk \| Abe books uk \|Blackwell Books\| Books Direct \| Borders \| Countrybookshop UK\| Foyles \| BBC Shop \|mills & boon\|		The Secret Life of Words by Henry Hitchings- 2008 Winner Review 'Hitching's excavation are a treat. He presents the best gleanings of academia in a winning, conversational style. Almost every spadeful yields an etymological nugget ... elegantly and entertainingly written' -- Financial Times 'A fascinating exploration of the rich borrowings, exchanges and couplings of the language' -- Ben Macintyre, The Times 'Hitchings has teased out the stories lurking behind the language to provide a most satisfying whole' -- Publishing News 'Much more than a collage of etymological trivia, this is a dense and thorough excavation of the stories that lie behind the words we say' -- Metro 'Quite how Hitchings has managed to wrestle this dizzying mountain of dense information into such an elegant narrative ... is a feat almost as admirable as that of the great lexicographer. His book is painstakingly detailed, closely argued and suffused with a contagious enthusiasm for the secrets woven into the fabric of our words -- Daily Telegraph 'This clever, persuasive, delightful book is studded with entertaining observations' -- Independent on Sunday 'Wearing his learning lightly, Hitchings has produced an impressive successor to his acclaimed account of Johnson's dictionary' -- Independent 'A wonderfully detailed history of the English language' -- Good Book Guide Hitchings, who wrote earlier about Samuel Johnson's dictionary (Defining the World, 2005), again displays his astonishing knowledge of the English language's myriad roots.English has been and no doubt always will be a salmagundi, the author declares, blending words from many other tongues into one splendid, ever-changing linguistic dish. It's vocabulary that interests him here - grammar is far more resistant to change, he notes - and after some factual table-setting (approximately 350 languages have contributed to English) he serves his main courses one century at a time. Hitchings effortlessly blends world history with linguistic history, helping us see that we appropriate words for numerous reasons: trade, conquest, fashion, food, art and so on. The Anglo-Saxons, we learn, had more than 30 words for warrior. From Arabic we gained words for alchemy that then migrated into math and science, such as zero and cipher. Chaucer, the author writes, was "a literary magpie" who liberated the language. The rise of the printing press ignited another vocabulary explosion. In the 16th century, English conflicts with Spain brought an influx of Spanish words, among them armada, hammock and mosquito. Shakespeare is the first known user of some 1,700 words. From the New World came potato and tobacco; Capt. John Smith was the first to use adrift and roomy. Greek, avers Hitchings, has remained a source of high-culture (even highfalutin) words like deipnosophist and pathos. Many French words deal with culture, leisure and food (no surprise there); soiree first appeared in the fiction of Fanny Burney. The British occupation of India brought the words teapot, curry and pajamas. In later days, advertising, mass media, the Internet and the "global village" have all accelerated the growth and spread of English. Hitchings notes in several places the impossibility and undesirability of attempting to close and bar the doors of this eternally flexible and omnivorous tongue.Learned, wise and educative, though a bit weighty for the average nightstand. (Kirkus Reviews) Review 'Hitching’s excavation are a treat. He presents the best gleanings of academia in a winning, conversational style. Almost every spadeful yields an etymological nugget . . . elegantly and entertainingly written' (Financial Times ) 'A fascinating exploration of the rich borrowings, exchanges and couplings of the language' (Ben Macintyre, The Times ) 'Hitchings has teased out the stories lurking behind the language to provide a most satisfying whole' (Publishing News ) 'Much more than a collage of etymological trivia, this is a dense and thorough excavation of the stories that lie behind the words we say' (Metro ) 'Quite how Hitchings has managed to wrestle this dizzying mountain of dense information into such an elegant narrative . . . is a feat almost as admirable as that of the great lexicographer. His book is painstakingly detailed, closely argued and suffused with a contagious enthusiasm for the secrets woven into the fabric of our words (Daily Telegraph ) 'This clever, persuasive, delightful book is studded with entertaining observations' (Independent on Sunday ) 'Wearing his learning lightly, Hitchings has produced an impressive successor to his acclaimed account of Johnson’s dictionary' (Independent ) 'A wonderfully detailed history of the English language' Biography of Henry Hitchings Henry Hitchings was born in 1974 and lives in London. He was educated at the universities of Oxford and London, completing his PhD on Samuel Johnson. His first book, Dr Johnson's Dictionary, earned widespread praise and won the Modern Language Association's prize for the best work by an independent scholar in 2005. The Secret Life of Words continues his interest in language and cultural history, and he is currently working on a third book in this area. He has contributed to many newspapers and magazines, including the Financial Times, The Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian. Back to Top
Paperback: 80 pages Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd (17 April 2008) Language English ISBN-10: 0224084445 ISBN-13: 978-0224084444 Amazon UK \| Bookrabbit uk \| Alibris-uk \| Abe books uk \|Blackwell Books\| Books Direct \| Borders \| Countrybookshop UK\| Foyles \| BBC Shop \|mills & boon\|		The Broken Word by Adam Foulds Set in the 1950s, "The Broken Word" is an extraordinary poetic sequence that animates and illuminates a dark, terrifying period in British colonial history. The combination here of language and imagery that feel utterly contemporary, and subject matter - tribal violence and subsequent retribution - that seems almost Homeric, gives the narrative all the febrile energy of classical drama, re-charged and re-imagined. Tom has returned to his family's farm in Kenya for the summer vacation between school and university when he is swept up by the events of the Mau Mau uprising. Beginning with sporadic, brutal attacks by dispossessed Kikuyu on the British now occupying their land - attacks often executed with nothing more than traditional panga knives - the conflict escalates as the terrified British stop at nothing to re-impose order, eventually driving most of the Kikuyu population into the prison camps of what has become known as 'Britain's Gulag'.As Tom is propelled into violence and horror the poem mutates into a meditation on the inheritance