Posted By: Richard White, 22 September 2010
The Eastern Daily Press has just announced the short list for the 2010 Jarrold East Anglian Book Awards, and - if you’ll forgive the U.S. phrase - gee whiz! The judging panel have some tough decisions to make.
As a supporter of the EDP Book Awards we’re delighted to hear that once again the Awards have produced a large number of entries. The competition celebrates great new literature with a Norfolk, Suffolk or Fenland theme, so I can only assume that East Anglia continues to inspire.
The entries have now been short listed to three per category, as revealed today, and one of those three will shortly be named the category winner. It will then fall to the three judges (one of whom is our Chief Exec, Chris Gribble) to decide which of those seven winners will be chosen as the overall East Anglian Book of the Year.
From a personal point of view, I’m delighted to see Mick Jackson’s The Widows Tale make the fiction list. Mick’s book was one of six involved in our summer reading campaign, Summer Reads. I can safely assure you that it’s a great book and all our summer readers loved it too. Still, the competition is tough, so let’s wait and see.
The East Anglian Book Awards ceremony will be held at the Assembly House, in Norwich, on the evening of October 20th. Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start to the awards ceremony on October 20, which will be presented by BBC Look East's Carol Bundock. To buy tickets call in at the EDP shop at the Archant building at Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich, or visit customer services at Jarrold on London Street, Norwich.
We wish the writers good luck, and look forward to hearing the final results.
You can find more information about the prize on the EDP website. Below is the short list for each category:
EDP Book Awards: Short List
FICTION: Judged by Keith Tutt, a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at UEA.
Death Watch, by Jim Kelly (Penguin)
The Last Weekend, by Blake Morrison (Chatto and Windus)
The Widow’s Tale, by Mick Jackson (Faber and Faber).
POETRY: Judged by Prof Jean Boase-Beier, head of the UEA's school of literature and creative writing.
Bridge, by Laura Elliott (Gatehouse Press).
Gedney Drove End, by Cameron Self (published by Cameron Self)
Yes, by Caroline Gilfillan (Hawthorn Press).
HISTORY AND TRADITION: Judged by Keith Skipper, writer, journalist and broadcaster known as an authority on Norfolk tradition and dialect.
Shipdham: A Journey Through Time 1066-2009, by Angela Bishop, Mindy Chilvers, Janet Coe, Sue
Dewing, Wendy Doel and Pat Lyster (Shipdham Wives Group)
The Medieval Churches of the City of Norwich, by Nicholas Groves (Norwich HEART and East Publishing)
Films Were Made: A Look at Films and Filmmakers in the East of England 1896-1996, by David Cleveland (published by David Cleveland).
BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR: Judged by Ann Thwaite, the award-winning biographer of AA Milne and Emily Tennyson.
The Newsagent’s Window, by John Osborne (Simon and Schuster)
Norfolk Red: the life of Wilf Page, by Mike Pentelow (Lawrence and Wishart)
The King of the Norfolk Poachers, by Charlotte Paton (Old Pond Publishing).
NATURE AND PLACES: Judged by Prof Keith Roberts, a plant cell biologist who is an Emeritus Fellow at the John Innes Centre.
The Return of the Tide... On the Saltmarsh Coast of North Norfolk, edited by Ian Scott and Richard Worsley (Quiller Press)
The Barley Bird: Notes on the Suffolk Nightingale, by Richard Mabey with images by Derrick Greaves (Full Circle Editions)
Norfolk from the Air, by Mike Page and Pauline Young (Halsgrove).
ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY: Judged by EDP arts correspondent Ian Collins.
Almanac, by Jeffery Camp (Royal Academy of Arts)
Traditional Crafts and Industries of East Anglia: The Photographic Legacy of Hallam Ashley, by Andrew Sargent (English Heritage)
Bells Beneath the Sea: Photographs of the Suffolk Heritage Coast, by Carl White (Old Pond Publishing).
GUIDEBOOKS AND TRAVEL: Judged by Nicholas Caistor, a radio and print journalist and presenter of BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents.
The Wherryman’s Way, by Steve Silk (Halsgrove)
Slow Norfolk and Suffolk, by Laurence Mitchell (Bradt Travel Guides)
Time Out Norfolk and Suffolk, by Yolanda Zappaterra and Emma Perry (Ebury Publishing).
