List of winners of the Dundee International Book Prize

This is a list of winners of the Dundee International Book Prize by year.

List edit

Year Author Title Genre(s) Nationality
2000 Andrew Murray Scott Tumulus Novel   United Kingdom
2002 Claire-Marie Watson The Curewife Novel   United Kingdom
2005 Malcolm Archibald Whales for the Wizard Novel   United Kingdom
2007 Fiona Dunscombe The Triple Point of Water Novel   United Kingdom
2009 Chris Longmuir Dead Wood Novel   United Kingdom
2010 Alan Wright Act of Murder Novel   United Kingdom
2011 Simon Ashe-Brown Nothing Human Left Novel   United Kingdom
2012 Jacob M. Appel The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up Novel   United States
2013 Nicola White In the Rosary Garden Novel   Ireland
2014 Amy Mason The Other Ida Novel   United Kingdom
2015 Martin Cathcart Froden Devil Take the Hindmost Novel   Sweden
2016 Jessica Thummel The Cure for Lonely Novel   United States

2000 edit

Andrew Murray Scott's book Tumulus (inaugural winner 2000) detailed bohemian Dundee through the 60s and 70s to the present day. The judges said that it "reveals a great knowledge and love of Dundee while paying the city the compliment of being intelligently amused by various aspects of its life and outlook".[1]

2002 edit

Claire-Marie Watson's The Curewife (2002) drew on the tale of Dundee's last execution of a witch – Grissel Jaffray in 1669. Hilary Mantel said that it won as it had a "highly charged atmosphere and its real sense of the dark and brooding".[2]

2005 edit

Malcolm Archibald's Whales for a Wizard (2005) was an adventure story based around the whaling industry in Dundee in the 1860s. It was called an "old-fashioned, traditional, rip-roaring adventure story" by Ian Rankin.[3]

2007 edit

Fiona Dunscombe's The Triple Point of Water (2007) drew on her experiences of working in Soho during the 1980s.[citation needed]

2009 edit

Chris Longmuir's Dead Wood (2009) was a grizzly crime novel set in a world of violence and gangland retribution. The List calls it "lacklustre", "Flat and clunky", and "a poor addition to the Scottish crime genre".[4]

2010 edit

Alan Wright's Act of Murder (2010) was a tale of magic, poisonings and thespians, with some gruesome murders thrown in for good measure set in Victorian times in Lancashire.[5] It was called a "worthy winner for a prize" in a review by Fife Today.[6]

2011 edit

Simon Ashe-Browne's Nothing Human Left (2011) was a psychological thriller set in a Dublin public school as a schoolboy's criminal desires reach a frightening conclusion.[7]

2012 edit

Jacob Appel's The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up was a satire of post-9/11 patriotism in the United States, called by Stephen Fry, a 2012 judge, "darkly comic", and fellow judge Philip Pullman called it "Engaging, funny, ingenious, even charming".[8]

2013 edit

Nicola White's 2013 winner In the Rosary Garden (2013) is a murder mystery set in a convent school;[9][10] being described by critics as "as good as it gets", A. L. Kennedy, a 2013 judge. called it "courageous and intelligent"[11]

2014 edit

Amy Mason's The Other Ida won the 2014 prize.[12] The novel focuses on two sisters in the wake of their mother's death; their struggle and the tension between the siblings play out as the two attempt to come to terms with loss.[13]

2015 edit

Martin Cathcart Froden's Devil Take the Hindmost takes place in London during the 1920s and revolves around a cyclist caught up in the fevered bets and loan sharks of the velodrome racing scene.[14]

2016 edit

The final prize was awarded to Jessica Thummel's The Cure for Lonely.[15]

References edit

  1. ^ "Dundee Book Prize". University of Dundee. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  2. ^ The Curewife [Paperback]. ASIN 0954407547.
  3. ^ "The 'latter-day Robert Louis Stevenson' nets top prize". The Scotsman. 28 April 2005. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  4. ^ "Chris Longmuir - Dead Wood". The List. 10 August 2009. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  5. ^ "Teacher wins £10,000 prize for unpublished novel". The Scotsman. 25 June 2010. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  6. ^ "Book review: Act of Murder, by Alan Wright". Fife Today. 22 July 2010. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  7. ^ "Simon Ashe-Brown". Dundee International Book Prize. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  8. ^ The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up [Paperback]. ASIN 1908885114.
  9. ^ In The Rosary Garden [Paperback]. ASIN 1908885661.
  10. ^ Dougan, Karyn (25 October 2013). "Nicola White - In the Rosary Garden". List. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  11. ^ "Dundee International Book Prize won by Nicola White". BBC. 25 October 2013. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  12. ^ "Amy Mason scoops Dundee International Book Prize award". BBC News. 24 October 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  13. ^ "The Other Ida by Amy Mason review – a dysfunctional family amid grief". The Guardian. 29 November 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  14. ^ "Dundee International Bookprize". Archived from the original on 2 February 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  15. ^ "Winners 2000 – 2016". Dundee International Book Prize. Retrieved 14 December 2019.

External links edit