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Books by Natasha Brown (pictured), Warren Ellis and Tom Gauld have been named Foyles Books of the Year.
Brown's Assembly (Hamish Hamilton), which follows a young Black British woman on her way to a party at her boyfriend’s country estate, took home Fiction Book of the Year.
Musician and composer Ellis' Nina Simone’s Gum (Faber & Faber) was named Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and tells the story of how in 1999, at the end of Nina Simone’s concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall, Ellis leapt to the stage and took Simone’s discarded chewing gum as a memento. Twenty years later, as his bandmate and longtime friend Nick Cave mounts an exhibition, Ellis narrates the story of the gum and the collaborative journey toward sharing it with the world.
Finally, Gauld's The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess (Templar Publishing) was awarded Children’s Book of the Year. The picture book is a fairytale in which a King and Queen become parents to a robot made of wood (with beetles living inside him) and a girl who secretly turns into a log when she sleeps. When one night the log princess is added to a woodpile and carted away, the little wooden robot embarks on a quest to bring his sister back home.
Gavin Read, marketing and communications manager at Foyles, said: “From a year of reading, discussing and selling books, we’ve selected our three most essential recommendations. Each is the work of an individual moving into a new creative territory, each is vitally original in its way, and each offers the reader innumerable riches.These are three books we passionately believe deserve as large a readership as possible.”
Foyles will sell an exclusive Book of the Year edition of Assembly with gold foiled cover detail, signed by the author and numbered out of 1,000. On hearing of her win, Brown said: “Since first visiting the Charing Cross Road store as a teenager (to buy a maths textbook, of course!), I’ve adored book shopping at Foyles. It is an absolute honour and delight to have my debut novel chosen as one of the Foyles Books of the Year. I’m so grateful to the incredible team of booksellers at Foyles for championing Assembly to their readers.”
Scarlett Madge, area commercial support for Foyles Charing Cross Road, said: “In just 100 pages, Assembly provides the reader with a compelling interior world, expertly-drawn characters, and an essential interrogation of modern Britain and the legacy of its colonialist past. Brown’s control of pace, form and structure is masterful—this is the first outing for a colossal talent.”
Foyles will also sell signed editions of Nina Simone’s Gum with a signed limited artwork print. Ellis said he was "blown away" to have had her book selected as the Non-Fiction Book of the Year, adding: "It has been amazing seeing the reaction to my book. Thank you Foyles and thanks to Faber for listening to my story about a piece of gum I acquired 20 years ago from Dr Simone."
Signed editions and a signed limited artwork print will also be available for The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess at Foyles. Gauld will also be painting the window at Foyles’ Royal Festival Hall shop in December and character artwork will be displayed in store. Gauld said: “I'm very proud to be chosen by Foyles as their Children's Book of the Year. This is my first book for children so I wasn't at all sure what sort of reaction it would get. I was relieved when I found an agent who liked it, delighted when Templar wanted to publish it, and now this is the icing on the cake. I've been coming to Foyles for as long as I've lived in London, but while I was working on my story I would come specifically to wander around the children's section looking for inspiration in the lovely books there. So it's really nice to be picked by the Foyles staff and to see my book sitting on those same shelves.”