Here’s a story. A few years ago, I had written the first draft of Murder Most Unladylike, and I was very confused by it. It was about two children, but it was also about murder. I’d never really read anything like it. It seemed a bit too weird, a bit too dark, a bit too silly, to really work for either adults or children – and besides, who liked historical murder mysteries other than me?
I nervously sent it to my friend Moniza, and a few days later we met up in a cafe to talk about it.
‘I like it,’ she said cautiously. ‘It’s quite funny. Apart from the murder.’
‘But who do you think would want to read it, apart from us?’ I asked. ‘Who is it for?’
We both pondered this.
‘I’m not sure,’ she said at last. ‘But I suppose – it’ll find its niche eventually.’
Which is why, when my name was read out as the winner of this year’s Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Younger Readers category, I burst into extremely surprised tears. I wrote Murder Most Unladylike for me, aged 12, and I spent such a long time thinking of it as something that would only appeal to my younger self that it still bewilders me to discover that other people like it too.
There were a lot of things I wanted to say as I was standing on the podium, but since I was desperately trying not to cry for most of the time, I didn’t manage to get them out properly. So here is what I meant to say …
This award means a tremendous amount to me. It genuinely and literally is a dream come true – I used to imagine winning a Waterstones Prize in the way that other people imagine winning an Oscar. I read every one of the other books in my category, and I genuinely adored them all – they are all so fresh and funny and clever and true that I was just proud to be included in their number. Cowgirl, Boy in the Tower, Girl with a White Dog, Violet and the Pearl of the Orient and A Boy Called Hope are all books that I love, and would recommend to everyone – if you haven’t, you should go read them immediately.
I am so lucky to have the support of Waterstones – of Melissa Cox and the rest of the head office team, and of each individual store and their children’s booksellers. I know how rare this kind of passion for a book or series is, and I can’t believe that my books have received that love and attention.
The people behind my books – my agent, Gemma Cooper, my editor Natalie Doherty and my publicist Harriet Venn, as well as the whole Penguin Random House team from editorial to sales – are fantastic, and they have made the books so much more than they could ever have been otherwise. And my friends and family, too, are just the best there could be – I am the luckiest of human beings in that respect.
Sally Green and Rob Biddulph, the other category winners, both wrote completely fantastic books, and Rob is an utterly deserving overall winner – Blown Away is adorable, funny and totally gorgeous to look at, a classic in the making.
Below are a few more pictures from the evening and the next day. What a time! I just couldn’t be happier.
Thank you, Waterstones, and thank you to everyone who has supported me! I feel like the luckiest author ever.
