John Llewellyn Rhys Prize

The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize was a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama) by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kingdom.[1] Established in 1942, it is one of the oldest literary awards in the UK.[2]

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
Awarded for	Literature
Date	1942 by Jane Oliver
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	• The Mail on Sunday (1987–2002)  • Booktrust (2003–2010)
Website	http://www.booktrust.org.uk/prizes-and-awards/3

Since 2011 the award has been suspended due to funding problems. The last award was in 2010.[2]

History

The prize was initiated in 1942 by Jane Oliver in memory of her husband John Llewellyn Rhys, a young author who was killed on 5 August 1940 while serving as a bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force.

From 1987 to 2003, the prize was funded by the Mail on Sunday. The newspaper withdrew in 2003, after the 2002 prize was awarded to Mary Laven. Subsequently, the prize was sponsored by Booktrust, an independent educational charity, but in June 2011 the award was suspended due to funding problems.[2] Booktrust said that it "strongly" intended to bring the award "back with a bang as soon as possible" as it looked for outside funding sources.[2]

In 2010, the winner received £5,000, while the runners-up each received £500.[2]

Winners (1942–1999)

Source: 1942–2003[3]

Year	Author	Title	ISBN (or OCLC)
1942	Michael Richey	Sunk by a Mine
1943	Morwenna Donnelly	Beauty for Ashes	OCLC 10175035
1944	Alun Lewis	The Last Inspection	OCLC 1648392
1945	James Aldridge	The Sea Eagle	OCLC 1115675
1946	Oriel Malet	My Bird Sings	OCLC 1550666
1947	Anne-Marie Walters	Moondrop to Gascony	OCLC 458854780
1948	Richard Mason	The Wind Cannot Read	OCLC 2188096
1949	Emma Smith	Maidens' Trip	OCLC 771823005
1950	Kenneth Allsop	Adventure Lit Their Star	OCLC 77347740
1951	Elizabeth Jane Howard	The Beautiful Visit	OCLC 1637250
1952	No award
1953	Rachel Trickett	The Return Home	OCLC 21354135
1954	Tom Stacey	The Hostile Sun	OCLC 2451930
1955	John Wiles	The Moon to Play With	OCLC 1508671
1956	John Hearne	Voices Under the Window	OCLC 2175560
1957	Ruskin Bond	The Room on the Roof	OCLC 1579534
1958	V. S. Naipaul	The Mystic Masseur	OCLC 47838372
1959	Dan Jacobson	A Long Way from London	OCLC 1161266
1960	David Caute	At Fever Pitch	OCLC 753130422
1961	David Storey	Flight into Camden	OCLC 1816514
1962	Robert Rhodes James Edward Lucie-Smith	An Introduction to the House of Commons A Tropical Childhood and Other Poems	OCLC 1825470/OCLC 2469981
1963	Peter Marshall	Two Lives	OCLC 1301629
1964	Nell Dunn	Up the Junction	OCLC 1675517
1965	Julian Mitchell	The White Father	OCLC 1246449
1966	Margaret Drabble	The Millstone	OCLC 1355165
1967	Anthony Masters	The Seahorse	OCLC 1018374
1968	Angela Carter	The Magic Toyshop	ISBN 978-0-860-68190-8
1969	Melvyn Bragg	Without a City Wall	ISBN 978-0-340-43102-3
1970	Angus Calder	The People's War	ISBN 978-0-712-65284-1
1971	Shiva Naipaul	Fireflies	ISBN 978-0-140-03150-8
1972	Susan Hill	The Albatross	ISBN 978-0-140-03649-7
1973	Peter Smalley	A Warm Gun	ISBN 978-0-233-96172-9
1974	Hugh Fleetwood	The Girl Who Passed for Normal	ISBN 978-0-812-87034-3
1975	David Hare Tim Jeal	Knuckle Cushing's Crusade	ISBN 978-0-571-04980-6/ISBN 978-0-434-37209-6
1976	no award
1977	Richard Cork	Vorticism & Abstract Art in the First Machine Age	ISBN 978-0-900-40624-9
1978	A. N. Wilson	The Sweets of Pimlico	ISBN 978-0-140-06697-5
1979	Peter Boardman	The Shining Mountain	ISBN 978-0-099-20920-1
1980	Desmond Hogan	The Diamonds at the Bottom of the Sea	ISBN 978-0-241-10123-0
1981	A. N. Wilson	The Laird of Abbotsford	ISBN 978-0-192-11756-4
1982	William Boyd	An Ice-Cream War	ISBN 978-0-241-95356-3
1983	Lisa St Aubin de Terán	The Slow Train to Milan	ISBN 978-0-140-06954-9
1984	Andrew Motion	Dangerous Play	ISBN 978-0-140-07352-2
1985	John Milne	Out of the Blue	ISBN 978-0-241-11489-6
1986	Tim Parks	Loving Roger	ISBN 978-0-802-10016-0
1987	Jeanette Winterson	The Passion	ISBN 978-0-099-73441-3
1988	Matthew Yorke	The March Fence	ISBN 978-0-140-11636-6
1989	Claire Harman	Sylvia Townsend Warner	ISBN 978-0-701-12938-5
1990	Ray Monk	Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius	ISBN 978-0-099-88370-8
1991	A. L. Kennedy	Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains	ISBN 978-0-099-45006-1
1992	Matthew Kneale	Sweet Thames	ISBN 978-0-140-29663-1
1993	Jason Goodwin	On Foot to the Golden Horn: A Walk to Istanbul	ISBN 978-0-701-13668-0
1994	Jonathan Coe	What a Carve Up!	ISBN 978-0-141-03329-7
1995	Melanie McGrath	Motel Nirvana	ISBN 978-0-006-54715-0
1996	Nicola Barker	Heading Inland	ISBN 978-0-007-43571-5
1997	Phil Whitaker	Eclipse of the Sun	ISBN 978-0-753-80948-8
1998	Peter Ho Davies	The Ugliest House in the World	ISBN 978-0-395-78629-1
1999	David Mitchell	Ghostwritten	ISBN 978-0-340-73974-7

