David Nicholls and David Walliams win top prizes at National Book Awards
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Version 0 of 1. David Nicholls has been named UK author of the year at this National Book Awards for his novel Us, a look at the intricacies and memories at the heart of a failing marriage. Nicholls’s bestseller was voted winner of the accolade on 26 November by the National Book Awards academy, made up of more than 750 book industry experts. It beat titles including Ali Smith’s acclaimed novel How to Be Both, David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks and Sarah Waters’s The Paying Guests to take the prize. At the awards, Mary Berry was presented with an outstanding achievement award to mark “her illustrious career spanning over 60 years, taking her from cookery editor to TV personality and bestselling author”, said the organisers. Berry is the author of more than 80 cookbooks, with combined sales of more than 5m copies. Children’s book of the year was won by David Walliams for his bestseller Awful Auntie, making it the third year running in which the actor has won the prize. Crime book of the year went to I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes, while MP Alan Johnson took the autobiography of the year gong for his memoir Please, Mister Postman. Karen Joy Fowler, whose tale of family life with an unexpected twist, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, missed out on the Man Booker prize, won international author of the year category, while popular fiction book of the year was Nathan Filer’s debut The Shock of the Fall, beating Caitlin Moran and Kate Mosse. Non-fiction book of the was Nina Stibbe’s book of letters Love, Nina, and Jessie Burton won the new writer prize for her novel The Miniaturist, set in 17th-century Amsterdam. The public will now vote for their book of the year from the category winners. Former recipients of the overall prize include Nicholls, for his smash hit novel One Day, EL James’s Fifty Shades of Grey and Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane. |