of conflict, the destruction of innocence and the impossibility of afterwards saying what one has seen. Written with rigour, intelligence, and a fierce, unsparing clarity, this is profound, lyrical work with that rare confidence and thrilling originality that announce the arrival of a significant new voice. About the Author Adam Foulds was born in 1974 and lives in south London. He is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia and his poetry has appeared in a number of literary magazines. His first nov Scotland on Sunday 'Foulds' linguistic pearls are dispensed liberally and casually. Poetry cannot beautify a situation such as this yet Foulds has created something beautiful' Financial Times Magazine `an impressive debut... written in gripping cinematic vignettes' The Guardian `The dramatic force of the broken word comes from its skilful juxtapositions: knowledge and ignorance, innocence and guilt...a moving and pitiless depiction of the world as it is' The Sunday Times 'dazzling... an exhilarating tour de force. Place and period are conjured up as confidently as if he had been there... violence and terror.. elegance of accuracy... emotional power... imaginative finesse... concise and precise, attentive and inventive - a superlative achievement' Sunday Times `a dark vivid, extraordinarily accomplished narrative poem.... the arrival of a significant literary talent' The Independent `Foulds has genuine talent' Daily Telegraph, Nick Laird '...It is rare to find such capacious lyricism, combining irony and terror, political scope and domestic detail' Back to Top
ISBN: 1843547201 EAN: 9781843547204 Amazon UK \| Bookrabbit uk \| Alibris-uk \| Abe books uk \|Blackwell Books\| Books Direct \| Borders \| Countrybookshop UK\| Foyles \| BBC Shop \|mills & boon\|		The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Balram Halwai is the White Tiger - the smartest boy in his village. His family is too poor for him to afford for him to finish school and he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables. But Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as achauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi. The city is a revelation. As he drives his master to shopping malls and call centres, Balram becomes increasingly aware of immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world. As Balram broods over his situation, he realizes that there is only one way he can become part of this glamorous new India - by murdering his master."The White Tiger" presents a raw and unromanticised India, both thrilling and shocking - from the desperate, almost lawless villages along the Ganges, to the booming Wild South of Bangalore and its technology and outsourcing centres. The first-person confession of a murderer, "The White Tiger" is as compelling for its subject matter as for the voice of its narrator - amoral, cynical, unrepentant, yet deeply endearing. ISBN: 1843547201 EAN: 9781843547204 Reviews "'In the grand illusions of a 'rising' India, Aravind Adiga has found a subject Gogol might have envied. With remorselessly and delightfully mordant wit The White Tiger anatomizes the fantastic cravings of the rich; it evokes, too, with starting accuracy and tenderness, the no less desperate struggles of the deprived.' Pankaj Mishra" About the Author Aravind Adiga (right) was born in Madras in 1974. He has lived in India, Australia, America and the UK. He has worked for the Financial Times in New York and for Time in India. His short story collection, Between the Assassinations, was published by Picador India in 2007. The White Tiger is his first novel. Back to Top
Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Faber and Faber (20 Mar 2008) Language English ISBN-10: 0571230237 ISBN-13: 978-0571230235		The Bloody White Baron by James Palmer Synopsis Roman Ungern von Sternberg was a Baltic aristocrat, a violent, headstrong youth posted to the wilds of Siberia and Mongolia before the First World War. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Baron - now in command of a lethally effective rabble of cavalrymen - conquered Mongolia, the last time in history a country was seized by an army mounted on horses. He was a Kurtz-like figure, slaughtering everyone he suspected of irreligion or of being a Jew. And his is a story that rehearses later horrors in Russia and elsewhere. James Palmer's book is an epic recreation of a forgotten episode and will establish him as a brilliant popular historian. Author James Palmer was born in 1981, lives in Beijing and has travelled extensively in East and Central Asia. This is his first book. He brings to it knowledge of comparative religion as well as a deep fascination with the cultures and history of China and Mongoli Reviews Simon A’s Review: The Bloody White Baron, by James Palmer
Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Viking (6 Mar 2008) Language English ISBN-10: 0670917346 ISBN-13: 978-0670917341 Amazon UK \| Bookrabbit uk \| Alibris-uk \| Abe books uk \|Blackwell Books\| Books Direct \| Borders \| Countrybookshop UK\| Foyles \| BBC Shop \|mills & boon\|		God's Own Country by Ross Raisin 'Ramblers. Daft sods in pink and green hats. It wasn't even cold. They moved down the field swing-swaying like a line of drunks, addled with the air and the land, and the smell of manure' This is the voice of our narrator, Sam Marsdyke, the teenage son of a farmer up on the Yorkshire Moors. He spends his days working the sheep, mending fences, trying to dodge the eye of his brutal, silent father, and most of all, watching the transformation of the farms and villages around him. From the top of the moors he watches the goofy ramblers and the earnest 'towns', the families from York, who are feverishly buying up the farmhouses left empty by bankrupt farmers. And as he watches, one young daughter of a new family catches his eye. As he falls for the young, sophisticated girl from London, she begins to see him as a means to escape. She wants to rebel against her parents and he wants to fulfil the fantasy he harbours about her and so they run away together. But this journey across the moors will take a terrifying menacing turn which, for him, will prove his terrible undoing. Sam Marsdyke is an unforgettable character at the heart of this extraordinary novel, a novel that is hugely funny, darkly menacing and will resonate long after you have finished the last page. Back to top Review comments... Colm Tόibín 'A compelling, disturbing and often very funny novel'... J.M. Coetzee Chilling in its effect and convincing in its execution.... Joshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to the End Utterly frightening and electrifying at once ...The Sunday Times Mature, taut and beautifully written ...Book Description An extraordinary debut novel reminiscent of The Butcher Boy ..Guardian 