Jason Wallace wins Branford Boase

Debut author Jason Wallace has won the Branford Boase award for his novel, Out of Shadows (Andersen Press), which has previously also won the Costa Children's Book Award. The award, which recognises debut authors, is shared by Wallace and his editor, Charlie Shepherd, as it recognises both the author's work and the contribution of an editor.

Out of Shadows explores the period in history when Zimbabwe was making its transition from white rule to a country dominated by its current corrupt leader, Robert Mugabe. Wallace, who moved to Zimbabwe as a child, said: "The inspiration for the story came many, many years ago. I wanted to write about my experiences in Zimbabwe as a foreigner, especially my school days.

"It was at the time when Mugabe had begun to steal the elections and I was feeling annoyed and angry about it and the ‘what if?' idea came into my head; what if someone had done something about it before it got this bad? It's a bit like asking the question, ‘what if you could have killed Hitler before his time?'"

The story explores a plot by schoolchildren to assassinate Mugabe and includes some shocking, racially-motivated violence. Wallace said: "This is not really what my school was like – I loved my time there – and although I explore some very dark characters in the book, I wanted my readers to think about why they are like that, the reasons people become like that."

Wallace's next novel, which draws on European history, will be published by Andersen in 2012. He also continues to run his own company specialising in the content management of websites, but aims to be a fulltime writer.