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Colin Barrett and Liz Hyder honoured at 2024 Nero Book Awards
Colin Barrett and Liz Hyder are among those named as winners of the Nero Awards Books of the Year for 2024.
Four books have been chosen as the best Fiction, Non-Fiction, Debut Fiction and Children’s Fiction books of the year from the UK and Ireland, all vying for the overall £30,000 prize to be announced later this year.
The Fiction winner was named as Lost in the Garden by Adam S Leslie (Dead Ink Books), while the Debut Fiction winner was Barrett for Wild Houses (Jonathan Cape). The children’s Fiction category went to The Twelve by Liz Hyder, which is illustrated by Tom de Freston (Pushkin Children’s Books), while Sophie Elmhirst secured the Non-Fiction prize for Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Shipwreck, Survival and Love (Chatto & Windus)
Each category winner receives £5,000 and is now in the running for the Nero Gold Prize, Book of the Year 2024, which will be announced at a ceremony in London on 5th March 2025. A final judging panel, chaired by writer Bill Bryson, will select the overall winner, who will receive an additional £30,000 prize.
Organisers said: "Together, the books represent high-quality writing and craftsmanship in literature and offer something for readers of all tastes: a true tale of love amid a shipwreck; a folk horror story following three friends on a perilous journey to a forbidden place; a comic novel set in small town Ireland; and a children’s adventure filled with magic, folklore and science. These four exceptional books have been selected out of hundreds of books reviewed.”
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The winners from each category were chosen by expert judging panels made up of authors, booksellers and journalists.
Gerry Ford, founder and group chief executive of Caffè Nero, commented: “The standard of entries this year was very high and with such incredible shortlists, our judges had a difficult job of picking just one winner in each category. They have chosen four impressive books which display an outstanding level of writing and captivating storytelling.
"These four books are worthy winners and collectively, will appeal to readers of all ages and tastes and represent the best writing from the UK and Ireland. I look forward to announcing our Gold Prize winner in March, and I am proud to continue to support the arts at Caffè Nero through the Nero Book Awards.”
Launched in 2023, the inaugural Nero Gold Prize winner was The Bee Sting by Paul Murray.
The awards are exclusively given to writers based in the UK and Ireland, with this year’s winning authors based across the UK and Republic of Ireland, from London to Limerick and Dublin to Oxford.
