Bibliofemme News
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04/01/2006
Thompson wins Whitbread Children's book award
Irish based author, Kate Thompson, has won the Whitbread Children's book award.
Kate Thompson's book, 'The New Policeman', is about a teenage boy living in the west of Ireland who visits the land of eternal youth in search of time.
Ms Thompson was born in Belfast and lives in Kinvara. She is married to the actor Malcolm Douglas.
The Whitbread prizes are awarded in five categories - novel, first novel, poetry, biography and children's book. The finalists were selected from 476 entries.
Each category winner receives $8,700. One of the five will receive the $43,000 Whitbread Book of the Year Award the winner will be announced on 24 January, 2006.
The first novel award went to Malaysian-born Tash Aw for The Harmony Silk Factory, set in his native country in the 1930s and 40s.
Christopher Logue won the poetry category for Cold Calls, a modern reworking of Homer's Iliad. Hilary Spurling took the biography prize for Matisse the Master, while Ali Smith's The Accidental has been named novel of the year.
British retail and leisure group Whitbread Group PLC announced last year that it would no longer sponsor the prizes, which were founded in 1971 and are open to residents of Britain and the Republic of Ireland. A search is underway for a new backer.
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