'Compelling, remarkable, entirely original. Marsdyke is like no other character in contemporary fiction. Both very funny and very disturbing' ..Telegraph 'Marsdyke's paranoid world is utterly compelling. A wonderfully unique novel' Financial Times 'A few pages with Marsdyke are unforgettable. Rare are the writers who can create such a funny yet terrifying narrator' Independent 'Bleak and beautiful ... A richly distinctive narrative voice' Observer 'Controlled, mature and compelling, this is a masterful debut' About the Author Ross Raisin was born in Yorkshire and lives in London. He is twenty-seven years old. Before university he spent time working in the hotel trade, working in hotels in France and Ireland. When he graduated, he began working in a wine bar in London, eventually becoming co-manager. Ross has continued to work as a waiter while writing the novel, and still does so now as he begins his second, a novel about a Glaswegian ex-shipyard worker, whose life unravels after the death of his wife. Ross Raisin on BookAwardTV (click On Demand Guardian First Novel) Back to Top
Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: HarperPress (7 Jul 2008) Language English ISBN-10: 0007242921 ISBN-13: 978-0007242924 Amazon UK \| Bookrabbit uk \| Alibris-uk \| Abe books uk \|Blackwell Books\| Books Direct \| Borders \| Countrybookshop UK\| Foyles \| BBC Shop \|mills & boon\|		Selling Your Father's Bones by Brian Schofield Part historical narrative, part travelogue through the wilds of the West and part environmental polemic, 'Selling Your Father's Bones' is a thrilling journey through the history and wilderness of the stunning area of landscape that is Continental USA. In the summer of 1877, around seven hundred members of the Nez Perce Native American tribe set out on one of the most remarkable journeys in the history of the American West, a 1,700-mile exodus through the mountains, forests, badlands and prairies of modern-day Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. They had been forced from their homes by the great wave of settlement that crashed over the West as the American nation was born. Led by their charismatic chiefs, the Nez Perce used their unerring knowledge of the landscapes they passed through to survive six battles and many more skirmishes with the pursuing United States Army, as they raced, with women, children and village elders in their care, towards the safety of the Canadian border.But all Chief Joseph, the young pastoral leader of the exodus, wanted was to return home - to his beloved Wallowa valley, which his dying father had ordered him never to abandon: 'Never sell the bones of your father and your mother. ' Now, Brian Schofield retraces the steps of that epic exodus, to tell the full dramatic story of the Nez Perce's fight for survival - and to examine the forces that drove them to take flight. The white settlement of the West had been largely motivated by patriotic fervour and religious zeal, a faith that the American continent had been laid out by God to fuel the creation of a mighty empire. But as he travels through the lands that the Nez Perce knew so well, Schofield reveals that the great project of the Western Empire has gone badly awry, as the mythology of the settlers opened the door to ecological vandalism, unthinking corporations and negligent leadership, which have lest scarred landscapes, battered communities and toxic environments. Review 'Brian Schofield's heart-rending account is interwoven with contemporary scenes from his researches, in a second-hand van, in the hardscrabble ex-lumber towns of 21st-century Idaho. A quiet fury burns through his careful prose, not least in his exquisite footnotes.' The Times 'Schofield's book, which is admirably ambitious in scope, could well turn out to be a classic.' Geographical Magazine 'Schofield...listens respectfully to Native voices and emphasizes their resilience then and now.' TLS The Times "Brian Schofield's heart-rending account is interwoven with contemporary scenes from his researches, in a second-hand van, in the hardscrabble ex-lumber towns of 21st-century Idaho..." The Sunday Times "his visits to the tough frontier towns of the northwest are illuminating." TLS "he listened respectfully to Native voices and emphasizes their resilience then and now." Geographical Magazine " Schofield's book, which is admirably ambitious in scope, could well turn out to be a future classic." Daily Telegraph 'Thoroughly researched...driven by obsessive passion...in a vivid travelogue woven into his historical text.' New Statesman 'On a tourist highway in Yellowstone's 'wilderness', Brian Schofield discovers America's nature dilemma.' Traveller Magazine 'This is a book that screams to be made into a film... a cinematic page-turner' HarperCollins In the summer of 1877, around seven hundred members of the Nez Perce Native American tribe set out on one of the most remarkable journeys in the history of the American West, a 1,700-mile exodus through the mountains, forests, badlands and prairies of modern-day Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. They had been forced from their homes by the great wave of settlement that crashed over the West as the American nation was born. Led by their charismatic chiefs, the Nez Perce used their unerring knowledge of the landscapes they passed through to survive six battles and many more skirmishes with the pursuing United States Army, as they raced, with women, children and village elders in their care, towards the safety of the Canadian border. But all Chief Joseph, the young pastoral leader of the exodus, wanted was to return home – to his beloved Wallowa valley, which his dying father had ordered him never to abandon: ‘Never sell the bones of your father and your mother.’ Now, Brian Schofield retraces the steps of that epic exodus, to tell the full dramatic story of the Nez Perce’s fight for survival – and to examine the forces that drove them to take flight. The white settlement of the West had been largely motivated by patriotic fervour and religious zeal, a faith that the American continent had been laid out by God to fuel the creation of a mighty empire. But as he travels through the lands that the Nez Perce knew so well, Schofield reveals that the great project of the Western Empire has gone badly awry, as the mythology of the settlers opened the door to ecological vandalism, unthinking corporations and negligent leadership, which have lest scarred landscapes, battered communities and toxic environments. About the Author Brian is only 32 years old and in 2003 he won the best British Travel Writer covering North America.He's spent the last eight years writing for GQ, FHM, 'Arena' and the 'Sunday Times'. He's currently employed as assistant travel editor, culture and news review writer at the 'Sunday Times'. This is his first book Back to Top

