Fifth time lucky for Raisin

Penguin author Ross Raisin has won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award 2009 for his first novel, God’s Own Country.

He had already been nominated for the Author’s Club First Novel award, the Guardian First Book Award, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and Portico Prize.

Raisin received the £3,500 prize from John Witherow, editor of the Sunday Times yesterday (5th April) at a special lunch. The runners up, who each received £500, were last year’s winner Adam Foulds for The Broken Word (Cape) and Edward Hogan for Blackmoor (Pocket).

Previous winners of the prizee include Helen Simpson, Simon Armitage, Zadie Smith and Sarah Waters.