Winners and short lists (since 2000)

Source: 2007–2010[1]

Year	Author	Title	ISBN)	Short list
2000	Edward Platt	Leadville		Julia Leigh, The Hunter Roddy Lumsden, The Book of Love Ben Rice, Pobby and Dingan Zadie Smith, White Teeth Cole Moreton, Hungry for Home Leaving the Blaskets: A Journey from the Edge of Ireland
2001	Susanna Jones	The Earthquake Bird		Esther Morgan, Beyond Calling Distance
2002	Mary Laven*	Virgins of Venice*		Sonya Hartnett, Thursday's Child Chloe Hooper, A Child's Book of True Crime Mary Laven, Virgins of Venice Kamila Shamsie, Kartography[4]
2003	Charlotte Mendelson	Daughters of Jerusalem
2004	Jonathan Trigell	Boy A		Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus Rory Stewart, The Places in Between Neil Bennun, The Broken String: The Last Words of an Extinct People Colin McAdam, Some Great Thing Anthony Cartwright, The Afterglow
2005	Uzodinma Iweala	Beasts of No Nation		Rana Dasgupta, Tokyo Cancelled Peter Hobbs, The Short Day Dying Sinéad Morrissey, The State of the Prisons Rebecca Ray, Newfoundland Rachel Zadok, Gem Squash Tokoloshe
2006/7	Sarah Hall	The Carhullan Army		Ceridwen Dovey, Blood Kin Joanna Kavenna, Inglorious Robert Macfarlane, The Wild Places Gwendoline Riley, Joshua Spassky Rory Stewart, Occupational Hazards
2008	Henry Hitchings	The Secret Life of Words		Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger Adam Foulds, The Broken Word James Palmer, The Bloody White Baron Ross Raisin, God's Own Country Brian Schofield, Selling Your Father's Bones
2009	Evie Wyld	After the Fire, A Still Small Voice		Aravind Adiga, Between the Assassinations Emma Jones, The Striped World James Maskalyk, Six Months in Sudan Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Thing Around Your Neck Tristram Stuart, Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal
2010	Amy Sackville	The Still Point[5]		Kei Miller, A Light Song of Light Nadifa Mohamed, Black Mamba Boy Daniel Swift, Bomber County Susan Fletcher, Corrag Cordelia Fine, Delusions of Gender

*Note: The 2002 prize was initially awarded to Hari Kunzru for his book The Impressionist on 20 November 2003, but the author decided to decline the award due to its sponsorship by The Mail on Sunday.

See also

• List of British literary awards
• List of literary awards
• List of years in literature

References

1. John Llewellyn Rhys Prize "John Llewellyn Rhys Prize". Booktrust. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
2. Alison Flood. "John Llewellyn Rhys prize 'suspended'", The Guardian, 29 June 2011
3. "The Mail on Sunday/John Llewllyn Rhys Prize". Archived from the original on December 4, 2005. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
4. "Virgins of Venice wins Kunzru's rejected prize". The Guardian. 11 December 2003. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
5. Staff writer (24 November 2010). "Debut Writer Amy Sackville Wins Literary Award". BBC News. Retrieved 29 January 2011.

External links

• John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, official site at Booktrust. Retrieved 29 January 2011.