British Book Awards 2006

British Book Awards 2006

The winners in the 2006 British Book Awards were announced last Saturday night at the presentation ceremony shown on Channel 4. Five of the winning books have already been reviewed in this column; where Workington leads London follows.

The winner of the ‘Richard & Judy’ Best Read of the Year was awarded to the current Number One bestselling paperback ‘Labyrinth’ by Kate Mosse. Previously best known for being one of the co-founders of the Orange Prize for fiction (by a woman), Mosse has created an equal-opportunities ‘Da Vinci Code’, complete with ancient rites and symbols, crusader knights, and millennial secrets. She tells two interconnected stories separated in time by 800 years but joined in place by the beautiful countryside of the Languedoc. The reader follows the feisty female characters as they struggle through the maze of the plot. This is a girly grail quest with female villains as well as heroines, and the occasional token chain-mail.

The Children’s Book of the Year was awarded to ‘Ark Angel’ by Anthony Horowitz. To the delight of his legions of fans Alex Rider comes back from the dead in book 6 of the teen-spy series to tackle a Russian billionaire who owns a football club. The film of the first book, ‘Stormbreaker’, is released in the UK in July so expect teenage boys to be quipping: “the name’s Rider … Alex Rider” all summer long. Horowitz is a professional, journeyman writer with ad agency credits to his name as well as writing the ‘Midsomer Murders’ and ‘Foyle’s War’ for television.

History Book of the Year was awarded to ‘Auschwitz’ by TV film maker and producer Laurence Rees. Last year the BBC ran an acclaimed series of programs on the events of 60 years ago in the Polish town of Oswiecim. The accompanying paperback is an equally well researched and presented history, drawing on eyewitness reports and documentary records. The book leaves sentiment and judgement to one side and allows the abundant testimony from more than 100 interviews with both survivor and perpetrator to tell the true history.

Julia Niffenegger won the Popular Fiction Award for ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ and Newcomer of the Year Marina Lewycka won with her novel ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian’. Both these highly original and literate novels engender fiercely contested and opposing opinions and consequently have found much favour with reading groups.

Writer of the Year was awarded to Diana Evans for ‘26a’, an ambitious and complex first novel investigating the life long nature of identical siblings – you’re never alone if a twin, even when one dies.

BRITISH BOOK AWARDS: all winners, all categories

Best Read of 2005 Labyrinth Kate Mosse

Book of the Year Harry Potter & Half Blood Prince J K Rowling

Biography of 2005 Extreme Sharon Osbourne

Children’s Book Ark Angel Anthony Horowitz

Popular Fiction Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger

Author of the Year Untold Stories Alan Bennett

Crime Thriller The Take Martina Cole

Writer of the Year 26a Diana Evans

Newcomer of 2005 Short History Tractors in Ukrainian Marina Lewycka

History Book of the Year Auschwitz Laurence Rees

TV & Film Book of the Year The Constant Gardener John le Carre

Sports Book 2005 Being Freddie Andrew Flintoff