 | | Winner: Burgess' biography |
More than 200 guests gathered at the Midland Hotel on Wednesday November 8th for a plush dinner and to hear the announcement of the £3000 Portico Prize for Literature 2006: the only prize exclusively for books about or set mainly in the North West of England. Emma Marigliano, Librarian at the Portico, said: “This prize makes a tremendous contribution to literature in the North West, proving once again that there is real literary life, and plenty of literary talent, outside London.” This year saw a leading figure of the London literary world challenged by an unknown from a Manchester suburb. Cape published Howard Jacobson, whose novel Kalooki Nights is set in Manchester, was joined on the shortlist by retired teacher, Bill Keeth, from Middleton, whose novel Every Street in Manchester is published by lesser known house, Limited Edition Press. The Manchester based crime writer, Val McDermid also made the shortlist alongside MMU academic and creative writing lecturer, Dr Andrew Biswell, for his biography of the Salford born writer of A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess.  | | Fiction winner: The Grave Tattoo |
The winners were announced after each course by the judges. Portico proprietor, writer and journalist Dr David Thame, took to the stage following the mushroom soup to amuse the guests with his dry take on the entries, and his humorous recollections of previous winners, announcing the 2006 winner of the non-fiction category to be Dr Andrew Biswell for his biography The Real Life of Anthony Burgess (Picador, 2005). Children’s author, with a reputation for courting controversy, Melvin Burgess, appeared garrulous and grinning following the main course of lamb with apricots to announce that crime writer, Val McDermid, had pipped literary fiction to the post with The Grave Tattoo (Harper Collins, 2006). A coup for crime fiction which brought on a few hushed whispers in the crowd: crime may be the bestselling and most lucrative genre, but it is the recipient of few awards, and a troublesome niche for ‘serious’ readers. And the winnner is... | | Winner: Dr Andrew Biswell |
Doyenne of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Jenni Murray, hobbled on stage following the sticky pudding. Not with a stitch you understand but the result of a broken foot. Braving the discomfort Jenni announced the overall winner of the Portico Prize for Literature 2006 to be Dr Andrew Biswell for his witty biography. Ironically when Anthony Burgess won the prize in 1989 he complained that the cheque was too small. No such complaints from Dr Biswell, who happily took the envelope and thanked Sir John and Lady Bridget Zochonis of the Zochonis Charitable Trust for their generous donation of the prize money. There was plenty of time throughout for wine drinking and despite his jests of appearing on stage half-cut in the lead up to his speech, (we polished off at least a bottle of red wine between us) Artistic Director and one of the founders of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Braham Murray, finished the evening with tales of the theatre from its early days in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, through to the IRA bomb years, and into its present era. Murray’s autobiography charting the full story of the Royal Exchange’s 30 years is to be published by Methuen next year. The next Portico Prize for Literature will take place in 2008. Portico Prize 2006 Fiction Shortlist:Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights (Jonathan Cape, 2006)
Bill Keeth, Every Street in Manchester (Limited Edition Press, 2005)
Val McDermid, The Grave Tattoo (Harper Collins, 2006) Portico Prize 2006 Non-Fiction Shortlist:Andrew Biswell, The Real Life of Anthony Burgess (Picador, 2005)
Rosie Childs with Diane Taylor, Catch Me Before I Fall (Virgin Books, 2006)
Michael Macilwee, The Gangs of Liverpool (Milo Books, 2006)
Harold L. Platt, Shock Cities: The Environmental Transformation and Reform of Manchester and Chicago (Chicago University Press, 2005)
W.A. Speck, Robert Southey: Man of Letters (Yale University Press, 2006) |