The Secret Life of Words by Henry Hitchings- 2008 Winner

Review hithchings_henry
'Hitching's excavation are a treat. He presents the best gleanings of academia in a winning, conversational style. Almost every spadeful yields an etymological nugget ... elegantly and entertainingly written' -- Financial Times 'A fascinating exploration of the rich borrowings, exchanges and couplings of the language' -- Ben Macintyre, The Times 'Hitchings has teased out the stories lurking behind the language to provide a most satisfying whole' -- Publishing News 'Much more than a collage of etymological trivia, this is a dense and thorough excavation of the stories that lie behind the words we say' -- Metro 'Quite how Hitchings has managed to wrestle this dizzying mountain of dense information into such an elegant narrative ... is a feat almost as admirable as that of the great lexicographer. His book is painstakingly detailed, closely argued and suffused with a contagious enthusiasm for the secrets woven into the fabric of our words -- Daily Telegraph 'This clever, persuasive, delightful book is studded with entertaining observations' -- Independent on Sunday 'Wearing his learning lightly, Hitchings has produced an impressive successor to his acclaimed account of Johnson's dictionary' -- Independent 'A wonderfully detailed history of the English language' -- Good Book Guide

Hitchings, who wrote earlier about Samuel Johnson's dictionary (Defining the World, 2005), again displays his astonishing knowledge of the English language's myriad roots.English has been and no doubt always will be a salmagundi, the author declares, blending words from many other tongues into one splendid, ever-changing linguistic dish. It's vocabulary that interests him here - grammar is far more resistant to change, he notes - and after some factual table-setting (approximately 350 languages have contributed to English) he serves his main courses one century at a time. Hitchings effortlessly blends world history with linguistic history, helping us see that we appropriate words for numerous reasons: trade, conquest, fashion, food, art and so on. The Anglo-Saxons, we learn, had more than 30 words for warrior. From Arabic we gained words for alchemy that then migrated into math and science, such as zero and cipher. Chaucer, the author writes, was "a literary magpie" who liberated the language. The rise of the printing press ignited another vocabulary explosion. In the 16th century, English conflicts with Spain brought an influx of Spanish words, among them armada, hammock and mosquito. Shakespeare is the first known user of some 1,700 words. From the New World came potato and tobacco; Capt. John Smith was the first to use adrift and roomy. Greek, avers Hitchings, has remained a source of high-culture (even highfalutin) words like deipnosophist and pathos. Many French words deal with culture, leisure and food (no surprise there); soiree first appeared in the fiction of Fanny Burney. The British occupation of India brought the words teapot, curry and pajamas. In later days, advertising, mass media, the Internet and the "global village" have all accelerated the growth and spread of English. Hitchings notes in several places the impossibility and undesirability of attempting to close and bar the doors of this eternally flexible and omnivorous tongue.Learned, wise and educative, though a bit weighty for the average nightstand. (Kirkus Reviews)

