The Bookseller.com

4th July 2009

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Costa winner Kennedy speaks out

23.01.08

Scottish author and stand-up comedian A L Kennedy warned that "we seem to be destroying our culture", when she won the 2007 Costa Book of the Year award for her fifth novel, Day (Cape).

Picking up the prize and a cheque for £25,000 last evening (Tuesday 22nd January) at an awards ceremony held in central London, the author and stand-up comedian said that "we're in danger of losing our stories . . . if we don't have libraries, independent bookshops, coverage in the media. Do we want to lose that?".

She called on the assembled audience--"the most influential room I will ever play"--to make sure there were "libraries with books in them and bookshops with a real range" and "maintain cover prices". She added: "I don't want to live in a country where we're destroying art".

Kennedy beat bestselling biographer Simon Sebag Montefiore for Young Stalin, first-time novelist Catherine O’Flynn for What Was Lost, poet Jean Sprackland for Tilt and children’s writer Ann Kelley for The Bower Bird for the overall prize.

She interrupted her American tour to fly back to the UK for 24 hours to attend the awards ceremony. The Glasgow-based author spent three years researching the book, which tells of British PoW and Lancaster tailgunner Alfred Day, trying to cope with civilian life in 1949.

Joanna Trollope, chair of the final judges, said: "Day is an example of excellence in its category and a book ultimately to recommend. It is perfectly and beautifully written by an author who is an extraordinary stylist."

Prize Costa Book Awards A L Kennedy