Transworld to mark Wood's 25th anniversary with library giveaway

Transworld is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the publication of Val Wood's first novel, The Hungry Tide (Penguin Random House), by giving out 10 sets of all the author’s books to Hull libraries. 

This year marks a quarter century since she won the Catherine Cookson award for The Hungry Tide and she has been published by Transworld since 1993. Her romantic historical novels are all set in the city of Kingston upon Hull in east Yorkshire. 

To celebrate the publication of her 25th title A Place to Call Home on Thursday (29th November), the Penguin Random House imprint is donating 10 sets of all of the author’s books to libraries in the Hull area.

Recently her books were named among the top loaned titles in UK libraries by Radio 4’s "Open Book" and she runs a short story competition in partnership with Hull Central Library. In 2017, she was made an honorary doctorate from the University of Hull.

Since 1993 Wood has sold over 1.5 million copies in the UK across all books and all platforms, Transworld said. Through Nielsen BookScan she has sold 1.06 million books for £4.6m, with her bestseller 2013’s The Innkeeper’s Wife, with 73,941 copies sold.

Wood, who moved to East Yorkshire as a teenager, said: "In 1993 on winning the Catherine Cookson award with my first novel, The Hungry Tide, I felt that I had been thrown into the deep pool of publication and come up gasping.

"Although I had spent most of my life with stories in my head, this was different, something real, rather scary and humbling too that my words had attracted attention and here I could shine. Twenty five wonderful years later I am still bemused by my good fortune, gratified that I can let my imagination soar and thankful that I am still with the same publishers who understand me, and astonished by the support of my scores of cherished readers who ask ‘when is the next book coming out?’"

Transworld’s editorial director Francesca Best said: “It makes us so proud to celebrate 25 years of writing from Val Wood, since she won the Catherine Cookson prize with The Hungry Tide. Val is a treasure of the Transworld list and a real delight to work with – we count ourselves extremely lucky to be her publishers.”