Review

'Hitching’s excavation are a treat. He presents the best gleanings of academia in a winning, conversational style. Almost every spadeful yields an etymological nugget . . . elegantly and entertainingly written'

(Financial Times )

'A fascinating exploration of the rich borrowings, exchanges and couplings of the language'

(Ben Macintyre, The Times )

'Hitchings has teased out the stories lurking behind the language to provide a most satisfying whole'

(Publishing News )

'Much more than a collage of etymological trivia, this is a dense and thorough excavation of the stories that lie behind the words we say'

(Metro )

'Quite how Hitchings has managed to wrestle this dizzying mountain of dense information into such an elegant narrative . . . is a feat almost as admirable as that of the great lexicographer. His book is painstakingly detailed, closely argued and suffused with a contagious enthusiasm for the secrets woven into the fabric of our words

(Daily Telegraph )

'This clever, persuasive, delightful book is studded with entertaining observations'

(Independent on Sunday )

'Wearing his learning lightly, Hitchings has produced an impressive successor to his acclaimed account of Johnson’s dictionary'

(Independent )

'A wonderfully detailed history of the English language'

Biography of Henry Hitchings
Henry Hitchings was born in 1974 and lives in London. He was educated at the
universities of Oxford and London, completing his PhD on Samuel Johnson. His first
book, Dr Johnson's Dictionary, earned widespread praise and won the Modern
Language Association's prize for the best work by an independent scholar in 2005.

The Secret Life of Words continues his interest in language and cultural history, and he is currently working on a third book in this area. He has contributed to many newspapers and magazines, including the Financial Times, The Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian.

Paperback: 80 pages
Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd (17 April 2008)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0224084445
ISBN-13: 978-0224084444

The Broken Word by Adam Foulds

Set in the 1950s, "The Broken Word" is an extraordinary poetic sequence that animates and illuminates a dark, terrifying period in British colonial history. The combination here of language and imagery that feel utterly contemporary, and subject matter - tribal violence and subsequent retribution - that seems almost Homeric, gives the narrative all the febrile energy of classical drama, re-charged and re-imagined. Tom has returned to his family's farm in Kenya for the summer vacation between school and university when he is swept up by the events of the Mau Mau uprising. Beginning with sporadic, brutal attacks by dispossessed Kikuyu on the British now occupying their land - attacks often executed with nothing more than traditional panga knives - the conflict escalates as the terrified British stop at nothing to re-impose order, eventually driving most of the Kikuyu population into the prison camps of what has become known as 'Britain's Gulag'.As Tom is propelled into violence and horror the poem mutates into a meditation on the inheritance of conflict, the destruction of innocence and the impossibility of afterwards saying what one has seen. Written with rigour, intelligence, and a fierce, unsparing clarity, this is profound, lyrical work with that rare confidence and thrilling originality that announce the arrival of a significant new voice.

About the Author
Adam Foulds was born in 1974 and lives in south London. He is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia and his poetry has appeared in a number of literary magazines. His first nov

Scotland on Sunday
'Foulds' linguistic pearls are dispensed liberally and casually. Poetry cannot beautify a situation such as this yet Foulds has created something beautiful'

Financial Times Magazine
`an impressive debut... written in gripping cinematic vignettes'

The Guardian
`The dramatic force of the broken word comes from its skilful juxtapositions: knowledge and ignorance, innocence and guilt...a moving and pitiless depiction of the world as it is'

The Sunday Times
'dazzling... an exhilarating tour de force. Place and period are conjured up as confidently as if he had been there... violence and terror.. elegance of accuracy... emotional power... imaginative finesse... concise and precise, attentive and inventive - a superlative achievement'

Sunday Times
`a dark vivid, extraordinarily accomplished narrative poem.... the arrival of a significant literary talent'

The Independent
`Foulds has genuine talent'

Daily Telegraph, Nick Laird
'...It is rare to find such capacious lyricism, combining irony and terror, political scope and domestic detail'

ISBN: 1843547201
EAN: 9781843547204

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Balram Halwai is the White Tiger - the smartest boy in his village. H aravind_adiga is family is too poor for him to afford for him to finish school and he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables. But Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as achauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi. The city is a revelation. As he drives his master to shopping malls and call centres, Balram becomes increasingly aware of immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world. As Balram broods over his situation, he realizes that there is only one way he can become part of this glamorous new India - by murdering his master."The White Tiger" presents a raw and unromanticised India, both thrilling and shocking - from the desperate, almost lawless villages along the Ganges, to the booming Wild South of Bangalore and its technology and outsourcing centres. The first-person confession of a murderer, "The White Tiger" is as compelling for its subject matter as for the voice of its narrator - amoral, cynical, unrepentant, yet deeply endearing.
ISBN: 1843547201
EAN: 9781843547204

Reviews

"'In the grand illusions of a 'rising' India, Aravind Adiga has found a subject Gogol might have envied. With remorselessly and delightfully mordant wit The White Tiger anatomizes the fantastic cravings of the rich; it evokes, too, with starting accuracy and tenderness, the no less desperate struggles of the deprived.' Pankaj Mishra"

About the Author

Aravind Adiga (right) was born in Madras in 1974. He has lived in India, Australia, America and the UK. He has worked for the Financial Times in New York and for Time in India. His short story collection, Between the Assassinations, was published by Picador India in 2007. The White Tiger is his first novel.

