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Sophie Elmhirst wins £30k Nero Gold Prize for her 'enthralling' book Maurice and Maralyn
Journalist and author Sophie Elmhirst’s Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Shipwreck, Survival and Love (Chatto & Windus) has been named as the overall winner of the Nero Gold Prize, beating out three other titles in contention for the prize.
The book is a retelling of a true story, and was described by chair of judges Bill Bryson as "an enthralling, engrossing story of survival and the resilience of the human spirit". It follows a couple whose boat is struck by a whale while they are sailing for New Zealand, leaving them shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean.
Bryson, who judges the prize alongside Bernardine Evaristo and Emily Maitlis, announced the winner at a ceremony in central London.
"Maurice and Maralyn is an enthralling, engrossing story of survival and the resilience of the human spirit," Bryson said. "Impressively novelistic in its narrative approach, it is a gripping retelling of a true but forgotten story. It is a story of a marriage as much as of an adventure at sea, one that subtly explores the dynamics of a relationship under the greatest imaginable stress."
Bryson added: "Sophie Elmhirst’s writing is understated but powerful, immersing the reader intimately in the unfolding drama and the horror of struggling to survive against the odds with very few resources. We unanimously agreed that Maurice and Maralyn is a non-fiction work that reaches the highest literary eminence, and we are delighted to announce it as the Nero Gold Prize 2024 Book of the Year."
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Speaking to The Bookseller at the ceremony, Elmhirst described the reception of the book as "quite a slow burn". Many have discovered Maurice and Maralyn through "word-of-mouth", she explained, as readers have shared their appreciation of the characters in the book with prospective new readers. She said that it is "such a gift" when a prize like the Nero Book Awards helps "expedite" the process of getting the book into the hands of more readers.
"I think people are just really responding to the characters as much as anything, and that’s always what I really wanted," she added. "Of course the story incredible, it’s a gem of a story and you don’t come across stories like that every day as a journalist, but actually the thing that got me about the story was them and trying to bring them to life, and to understand their relationship and the dynamics of that."
As a features journalist, Elmhirst said the process of writing a non-fiction book was different – mainly, that the two people she was writing the book about "weren’t alive to talk to". She said she thinks "about them a lot", and spoke to Maurice’s neighbour about how he would have received the book if he was alive when it was published.
"He said, ‘Well, you know, he probably wouldn’t have liked all the fuss but I think he would have secretly been delighted that the story was being told again and a new generation of people were getting to know it’," she said. "Actually, he made a very sweet point that people would get to know Maralyn, and his feelings for Maralyn."
The author said she is working on a new book, but explained that the project is still in the early stages.
The Nero Book Awards are a set of multi-category awards open to writers based in the UK and Ireland. A winner from each of the four categories – comprising Fiction, Non-Fiction, Debut Fiction and Children’s Fiction – was awarded in January. The winners were then in the running for the Nero Gold Prize, with Maurice and Maralyn triumphing over Colin Barrett’s Wild Houses (Jonathan Cape), Adam S Leslie’s Lost in the Garden (Dead Ink Books) and Liz Hyder’s The Twelve, illustrated by Tom de Freston (Pushkin Children’s Books).
Gerry Ford, the founder and group CEO of Caffè Nero, said: "It was an incredibly difficult decision for the judges as all four titles were worthy winners, but this extraordinary true tale of a couple shipwrecked at sea for 118 days is a story that will stay with readers for years to come. These Awards highlight outstanding books published in the UK and Ireland and Maurice and Maralyn represents the best of the best. I would like to personally congratulate Sophie Elmhirst on winning the 2024 Nero Gold Prize, which is very well deserved."
The Nero New Writers Prize – a new award championing emerging writers – was also launched at the ceremony, and will be run in association with Brunel University of London. Entrants will be asked to submit a piece of original, unpublished adult fiction, children’s fiction or creative non-fiction of up to 5000 words. The winner will receive a cash prize, a scholarship to study for an MA in Creative Writing at Brunel University of London and an introductory meeting with a literary agent.
