Post by FreakyFlyBry on Jun 8, 2004 22:13:47 GMT -5
news.scotsman.com/arts.cfm?id=653122004
Story of immigration wins Orange prize
WILLIAM LYONS
THE British novelist Andrea Levy has won this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction with her compassionate account of the problems of post-war immigration.
Her novel, Small Island, saw off works by Margaret Atwood and Shirley Hazzard, to land the £30,000 prize.
Sandi Toksvig, the chairwoman of the all-female judging panel said they were attracted to the story of a young Jamaican couple who come to Britain in search of a better life, as it illuminated a little-known aspect of recent British history with wit and wisdom.
Ms Toksvig said: "It is a compassionate account of the problems of post-war immigration, it cannot fail to have a strong modern resonance."
Set in 1948, Small Island explores the interaction between a black couple, Gilbert, a former RAF recruit, who has returned to Britain on the SS Windrush, and his Jamaican wife Hortense, and a white couple: Queenie, their landlady, and her recently demobbed husband, Bernard.
Catherine Lockerbie, the director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival who was at the awards ceremony, said for many people Levy would not be the obvious winner, but she would be a popular one.
Ms Lockerbie said: "Andrea Levy has really re-imagined quite wonderfully what it would be like to come to a country where you think you are going to be respected and part of the community because you have helped them fight their wars and so on and to find yourself ostracised as an alien."
The Orange Prize was set up in 1996 as an alternative to other literary prizes, which the founders felt often overlooked work by women.
Past winners have included Carol Shields, Helen Dunmore and Valerie Martin.
This year’s shortlist was seen as one of the strongest and most international ever. The writers were Atwood for Oryx and Crake, Hazzard for The Great Fire, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Purple Hibiscus, Gillian Slovo for Ice Road and Rose Tremain for The Colour.
Only two authors, Tremain and Levy, were British. Hazzard is Australian, Atwood is Canadian, Slovo is South African (although she lives in Britain) and Adichie is Nigerian.
Story of immigration wins Orange prize
WILLIAM LYONS
THE British novelist Andrea Levy has won this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction with her compassionate account of the problems of post-war immigration.
Her novel, Small Island, saw off works by Margaret Atwood and Shirley Hazzard, to land the £30,000 prize.
Sandi Toksvig, the chairwoman of the all-female judging panel said they were attracted to the story of a young Jamaican couple who come to Britain in search of a better life, as it illuminated a little-known aspect of recent British history with wit and wisdom.
Ms Toksvig said: "It is a compassionate account of the problems of post-war immigration, it cannot fail to have a strong modern resonance."
Set in 1948, Small Island explores the interaction between a black couple, Gilbert, a former RAF recruit, who has returned to Britain on the SS Windrush, and his Jamaican wife Hortense, and a white couple: Queenie, their landlady, and her recently demobbed husband, Bernard.
Catherine Lockerbie, the director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival who was at the awards ceremony, said for many people Levy would not be the obvious winner, but she would be a popular one.
Ms Lockerbie said: "Andrea Levy has really re-imagined quite wonderfully what it would be like to come to a country where you think you are going to be respected and part of the community because you have helped them fight their wars and so on and to find yourself ostracised as an alien."
The Orange Prize was set up in 1996 as an alternative to other literary prizes, which the founders felt often overlooked work by women.
Past winners have included Carol Shields, Helen Dunmore and Valerie Martin.
This year’s shortlist was seen as one of the strongest and most international ever. The writers were Atwood for Oryx and Crake, Hazzard for The Great Fire, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Purple Hibiscus, Gillian Slovo for Ice Road and Rose Tremain for The Colour.
Only two authors, Tremain and Levy, were British. Hazzard is Australian, Atwood is Canadian, Slovo is South African (although she lives in Britain) and Adichie is Nigerian.