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Faber and Faber (20 Mar 2008)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0571230237
ISBN-13: 978-0571230235

The Bloody White Baron by James Palmer

Synopsis
Roman Ungern von Sternberg was a Baltic aristocrat, a violent, headstrong youth posted to the wilds of Siberia and Mongolia before the First World War. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Baron - now in command of a lethally effective rabble of cavalrymen - conquered Mongolia, the last time in history a country was seized by an army mounted on horses. He was a Kurtz-like figure, slaughtering everyone he suspected of irreligion or of being a Jew. And his is a story that rehearses later horrors in Russia and elsewhere. James Palmer's book is an epic recreation of a forgotten episode and will establish him as a brilliant popular historian.

Author

James Palmer was born in 1981, lives in Beijing and has travelled extensively in East and Central Asia. This is his first book. He brings to it knowledge of comparative religion as well as a deep fascination with the cultures and history of China and Mongoli

Reviews

Simon A’s Review: The Bloody White Baron, by James Palmer

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Viking (6 Mar 2008)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0670917346
ISBN-13: 978-0670917341

God's Own Country by Ross Raisin

RAISIN_ROSS 'Ramblers. Daft sods in pink and green hats. It wasn't even cold. They moved down the field swing-swaying like a line of drunks, addled with the air and the land, and the smell of manure' This is the voice of our narrator, Sam Marsdyke, the teenage son of a farmer up on the Yorkshire Moors. He spends his days working the sheep, mending fences, trying to dodge the eye of his brutal, silent father, and most of all, watching the transformation of the farms and villages around him. From the top of the moors he watches the goofy ramblers and the earnest 'towns', the families from York, who are feverishly buying up the farmhouses left empty by bankrupt farmers. And as he watches, one young daughter of a new family catches his eye. As he gods_own_country falls for the young, sophisticated girl from London, she begins to see him as a means to escape. She wants to rebel against her parents and he wants to fulfil the fantasy he harbours about her and so they run away together. But this journey across the moors will take a terrifying menacing turn which, for him, will prove his terrible undoing. Sam Marsdyke is an unforgettable character at the heart of this extraordinary novel, a novel that is hugely funny, darkly menacing and will resonate long after you have finished the last page.

Review comments... Colm Tόibín 'A compelling, disturbing and often very funny novel'... J.M. Coetzee Chilling in its effect and convincing in its execution.... Joshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to the End Utterly frightening and electrifying at once ...The Sunday Times Mature, taut and beautifully written ...Book Description
An extraordinary debut novel reminiscent of The Butcher Boy ..Guardian
'Compelling, remarkable, entirely original. Marsdyke is like no other character in contemporary fiction. Both very funny and very disturbing' ..Telegraph
'Marsdyke's paranoid world is utterly compelling. A wonderfully unique novel' Financial Times 'A few pages with Marsdyke are unforgettable. Rare are the writers who can create such a funny yet terrifying narrator' Independent 'Bleak and beautiful ... A richly distinctive narrative voice' Observer 'Controlled, mature and compelling, this is a masterful debut'

About the Author
Ross Raisin was born in Yorkshire and lives in London. He is twenty-seven years old. Before university he spent time working in the hotel trade, working in hotels in France and Ireland. When he graduated, he began working in a wine bar in London, eventually becoming co-manager. Ross has continued to work as a waiter while writing the novel, and still does so now as he begins his second, a novel about a Glaswegian ex-shipyard worker, whose life unravels after the death of his wife.

Ross Raisin on BookAwardTV (click On Demand Guardian First Novel)

Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: HarperPress (7 Jul 2008)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0007242921
ISBN-13: 978-0007242924

Selling Your Father's Bones by Brian Schofield

Part historical narrative, part travelogue through the wilds of the West and part environmental polemic, 'Selling Your Father's Bones' is a thrilling journey through the history and wilderness of the stunning area of landscape that is Continental USA. In the summer of 1877, around seven hundred members of the Nez Perce Native American tribe set out on one of the most remarkable journeys in the history of the American West, a 1,700-mile exodus through the mountains, forests, badlands and prairies of modern-day Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. They had been forced from their homes by the great wave of settlement that crashed over the West as the American nation was born. Led by their charismatic chiefs, the Nez Perce used their unerring knowledge of the landscapes they passed through to survive six battles and many more skirmishes with the pursuing United States Army, as they raced, with women, children and village elders in their care, towards the safety of the Canadian border.But all Chief Joseph, the young pastoral leader of the exodus, wanted was to return home - to his beloved Wallowa valley, which his dying father had ordered him never to abandon: 'Never sell the bones of your father and your mother. ' Now, Brian Schofield retraces the steps of that epic exodus, to tell the full dramatic story of the Nez Perce's fight for survival - and to examine the forces that drove them to take flight. The white settlement of the West had been largely motivated by patriotic fervour and religious zeal, a faith that the American continent had been laid out by God to fuel the creation of a mighty empire. But as he travels through the lands that the Nez Perce knew so well, Schofield reveals that the great project of the Western Empire has gone badly awry, as the mythology of the settlers opened the door to ecological vandalism, unthinking corporations and negligent leadership, which have lest scarred landscapes, battered communities and toxic environments.

