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The Desmond Elliott Prize 2010 Shortlist Announced

Friday, May 21, 2010
 
  •  Ex-bookseller, acclaimed poet and teacher make the final cut
  • Independent publishers dominate the shortlist
 
 
The shortlist for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2010, the award for a first novel published in the UK, is announced today, Friday 21 May, 2010.
 
The writers shortlisted for the prize include acclaimed poet Jacob Polley, teacher Maria Allen and former bookseller Ali Shaw. Described by the judges as both “intriguing and hugely rewarding”; the shortlist spans a range of genres encompassing the coming-of-age tale, historical fiction and magical realism.
 
The 2010 shortlist flies the flag for independent publishers as they provide two of the three finalists, Before the Earthquake and The Girl with Glass Feet.
 
The three novels shortlisted for The Desmond Elliott Prize 2010 are as follows:
 
  • Before the Earthquake by Maria Allen (Tindal Street Press)
 
  • Talk of the Town by Jacob Polley (Picador)
 
  • The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (Atlantic Books)
 
 
Elizabeth Buchan on behalf of the judges, comments:
 
“We were struck by the boldness, originality and ambition of these three very different writers.  With settings ranging from early twentieth century southern Italy, to Carlisle in the 1980s to the mysterious St Hauda's Land, their novels make up a diverse, intriguing and hugely rewarding shortlist.”
 
The Desmond Elliott Prize 2010 panel of judges is chaired by Elizabeth Buchan who is joined by William Skidelsky, Literary Editor of The Observer, and leading independent bookseller James Daunt, founder of Daunt Books.
 
William Hill bookmakers gave the following odds on this year’s shortlist:
Before the Earthquake by Maria Allen (Tindal Street Press) - 5/4 favourite
Talk of the Town by Jacob Polley (Picador) - 6/4 second favourite
The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (Atlantic Books) - 5/2 third favourite
William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe commented, “Any one of these books would be a more than worthy winner. If this were a horse race I'd expect a dead-heat, but the judges have to find a clear winner and we narrowly favour Maria Allen's all too topical novel.”
 
When choosing a winner, the judges will be looking for a novel of depth and breadth with a compelling narrative. The work should be vividly written and confidently realised and should contain original and arresting characters. Entries have been considered from all fiction genres.
 
The Prize was inaugurated in honour of publisher and literary agent Desmond Elliott, one of the most charismatic and successful men in this field, who died in August 2003. He stipulated that his estate should be invested in a charitable trust that would fund a literary award “to enrich the careers of new writers”. Worth £10,000 to the winner, the Prize is intended to support new writers and to celebrate their fiction.
 
The winner of the 2010 Desmond Elliott Prize will be announced on Wednesday 23 June at Fortnum & Mason, Desmond’s ‘local grocer’, in London. 
 
 
- ends -
 
 
 
 
 
Notes to editors
 
  • The Judges of the Desmond Elliott Prize are available for interview. Please contact Colman Getty
 
  • The shortlisted authors may be available for interview. Please contact Colman Getty
 
  • Images of the shortlisted books, judges and the Prize logo are available from Colman Getty
 
  • The Desmond Elliott Charitable Trust is a registered charity. It is chaired by Dallas Manderson, Group Sales Director of the Orion Publishing Group. He is joined by Christine Berry,a partner in the charities group at Taylor Vinters, a Cambridge-based law firm, and Liz Thomson, Editor of BookBrunch. Both Dallas and Christine worked with Desmond Elliott at Arlington Books
 
 
 
For further information please contact
Caroline Brown or Mark Hutchinson
at Colman Getty
T: 020 7631 2666
E: caroline@colmangetty.co.uk
 
 
The Desmond Elliott Prize 2010 Shortlist
 
 
Before the Earthquake by Maria Allen (Tindal Street Press)
 
At the turn of the last century, the Salierno family make a tough living as farmers in mountainous terrain in southern Italy. Then an earthquake devastates their village, destroying homes and taking lives. Concetta, their fifteen-year-old daughter, is seriously injured and, on waking from a coma, can’t remember anything in the weeks before the disaster. When she discovers she is pregnant, her family marry her off to neighbours who owe a debt of honour.
 
