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Debut author Libby Page has triumphed at the W H Smith Thumping Good Read Award, to take home £10,000.
Page's debut novel The Lido (Orion) saw off competition from a shortlist including Orion stablemate Steve Cavanagh with Twisted and Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (Egmont).
The Lido "really did stand out" according to author and judge Peter James. He and last year's winner Laura Purcell were "blown away" by the story of a heartwarming friendship, which also won the public vote on social media.
Page said: “I'm thrilled to have won the W H Smith Thumping Good Read award, especially as the competition was so strong - it was an honour just to be shortlisted among these other brilliant books and authors. A huge thank you to W H Smith and to all the readers who voted - it means so much to know that people enjoyed the book, let alone enough to take the time to vote. So thank you!”
James added: “To select a single winner from such a truly brilliant, beautifully written and highly original group of shortlisted novels presented us all with a real challenge. The fact that these seven novels made this shortlist at all, in many ways makes each and every one of them a winner.”
“But The Lido really did stand out for so many of those who read it. A gentle, simple yet constantly compelling story that does what all great fiction should do - both make you want to turn the page, and at the same time enrich us with its characters, their lives, their failings and their strength, and ultimately, it delivers a heart-warming triumph of the human spirit.”
The Passengers by John Marrs (Ebury), Judgement by Joseph Finder (Head of Zeus), Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton (Bloomsbury) and Wrecker by Noel O’Reilly (HQ) were also in the running for the prize, that will see The Lido available in all W H Smith stores this summer.