Review
'Brian Schofield's heart-rending account is interwoven with contemporary scenes from his researches, in a second-hand van, in the hardscrabble ex-lumber towns of 21st-century Idaho. A quiet fury burns through his careful prose, not least in his exquisite footnotes.' The Times 'Schofield's book, which is admirably ambitious in scope, could well turn out to be a classic.' Geographical Magazine 'Schofield...listens respectfully to Native voices and emphasizes their resilience then and now.' TLS

The Times
"Brian Schofield's heart-rending account is interwoven with contemporary scenes from his researches, in a second-hand van, in the hardscrabble ex-lumber towns of 21st-century Idaho..."

The Sunday Times
"his visits to the tough frontier towns of the northwest are illuminating."

TLS
"he listened respectfully to Native voices and emphasizes their resilience then and now."

Geographical Magazine
" Schofield's book, which is admirably ambitious in scope, could well turn out to be a future classic."

Daily Telegraph
'Thoroughly researched...driven by obsessive passion...in a vivid travelogue woven into his historical text.'

New Statesman
'On a tourist highway in Yellowstone's 'wilderness', Brian Schofield discovers America's nature dilemma.'

Traveller Magazine
'This is a book that screams to be made into a film... a cinematic page-turner'

HarperCollins

In the summer of 1877, around seven hundred members of the Nez Perce Native American tribe set out on one of the most remarkable journeys in the history of the American West, a 1,700-mile exodus through the mountains, forests, badlands and prairies of modern-day Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. They had been forced from their homes by the great wave of settlement that crashed over the West as the American nation was born.

Led by their charismatic chiefs, the Nez Perce used their unerring knowledge of the landscapes they passed through to survive six battles and many more skirmishes with the pursuing United States Army, as they raced, with women, children and village elders in their care, towards the safety of the Canadian border. But all Chief Joseph, the young pastoral leader of the exodus, wanted was to return home – to his beloved Wallowa valley, which his dying father had ordered him never to abandon: ‘Never sell the bones of your father and your mother.’

Now, Brian Schofield retraces the steps of that epic exodus, to tell the full dramatic story of the Nez Perce’s fight for survival – and to examine the forces that drove them to take flight. The white settlement of the West had been largely motivated by patriotic fervour and religious zeal, a faith that the American continent had been laid out by God to fuel the creation of a mighty empire. But as he travels through the lands that the Nez Perce knew so well, Schofield reveals that the great project of the Western Empire has gone badly awry, as the mythology of the settlers opened the door to ecological vandalism, unthinking corporations and negligent leadership, which have lest scarred landscapes, battered communities and toxic environments.

About the Author
Brian is only 32 years old and in 2003 he won the best British Travel Writer covering North America.He's spent the last eight years writing for GQ, FHM, 'Arena' and the 'Sunday Times'. He's currently employed as assistant travel editor, culture and news review writer at the 'Sunday Times'. This is his first book

WILD WOMEN OF THE CARHULLAN ARMY SEIZE JOHN
LLEWELLYN RHYS PRIZE 2006/7

Sarah Hall (right) has been awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2006/7 for her novel The Carhullan Army. The prize was announced at a ceremony at City Inn Westminster on
Thursday evening. Hall received a cheque for £5,000.

The novel, published by Faber and Faber, is a compelling picture of Britain in the near future. Ravaged by a mysterious war, economically ruined and controlled by the faceless‘Authority,’ Britain has become a forbidding and desolate place. The narrator of the story, known simply as Sister, decides to join the self-sufficient and formidable female-only community on the remote farm of Carhullan as they struggle for survival. Suzi Feay, chair of judges, commented:

“Sarah Hall's fierce, uncomfortable story of a radical dissident group holed up in the far
north after the total breakdown of society seemed to all the judges to be the book that ceridwen_dovey
tackled the most urgent and alarming questions of today. The quality of The Carhullan Army was simply unignorable. We need writers with Hall's humanity and insight.”

The 2006/7 shortlisted books were:

Blood Kin – Ceridwen Dovey -left (Atlantic Books)
The Carhullan Army– Sarah Hall (Faber and Faber)
Inglorious – Joanna Kavenna (Faber and Faber)
The Wild Places– Robert Macfarlane (Granta Books)
Joshua Spassky – Gwendoline Riley (Jonathan Cape)
Occupational Hazards: My Time Governing in Iraq – Rory Stewart (Picador)

The short list and eventual winners were selected by Professor Colin Nicholson and Professor Laura Marcus.

