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Twenty-one writers shared £76,000 of prize money at the Authors' Awards last night presented by Joanna Trollope. Among them Anjali Joseph won the £10,000 Betty Trask prize for Saraswati Park (Fourth Estate). As previously announced, Philip Ziegler won the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Edward Heath – The Authorised Biography (HarperPress). The McKitterick prize, worth £4,000 was given to Emma Henderson, who has been previously shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Wellcome Book Prize.
Other Betty Trask Prize Award winners were Laura Barton who received £6,000 for Twenty-One Locks (Quercus) and Simon Lelic who was given £2,500 for Rupture (Picador) along with Robert Williams, who was also awarded £2,500 for Luke and Jon (Faber).
After the presentations, Trollope congratulated all the winners, saying they had the power to influence imaginations with their words. She said: "We (authors) can take everything that has already been said and present it in a way that makes people think ‘I have never heard this before.' All the writers around us tonight have done this."
Joseph said: "I feel really happy, I remember reading the backs of books which had this award cited when I was younger and thinking they must be good, so its nice to get the recognition."
The event took place at the Cavalry and Guards Club in Piccadilly, London, and was hosted by the Society of Authors.
Full list of winners and judges:
The Elizabeth Longford Prize (£5,000) sponsored by Flora Fraser and Peter
Soros
Winner: Philip Ziegler for Edward Heath – The Authorised Biography
(HarperPress)
Judges: Roy Foster, Lady Antonia Fraser DBE, Flora Fraser, David Gilmour,
Munro Price.
The Travelling Scholarships
Winners: Mark Cocker, Rose George and Ben Markovits, who each received
£2,000
Judges: Lisa Appignanesi, Jim Crace, Kay Dunbar, Adam Mars-Jones, Caroline
Moorehead.
The Somerset Maugham Awards
Winners: Miriam Gamble for The Squirrels Are Dead (Bloodaxe), Alexandra
Harris for Romantic Moderns (Thames and Hudson) and Adam O'Riordan for In the Flesh (Chatto Poetry) each of whom received £3,500
Judges: Rachel Cusk, William Fiennes, M. J. Hyland.
The Tom-Gallon Trust Award (£1,000)
Winner: Emma Timpany for The Pledge
Judges: Jane Gardam and Jacob Ross
The McKitterick Prize (£4,000)
Winner: Emma Henderson for Grace Williams Says It Loud (Sceptre)
Judges: Mavis Cheek, Lindsey Davis, Georgina Hammick.
The Betty Trask Prize (£10,000)
Winner: Anjali Joseph for Saraswati Park (Fourth Estate)
Betty Trask Award winners
Laura Barton for Twenty-One Locks (Quercus) £6,000
Simon Lelic for Rupture (Picador) and Robert Williams for Luke and Jon
(Faber) each received £2,500
Judges: Paul Bailey, Frances Fyfield, Shena Mackay.
The Cholmondeley Awards
Winners: Imtiaz Dharker, Michael Haslam and Lachlan Mackinnon received
£2,500 each
Judges: Dennis O'Driscoll, Carol Ann Duffy, Ian Patterson, Jo Shapcott.
The Eric Gregory Awards
Winners: Niall Campbell, Tom Chivers, Holly Hopkins, Martin Jackson and Kim
Moore received £4,200 each
Judges: Moniza Alvi, Alan Brownjohn, Polly Clark, John Greening, Carol
Rumens, Fiona Sampson.