Thursday 10 July 2024: Nathanael Lessore is the winner of the 2024 Branford Boase Award for outstanding debut novel for young people with Steady For This, his story of 13-year-old would be rapper Shaun, aka MC Growls, as he navigates life, love and dreams of stardom. The Branford Boase Award is unique in honouring editor as well as author and Nathanael shares the win with his editors, Ella Whiddett and Ruth Bennett, of Hot Key Books.
Nathanael Lessore was born in Camberwell, Southeast London, as one of eight children to French and Madagascan parents. Although he has spent most of his life in Peckham, Nathanael has also lived in Paris, Strasbourg and Singapore. Nathanael became a marketing executive after graduating from the University of East London, believing at the time that a Creative Writing degree destined him for a career in marketing. His second book, King of Nothing, has just been published. Steady For This was also shortlisted for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Writing.
Ella Whiddett joined Bonnier Books UK in 2021 as editor for Hot Key Books and Piccadilly Press.
Prior to that she was at Little Tiger, managing Holly Webb’s young fiction publishing and commissioning and developing the Diary of an Accidental Witch middle grade series amongst other projects.
Ruth Bennett is Editorial Director, children’s fiction at Bonnier and also worked at Little Tiger between 2012 and 2020.
This year’s judges are Christine Pillainayagam, author and winner of the 2023 Branford Boase Award; Emily Drabble, Head of Children’s Books Promotion and Prizes at BookTrust; Lucas Maxwell, former School Librarian of the Year and winner of the UK Literacy Association’s Reading for Pleasure Teacher Champion Award 2022; and Amy McKay, also a past UK School Librarian of the Year and for ten years Yoto Carnegies National Coordinator. The judging panel is chaired by Julia Eccleshare, Director, Hay Children’s Festival.
Founded in 2000, the Branford Boase Award was set up in memory of award-winning author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase of Walker Books, who both died in 1999, and is unique in honouring editor as well as author.
Wendy Boase co-founded Walker Books in 1978 with Sebastian Walker and Amelia Edwards. Her role was to look after the words and she was instrumental in shaping the list, and especially in editing the fiction. Finding new authors was one of Wendy’s talents and she nurtured many prize-winning writers including Lesley Howarth and Hugh Scott. Her authors relished her passion for their writing and her obsessive eye for detail. Combined, these ensured that they were driven, though not against their will, to produce their best.
Henrietta Branford began writing when she was 40, starting with pieces for a local newspaper, and before long was writing books for children and winning prizes. Henrietta’s books covered the whole range from picture books to teenage novels. Dimanche Diller, the first in a trilogy about the eponymous heroine, won the Smarties Prize and in 2002 was awarded the Prix Tam-Tam in France; Dimanche and The Fated Sky were both shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize which Henrietta subsequently won with Fire, Bed and Bone, a title that was also Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal.
The Branford Boase Award is now regarded as one of the most important awards in children’s books and has an impressive record in picking out star authors at the start of their careers. Previous winners include Meg Rosoff, Liz Hyder, Marcus Sedgwick, M.G. Leonard and Frances Hardinge. Winning editors include JK Rowling’s editor Barry Cunningham, Philip Pullman’s editor David Fickling and Fiona Kennedy, publisher of Michelle Paver, Marcus Sedgwick and Sally Gardner.
The shortlisted authors may have published other books in another genre – e.g. poetry or a picture book – but eligibility for the prize requires that this is their first children’s novel.
As well as encouraging publishers to find and promote new writers, the Award sets out to alert readers of all ages to the work of interesting newcomers.
The Award is the joint idea of Julia Eccleshare MBE and Anne Marley MBE. Julia is the director of the Hay Festival children’s programme. Anne was Head of Children’s, Youth & Schools Services for Hampshire Library & Information Service for many years and helped to found Authors Aloud UK, an author booking agency.
The complete list of titles on the 2024 shortlist are:
The Final Year Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, edited by Charlotte Hacking (Otter-Barry Books)
The First Move by Jenny Ireland, edited by Ruth Knowles with Sara Jafari (Penguin)
Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan, edited by Eloise Wilson (Andersen Press)
Steady for This by Nathanael Lessore, edited by Ella Whiddett and Ruth Bennett (Hot Key Books)
The Swifts by Beth Lincoln, illustrated by Claire Powell, edited by Ben Horslen and Julie Strauss-Gabel (Puffin)
You Think You Know Me by Ayaan Mohamud, edited by Sarah Stewart (Usborne)
Running alongside the Branford Boase Award, the Henrietta Branford Writing Competition encourages writing talent in under 18s.
The Branford Boase Award is delivered in partnership with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and supported by Walker Books.
The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is a not-for-profit organisation started by writers for the benefit of all types of writers. Owned by its members, ALCS collects money due for secondary uses of writers’ work. It is designed to support authors and their creativity; ensure they receive fair payment and see their rights are respected. It promotes and teaches the principles of copyright and campaigns for a fair deal. It represents over 120,000 members, and since 1977 has paid over £650million to writers.
For more information visit alcs.co.uk
The Walker Books Group is one of the world’s leading independent publishers of books and content for children. This vibrant international group includes Walker Books UK, London; Candlewick Press, Somerville, Massachusetts; and Walker Books Australia, based in Sydney and Auckland.
Renowned for its truly original publishing and outstanding quality, the Walker Books Group is home to books for readers of all ages. Award-winning authors and illustrators for the group include National Ambassador for Children’s Literature, Kate DiCamillo, M.T Anderson, Patrick Ness, and Jon Klassen, and major brands for the group are Maisy, Guess How Much I Love You, Tilly and Friends, the widely acclaimed Judy Moody and the bestselling Where’s Wally/Where’s Waldo.
The 2023 Branford Boase Award was won by Christine Pillainayagam and her editor Leah Thaxton with Ellie Pillai is Brown (Faber).
For more information about the award, including a full list of past winners, and the Henrietta Branford Writing Competition, visit www.branfordboaseaward.org.uk.
Or contact Andrea Reece on 07807893369 or andrea.reece@zen.co.uk
Andrea Reece
30 Winton Avenue, London, N11 2AT
Tel: 0208 889 1292
Mob: 07807 893369
Email: branford.boase@gmail.com
Andrea Reece
Tel: 07807 893369 | Email: branford.boase@gmail.com