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The Paul Torday Memorial Prize closes after six years
The Society of Authors (SoA) has announced that the Paul Torday Memorial Prize, awarded for a debut by an author over 60, has now closed after six years as the founders said “our point has been made [and] our father’s legacy commemorated”.
Piers and Nick Torday founded the prize in 2018 in tribute to their father Paul Torday, who became a published author at 60 with the prize-winning Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) and went on to write 10 books before his death in 2013. It was administered by the SoA.
Piers Torday, also an author, outlined the reasons behind the closure in a statement on the SoA website: “My brother Nick and I are so glad we followed our dream of honouring Dad’s remarkable literary journey and legacy with the creation of a prize in his name that celebrated those who, like him, forged new literary careers later in life.
“Our goal was to reward the very best of those publishing novels at the age of 60 and over, and we can proudly say we have done that for six incredible years. We’ve boosted writers from independent presses and garlanded bestsellers. There is no place for ageism anywhere, and certainly not in publishing, and we’re glad to have highlighted that.
“But now our point has been made, our father’s legacy commemorated, and we gladly cede the stage to the vital McKitterick [for debut writers over 40] and Christopher Bland prizes [for debut writers over 50] which will continue to celebrate late developers of many ages.”
A spokesperson for the SoA told The Bookseller: “We always look to secure a minimum of three years funding for new prizes and then assess any changes to the literary landscape before fundraising again. We felt the prize made a real impact during its tenure and are proud of all the shortlists and winners that we’ve celebrated over the years.”
Author Gaby Koppel wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Deeply sorry to hear this. It was such a thrill to be runner-up in 2020 and an absolute honour to be a judge this year. The opportunities to celebrate late comers to fiction are fairly few, so this will be a sad loss, but thank you for six glorious years.”
The award was set up and originally sponsored by Torday’s family. Since the prize was founded in 2018, six authors have won the prize – originally £1,000, this was expanded through sponsorship from Hawthornden Foundation in 2023 to £3,000 for the winner and an additional £1,000 for a runner-up.
Each winner also received a set of Torday’s collected works, donated by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, and runners-up were awarded one specially selected Paul Torday novel with a commemorative book plate.
Recent winners included Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry (Transworld) and Fire Rush author Jacqueline Crooks.
