News

Irish author loses out in book awards

Morning Ireland: <a href="javascript:showPlayer('whitbread_av.html?1,null,200,http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0123/morningireland/morningireland7A.ram')"> Eileen Battersby, Literary Editor of the Irish Times, says that Phillip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass is a worthy winner
1.00 News: <a href="javascript:showPlayer('whitbread_av.html?2,null,200,http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0123/1News/1News9A.ram')"> Colm Connolly, Arts and Media Correspondent, reports on Phillip Pullman's Whitbread Prize award

Wednesday, 23 January 2002 07:19

The prestigious Whitbread Book of the Year title has been won by a writer of childrens' books for the first time.

Philip Pullman, an Oxford University lecturer, received €48,000 in London last night for winning both the overall and the childrens' category prize with his fantasy novel The Amber Spyglass.

Artemis Fowl, written by the Wexford author Eoin Colfer, had been among the books to be nominated in the Children's category.

After the awards ceremony, Mr Pullman expressed his annoyance at the past treatment of children's fiction and the way that it had been placed at the margins of culture.