Benjamin Myers' Cuddy wins £3k Winston Graham Historical Prize

Benjamin Myers’ Cuddy (Bloomsbury Publishing) has won the £3,000 Graham Historical Prize for "a historical novel with a powerful sense of place".

Novelist and judge Louis de Bernières presented the award at a ceremony held at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro. "This book is atmospheric and thoroughly original, with a cast of characters spanning the centuries, at the centre of whose lives is the corpse of a saint," he said of the winning novel. "The writing of this book must have been an act of love, and now we know; the north of England is a holy place. Cuddy is a great book and a worthy winner."

The Winston Graham Historical Prize was established thanks to a bequest from the author Winston Graham, who researched many of his novels at the museum’s Courtney Library.

Chair of the judges Charlotte Hobson said of this year’s winner: "It’s just such an unusual, touching book, an extraordinary reading experience. It was interesting, too, that our readers’ committee, a diverse group of around 40 people from all over Cornwall who helped put together the shortlist, also loved it. It may seem on the face of it to be a challenging read because of the unusual layout and so on, but in fact it appeals to all sorts of different readers."

Myers, speaking about the prize before he knew he had won it, said: "The genesis of Cuddy comes from the landscape — from my desire to write about Durham Cathedral, this iconic building that overshadowed my childhood, and Lindisfarne... Seeing my book on a shortlist such as this, among other great writers whose books I’ve previously read and admired — well, it’s just an honour."