For her family, this story is over, but for Concetta it is only the beginning. She sets out to discover the identity of her child’s father and solve the mystery of what happened in those hidden weeks before the earthquake.
 
Maria Allen is half Italian, half English and has lived in different parts of Italy and the USA. She has worked as a journalist, in TV research, publishing and most recently in teaching. She lives in Loughborough.
 
 
Talk of the Town by Jacob Polley (Picador)
 
1986, the last day of the summer holidays, and Christopher Hearsey is wondering why his best mate Arthur has suddenly disappeared, and whether lippy Gill Ross a few doors down might know anything about it. The great border city of Carlisle is buzzing with rumours following an act of terrible violence, and in order to begin his search Chris must face down his own dread, not only of the consequences of his own actions but of local man Booby Grove and his psychotic sidekick Carl ‘the black’ Hole, who is keen to settle an old score.
 
 Jacob Polley was born in Carlisle in 1975. Picador published his first book of poetry, The Brink, in 2003 and his second, Little Gods, in 2006. As well as poems, Jacob also wrote the short film Flickerman and the Ivory-skinned Woman with the director, Ian Fenton. Jacob was selected as one of the Next Generation of British Poets in 2004. In 2002, he won an Eric Gregory Award and the Radio 4/ Arts Council ‘First Verse’ Award.
 
 
The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (Atlantic Books)
 
A mysterious and frightening metamorphosis has befallen Ida MacLaird – she is slowly turning into glass, from the feet up. She returns to St Hauda’s Land, where she believes the glass first took hold, in the vain hope of finding a cure. Midas Crook is a young loner who has lived there all his life. When he meets Ida, something about her sad, defiant spirit pierces his emotional defences. As Midas helps Ida come to terms with her affliction, she gradually unpicks the knots of his heart and they begin to fall in love…
 
What they need most is time – and time is slipping away fast. Will they find a way to save her?
 
Ali Shawwas born in 1982 and grew up in a small town in Dorset. He graduated from Lancaster University with a first-class degree in English Literature and has since worked as a bookseller and at Oxford’s Bodleian Library. He is currently writing his second novel.
 
 
About the judges
 
Elizabeth Buchan (Chair) began her career as a blurb writer for Penguin Books. She later became a fiction editor at Random House but decided after a couple of years that she should do what she wished to do: write. Her novels include Daughters of the Storm, Light of the Moon, Consider the Lily and the bestselling Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman, which has sold all over the world and has been made into a television film for CBS. Her latest novel is Separate Beds, to be published in 2010, a story of a family’s renegotiation of their relationships after the credit crunch has hit them.
 
Her short stories have appeared in various magazines and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and she reviews for the Sunday Times. She had also chaired the Betty Trask prize and been a judge for the Whitbread (now Costa) book awards.
 
William Skidelsky is books editor of the Observer. Before that he was deputy editor of Prospect magazine and, before that, literary editor of the New Statesman. Aside from books, he writes about sport and food and he is the author of a guide book, Gourmet London.
 
James Daunt opened Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street, London in 1990. He has subsequently opened a further four bookshops in central London. He remains very much a shop floor bookseller. James has also judged The Ondatjee Prize and The Whitbread First Novel Award. He is aged 46 and is married with two daughters.
 
 
 
 
About Desmond Elliott
 
Desmond Elliott’s life reads like a page-turning rags to riches story. From humble beginnings in an Irish orphanage he came to England in 1947, at the age of 16 with just £2 in his pocket, to start his publishing career at Macmillan. After a colourful career in-house, Desmond set up as an agent and subsequently went on to establish his own publishing company, Arlington Books, in 1960.
 
This dedication, coupled with creative business sense, was key to the creation of a list of hugely successful blockbuster novelists; Jilly Cooper, Leslie Thomas and Penny Vincenzi, to name but a few. Respected and loved by his authors, in the words of Candida Lycett Green, Desmond was simply “magic”.
 
Charismatic, witty, and waspish, Elliott lived his life with verve. He drank only champagne, always crossed the Atlantic on Concorde and used Fortnum & Mason as his local shop. His office was in Mayfair and he had homes in London’s St. James’s and New York’s Park Avenue. Desmond Elliott died in August 2003 at the age of 73.


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