This year's prestigious Guardian Children's Fiction Prize has been won by Kate Thompson for The New Policeman (Bodley Head), a modern fairy tale set on the west coast of Ireland.
Kate Thompson lives in Ireland and is the daughter of the historian EP Thompson and the educationist Dorothy Thompson. She will be interviewed in the Guardian Review tomorrow, when the paper will also publish a special Children's Books supplement in association with the Book Trust.
The winner was chosen from a shortlist comprising: Julie Hearn for The Merrybegot (Oxford); Alex Shearer for The Hunted (Macmillan) and Tim Wynne-Jones for The Boy in the Burning House (Usborne).
The Guardian's Children's Fiction Prize was founded in 1967. Past winners include Philip Pullman, Anne Fine, Leon Garfield, Ted Hughes, Nina Bawden, Jacqueline Wilson and Mark Haddon. The prize is unique in that it is judged by other writers. The winner of the prize receives a cheque for £1,500.
Leave a comment