Bibliofemme News
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02/12/2004
Leroi's 'mutant' book wins Guardian Award
Armand Marie Leroi has won the Guardian First Book Award.
His novel Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body scooped the £10,000 prize at an award ceremony in London last night.
Leroi, who is originally from the Netherlands but lives in London, is a biologist who lectures at Imperial College, London.
The prize is awarded to a debut work in the fields of fiction, history, politics, biography and poetry.
Claire Armistead, the Guardian's Literary Editor and one of the judges said of the book: "What we found so impressive about Armand Marie Leroi's book was the scope of its reference, its elegance and its inquisitiveness. It is profoundly cultured and beautifully written in the very best tradition of popular science writing today."
The judging panel included writers Ali Smith and Hari Kunzru, comedian turned novelist Alexei Sayle and the director Sir Richard Eyre.
Other books on the short-listed included the much-tipped Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, which was also longlisted for the Booker Prize and The Places, an account of a trek across Afghanistan by Rory Stewart.
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