Costa Prize Shortlist Announced

The Costa Book Awards shortlist for 2010 was announced last night. Split into five categories, this year’s biography category has gained some attention as only three books have been nominated despite the rules stating that up to four books could be nominated. The Costa Award, which started life as the Whitbread Literary Award in 1971, is a UK based prize which is almost unique in that it gives the chance for children’s books to be judged alongside their adult contemporaries. Notably, there is no overlapping to be found this year with the Booker Prize shortlist, an occurance which has often happened in the past.

There’s still quite a wait until the category and overall winners are announced in January next year and the final judging panel will not be made public until mid December.  A full shortlist of this year’s category judges and nominations can be found below:

Novel

Judges: Adele Parks (Author), Alex Heminsley (Author, Journalist and Broadcaster), Johnathan Ruppin (Foyles Bookshop)

• Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty
• The Blasphemer by Nigel Farndale
• The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

First Novel

Judges:Anita Rani (Television Presenter), Anneka Rice (Broadcaster), Mark Thornton (co owner of Mostly Books in Abingdon)

• Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai
• Coconut Unlimited by Nikesh Shukla
• The Temple-Goers by Aatish Taseer

Biography

Judges:Andrew Holgate (Literary Editor for the Sunday Times), Caroline Moorehead MBE (Biographer and Writer), Juliet Nicholson (Writer)

  

• How to Live A Life of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell
• My Father's Fortune by Michael Frayn
• The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

Poetry

Judges:Leonie Rushworth (Poet, Reviewer and Educator), Ruth Padel (Poet), Tim Dee (Radio Producer and Writer)

•  Standard Midland by Roy Fisher
• The Wrecking Light by Robin Robertson
• Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott
• New Light for the Old Dark by Sam Willetts

Children’s Books

Judges: Lorraine Kelly (Broadcaster), Tamara Macfarlane (Owner of Tales on Moon lane Children’s Bookshop), Tim Bowler (Author)

• Flyaway by Lucy Christopher
• Annexed by Sharon Dogar
• Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud
• Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace 

More information about this year's selections and previous year's winners can be found ont he Costa website,
http://www.costabookawards.co.uk/index.aspx

What I'm Reading...

The Mabinogion- Evangeline Walton

Unusually for me (a woman who, given the right circumstances, practically inhales books) I’ve been reading the same book for a few weeks now.

I’ve been tackling Evangeline Walton’s literary take on the Mabinogion, the oldest surviving collection of purely Welsh folk tales. Technically, Walton’s rendition is four separate books but the task seems more ominous for me because the Fantasy Masterworks copy which I’m reading places them within a single, seven hundred page volume.  Although familiar with the stories, I’ve never actually read a copy of the Mabinogion and as I am Welsh, I decided it was probably my patriotic duty toread the copy I spied on the local library’s shelf as I searched for something magical.

Walton’s version (the first editions of which were published between 1964 and 1974) is a very literary retelling, focusing solely on the four main story arcs of the traditional Mabinogion, extending the short tales into entire books. The language leans towards the flowery at times with a distinctly twentieth century style of dialogue. Purists would, understandably, shun this version of the tale as Walton both plays with and adds key events into the narrative. For example, Pwyll, Prince of Dyved is forced to face down a monstrous bird whilst in the first level of the Celtic Underworld, Annwn, an encounter which is not found in the original narrative. Watson herself states the reason for this as a response to the problems of modern day storytelling and to create tension in an already well known story.  

In addition, to this, whilst the Mabinogion is firmly based within Celtic traditions,  Walton injects a Christian knowing-ness, using her twentieth century hindsight to give heavier meaning to what were once flippant remarks which within her hands, are shaped into a cultural beacon for her readership. Walton clearly sets out just enough information for her readers to fill in the gaps, for them to use their own knowledge of the future triumph of Christianity which would all but annihilate the Celtic Pagan way of life in a relatively short space of time.  Repeated themes of the old culture of the ‘Mothers’ versus the new tribes' ‘Father’ culture are abundant as is the theme of sun gods and individual leaders coming back from the dead. It could be argued that this is more of a reflection of Walton’s own time than the content of the Mabinogion. It’s an historiographer’s dream.

I’m still working my way through the fourth branch, (and interestingly, the first Mabinogion story that Walton decided to tackle) based around the Druid King Math and his nephew and heir, the magician Gwydion, a character which could possibly be the forerunner for the most famous British magician, Merlin. Whilst I am enjoying the magic and sweeping, epic storylines, there is a certain air of heaviness, found both by in its tone and physical weight and despite its many attempts at humour, which demands a degree of energy and attention to fully comprehend.

This is not an edition for purists who want to get as close to the original stories as possible, but as an introduction to the myths and stories of Wales, it’s not a bad starting place. Just be prepared to take everything with a pinch of salt.

George Bush Publishes His Memoir

George Bush published his memoir this week and with it came revelations which have shaken the political world. In ‘Decision Points’, Mr Bush defended the use of water boarding in American interrogation tactics  as an ‘enhanced interrogation technique’.  Earlier today, the Guardian newspaper reported that it has been claimed that several anecdotes featuring in the book are similar to stories found in various reviews and a previous book about Mr Bush’s war time administration, leading some to accuse the ex-president of incidences of plagiarism at worst and laziness at best.

Whether these latest claims are found to be truthful or unfounded, it remains that ‘Decision Points’ has catapulted the former US leader back into the media spotlight. Commenting for the first time on many of the controversial events of his two term presidency (including exactly what he was thinking in that now infamous film clip when he was told of the 9/11 terrorist attacks during a visit with a classroom full of children) and gaining an unlikely fan in former Democrat president, Bill Clinton, ‘Decision Points’ could well be one of the most contentious books of 2010.

Write A Novel In One Month

For all you budding authors out there who haven't heard, November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo to the initiated. The annual, web based initiative encourages would be authors to scribble 50,000 in one month in an attempt to free their imaginations and set their creative juices flowing. There are no judges or prizes: the reward is the satisfaction of seeing your dream come to life in the completion of your novel.

Starting from scratch and writing for quantity not quality is a method which the founder of NaNoWriMo, Chris Baty and the team which comprises The Office of Letters and Light has found to be the best way to encourage the debut novelists of tomorrow.  Program director Lindsey Grant says “Completing a draft of the novel they’ve been contemplating for ages gives participants a tremendous sense of accomplishment and leaves them wondering what else they’re capable of.”

There’s still time to join in so if you have been nursing an idea, this could be the perfect excuse to unleash it from the confines of your mind. Who knows what it might lead to? For more information, visit the website www.nanowrimo.org.