Stand back - She’s gonna blow
Susan Hill’s blog :: I AM CROSS
Bear with me while I get it off my chest.The time a writer needs to win prizes is at the start of their career. A prize is always nice to have but it means most and does most for you at the beginning. People look up. You`re suddenly up several places on the long ladder.This rant is continued here.
This outburst focuses on the non-inclusion of a début novel, THE GOOD THIEF`S GUIDE TO AMSTERDAM (that Long Barn Books has published), in The Crime Writers Awards New Blood Dagger short-list
Now Susan, being it’s publisher, definitely has a right to be upset. And if she’d had not had a rant I wouldn’t be making this blog post and The Good Thief... wouldn’t be on my radar.
The trouble is that even though I do dip my reading into the crime genre and I do greatly enjoy the ones I read I don’t tend to let The Crime Writers Awards or any other award sway my reading that much.
I keep my eye on who won what just in case there is anything interesting but I don’t run out and buy award winners.
Saying that though - I’m always on the look out for a good read - any award winners I should have read?
Well I’m not sure if you mean just crime award winners (which I don’t know much about), but the most deserving (multiple) award winner for me in recent years was Andrea Levy’s Small Island. One of the best new novels in the last ten years, I think.
Thanks John, I do keep ummming and ahhing about that one. It’s now on the list.