The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

Joel Rickett is deputy editor of The Bookseller, and also writes columns for the Guardian and Screen International.

Blogging the BA: Nibbies night

14.05.08

It's the hottest evening of the year, and we're right by the glorious Brighton seafront. The perfect moment to don a thick black dinner jacket and head deep into the bowels of a conference hotel, cramming into a sweltering room lit by red stage lights. This was the inauspicious start to the 2008 British Book Industry Awards –but at least it gave everyone something to moan about.

After a long but palatable dinner, the room cheered up when the awards proper got underway. First up was Mark Billingham, who launched into his familiar stream of industry in-jokes and crude but effective quips. He mocked the industry's environmental pretensions – "Vicky buys a hybrid, Gail rides a bike to work, Vicky starts taking a hand-knitted rickshaw . . . Carbon output could be slashed by publishing half as many novels by James Patterson" - as well as Caroline Michel ("When C.S.S. hired her as the M.D. of P.F.D., the S.H.I.T. hit the fan.").

The awards themselves were dished out two at a time, mercifully cutting down the ceremony time. Applause levels suggest Diane Spivey was a very popular winner of the rights award, as was David Miller of the agent gong (he thanked "all the people on the judging panel who I've bought lunch for") and Will Atkinson for industry achievement (he thanked Stephen Page for "giving me the time and space to grow up").

The most emotional moments were from the booksellers: there were tears from the duo who run Mostly Books in Abingdon, and effusive thanks to a "welcoming" industry from Nic Bottomley of Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath.

Most moving of all was Foyles' Bill Samuel, who recalled inheriting the crumbling Charing Cross Road shop after Christina Foyle died in 1999: "the sensible decision would have been to knock it down and build a glass and concrete office tower . . . But we said no: it's Grandad's shop and let's see if we can do something with it."

Other prizes had a sense of déjà vu: Amazon's Kes Nielsen could not disguise his weariness at picking up yet another laurel, while the Quercus juggernaught rolled on. Best remark of the night? From a dour Robin Robertson, picking up Imprint & Editor of the Year: "Well, I guess it's all downhill from here."

The final, big prize was for CCV, the Random House division (Cape, Chatto Vintage). Boss Richard Cable nobly emphasised that the industry was "not just about the big winners", imploring retailers to keep trying to find audience "that we know is out there" for all kinds of books." However it was also left to him to make clear why CCV had won – it had a record year of sales and profits in 2007, and scooped 12 major literary awards.

That was the case throughout the evening, with no information given on the rationale behind the voting decisions. As Billingham said of the mysterious Nibbies voting process: "Don't worry – the results have been carefully verified by the Zimbawean electoral commission."