The advisory committee for the awards included:

Best-selling crime novelist Ian Rankin
Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival Catherine Lockerbie
Journalist and broadcaster James Naughtie
Best-selling author Alexander McCall-Smith

2005/6 prize winner

The winner of the 2005 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize was Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala, published by John Murray.

Publisher Roland Philips collected the award on behalf of the author, who was unable to attend the ceremony at City Inn, Westminster, on 6 December 2006 (the prize is awarded retrospectively).

2005/6 shortlist

Tokyo Cancelled by Rana Dasgupta (Fourth Estate)

The Short Day Dying by Peter Hobbs (Faber and Faber)

Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala (John Murray)

The State of the Prisons by Sinéad Morrissey (Carcanet Press)

Newfoundland by Rebbecca Ray (Hamish Hamilton)

GEM Squash Tokoloshe by Rachel Zadok (Pan Macmillan)

The judges were Courttia Newland (Chair), Lemn Sissay and Benedicte Page j_trigell

2004/5 -prize winner Jonathan Trigell (left), Boy A

* Shortlist
* Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus
* Rory Stewart, The Places in Between
* Neil Bennun, The Broken String
* Colin McAdam, Some Great Thing
* Anthony Cartwright, The Afterglow

Historic Winners List 1942- 2003

2003 - Charlotte Mendelson, Daughters of Jerusalem

2002 - Mary Laven, Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in the Renaissance Convent

* (note: The 2002 prize was initially awarded to Hari Kunzru for his book The Impressionist on 20 November 2003, but the author decided to decline the award due to its sponsorship by the Mail on Sunday)

2001 - Susanna Jones, The Earthquake Bird

2000 - Edward Platt (writer), Leadvill1990 - Ray Monk, Ludwig Wittgenstein: Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius

1999 - David Mitchell, Ghostwritten

1998 - Peter Ho Davies, The Ugliest House in the World

1997 - Phil Whitaker, Eclipse of the Sun

1996 - Nicola Barker (left), Heading Inland

1995 - Melanie McGrath, Motel Nirvana: Dreaming of the New Age in the American Desert

1994 - Jonathan Coe, What a Carve Up!

1993 - Jason Goodwin, On Foot to the Golden Horn: A Walk to Istanbul

1992 - Matthew Kneale, Sweet Thames

1991 - A. L. Kennedy, Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains

1989 - Claire Harman, Sylvia Townsend Warner

1988 - Matthew Yorke, The March Fence

1987 - Jeanette Winterson, The Passion

1986 - Tim Parks, Loving Roger

1985 - John Milne, Out of the Blue

1984 - Andrew Motion, Dangerous Play

1983 - Lisa St Aubin de Teran, The Slow Train to Milan

1982 - William Boyd, An Ice-Cream War

1981 - A. N. Wilson, The Laird of Abbotsford

1980 - Desmond Hogan, The Diamonds at the Bottom of the Sea

1979 - Peter Boardman, The Shining Mountain

1978 - A. N. Wilson, The Sweets of Pimlico

1977 - Richard Cork, Vorticism & Abstract Art in the First Machine Age

1976 - No Award

1975 - David Hare, Knuckle, and Tim Jeal, Cushing's Crusade

1974 - Hugh Fleetwood, The Girl Who Passed for Normal

1973 - Peter Smalley, A Warm Gun

1972 - Susan Hill, The Albatross

1971 angus_calder - Shiva Naipaul, Fireflies

1970 - Angus Calder (left- not a 1970 shot), The People's War

1969 - Melvyn Bragg, Without a City Wall

1968 - Angela Carter, The Magic Toyshop

1967 - Anthony Masters, The Seahorse

1966 - Margaret Drabble, The Millstone

1965 - Julian Mitchell, The White Father

1964 - Nell Dunn, Up the Junction 1963 - Peter Marshall, Two Lives

1962 - Robert Rhodes James, An Introduction to the House of Commons, and Edward Lucie-Smith, A Tropical Childhood and Other Poems

1961 - David Storey, Flight Into Camden

1960 - David Caute, At Fever Pitch

1958 - V. S. Naipaul, The Mystic Masseur

1959 - Dan Jacobson, A Long Way from London

1957 - Ruskin Bond, The Room on the Roof

1956 - John Hearne, Voices Under the Window

1955 - John Wiles, The Moon to Play With

1954 - Tom Stacey, The Hostile Sun

1953 - Rachel Trickett, The Return Home

1952 - No Award

1951 - Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Beautiful Visit

1950 - Kenneth Allsop, Adventure Lit Their Star

1949 - Emma Smith, Maiden's Trip

1948 - Richard Mason, The Wind Cannot Read

1947 - Anne-Marie Walters, Moondrop to Gascony

1946 - Oriel Malet, My Bird Sings

1945 - James Aldridge, The Sea Eagle

1944 - Alun Lewis, The Last Inspection

1943 - Morwenna Donelly, Beauty for Ashes

1942 - Michael Richey, Sunk by a Mine

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