Frances Hardinge Takes Top British Fantasy Award

-
Frances Hardinge  has become the first YA author to win the top prize for best fantasy novel for her incredibly surreal and creepily sinister Cuckoo Song. The award, known as the Robert Holdstock award was presented to Hardinge on Sunday at FantasyCon 2015. I am so extremely pleased for her. I've been a huge fan since her first novel, Fly By Night, which won the Branford Boase award in 2006.... and, clearly, the brilliant books have just kept coming.
Cuckoo Song tells the story of a girl, Triss, who nearly drowns in a local pond. When she awakens, she finds her world has become slightly out of sync. Pages have been ripped out of her diary, she is incredibly hungry all the time, her younger sister is terrified of her and her parents are whispering behind closed doors. She comes to believe that she is, quite literally, not herself. In order to discover the truth, she must travel to the dark and twisted side of town to find the Architect, a menacing villain with designs on her and her family. It is a magical and eerie read in traditional horror story style that will keep you up all night. (It's also a perfect teen read for this time of year!) Beautifully crafted, expert story-telling...dark and magnificent. I recommend this for any fantasy fan.
Hardinge's seventh novel, The Lie Tree (another fantastic horror) has been nominated for this year's Guardian Childrens Fiction Award.
Huge congratulations to one of my favourite authors today.

Frances Hardinge Bibiliography
Fly By Night (2005)
Verdigris Deep (2007) 
Gullstruck Island (2009)
Twilight Robbery (sequel to Fly By Night) (2011)
A Face Like Glass (2013)
Cuckoo Song (2014)
                                     The Lie Tree (2015)


http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/26/frances-hardinge-cuckoo-song-british-fantasy-awards-fantasycon

http://www.franceshardinge.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Rights of the Reader

-
Image
The Rights of the Reader; Daniel Pennac, illustrated by Quentin Blake Summer is here and we do encourage summer reading with numerous incentives and programmes. It is important for children (of all ages) to 'keep their reading up' outside of school time. This is the time when kids develop their own taste in books and can be free to read books of their own choosing. And this is the single most important factor in young people developing a lifelong reading habit. But how do we, as the 'gatekeepers' of kids reading, encourage them properly without running the risk of thrusting pressure and our own ideas on them? Do that and you'll run the risk of pushing them away from reading, and there are already so many distractions for the young reader to contend with that can tempt them elsewhere. Published by Walker Books; 9781406300918 In 1992, French writer Daniel Pennac originally published this little gem of a book; The Rights of the Reader. I highly recommend
Read more

The Summer of Lily and Esme by John Quinn....25 years

-
Image
This year marks the anniversary of the publication of an extraordinary book. In 1991, Poolbeg published The Summer of Lily & Esme by John Quinn and in the 25 years since, it has never been out of print. The Summer of Lily & Esme tells a quiet story, filled with compassion, friendship, memory and heart. It is the story of Alan, an 11-year-old boy who has moved from the city into a house in the countryside; in the middle of nowhere.The house is old and extremely large and immaculate; and there is a locked, boarded over attic room that is said to be haunted by the ghost of a young boy who died tragically. Alan is not too pleased with this move and becomes even less thrilled when he discovers his closest neighbours, in fact his only neighbours, are a pair of elderly sisters, Esme and Lily, who seem to be suffering from dementia.  When Alan falls down a hill of brambles and weeds, the sisters, who believe they themselves to be children, mistake Alan for their
Read more

Launch of Genesis by Eilis Barrett

-
Image
A week ago, I played a small part of the launch of Genesis , the much-anticipated sequel to Oasis by Eilis Barrett; this time at Charlie Byrnes Bookshop in Galway. Vinny Brown introduces Eilis Eilis is a remarkable young woman, as you might imagine since she is 18 years old and this is her second book. ( Oasis was published when she was 16.) Articulate and accomplished, it is a real privilege to know her, to hear her speak and to read her writing. Genesis author: Eilis Barrett publisher: Gill Books (8 September 2017 ISBN: 9780717174355 Genesis picks up the story of Quincy Emerson. She now finds herself a captive once again, in the maximum-security prison, the Colosseum as a security risk. Held in deplorable and brutal conditions in the prison, where anarchy rules and rival gangs wage a 'street war' of sorts, Quincy takes care to not make an enemy of either gang boss, while holding allegiance to no one but herself and her comrades on the outside. Food is scarce an
Read more