Pillainayagam wins the 2023 Branford Boase Award for Ellie Pillai Is Brown

Christine Pillainayagam has won the 2023 Branford Boase Award for the year’s outstanding debut novel for young people for her “funny, song-filled, second-generation coming of age story” Ellie Pillai is Brown (Faber & Faber).

The Branford Boase Award is unique in honouring editor as well as author and Pillainayagam shares the win with her editor, Leah Thaxton. Last year’s winner Maisie Chan announced the pair as this year’s winners at a ceremony in London on 13th July. Pillainayagam receives a cheque for £1,000 and she and Thaxton both receive engraved trophies.

Ellie Pillai is Brown tells the story of teenager Ellie, who is trying to work out who she is. She loves music and, unbeknown to her parents, who wouldn’t approve, is doing drama GCSE. Add first love into the mix, and things get very complicated indeed. Ellie writes songs to describe what she’s going through, the addition of QR codes throughout the book allow readers to listen to them.

Pillainayagam describes her book as “a classic coming of age story with the added layer of colour” and says the idea came from some of her own experiences growing up as a second-generation immigrant in a majority white community: “Ellie’s a British teenager growing up with all the classic teenage woes, but she’s also caught between two cultures, dealing with family grief and a sense that she doesn’t really belong anywhere.”

On winning the Branford Boase Award, she said: “A few years ago, an editor I admired was nominated for the Branford Boase Award. At the time, I had a rough manuscript, no agent and nothing close to a book deal. To win this award (my very first!) is so surreal, and important to me, because it validates that stories like mine belong, bringing a mirror to readers who may feel they’ve never seen themselves before. I’m so delighted to share this with my brilliant editor Leah, who not only took a chance on me as a first-time writer but gave me the courage to tell the story I needed, without compromise. I think I can officially call myself a writer now!”

Thaxton said: “When I first read Christine’s novel I pinched myself – it couldn’t possibly be a debut; or this thought-provoking and funny. Christine is the voice of a generation. My journey with Ellie Pillai is Brown has been an honour and a blast – because Christine is the real deal and gorgeous with it too. She writes for readers who absurdly haven’t yet seen themselves in novels - what marks her out as exceptional is that she does so with such style, intelligence and charm, citing universal truths that have stayed with me and all who read her novels long after reading.

“She has the ability to nail character in a sentence, and to write dialogue that sings. I’m just so happy to have been along for the ride. Thank you for the honour of this award but the credit is all Christine’s, it honestly is. (But I’ll take the praise, anything to hang on to her coattails!)”

Chan, who won the 2022 Branford Boase Award for Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths (Piccadilly Press) and was a judge this year, commented: “Ellie Pillai is Brown is a lyrical book about the messy teenage years told with humour and pathos. Ellie is a character you want to root for and hug. It is an expertly crafted book that looks at first love, identity and grief."

The Branford Boase Award is delivered in partnership with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and supported by Walker Books.