Guest guest Posted December 8, 2005 Report Share Posted December 8, 2005 Tale of homeless man wins prize Alexander Masters lives in CambridgeA book about the real life of a homeless man has won the Guardian First Book Award 2005. Alexander Masters won the £10,000 prize for Stuart: A Life Backwards, which tells the life story of Stuart Shorter in reverse. Biographer Michael Holroyd, who was on the judging panel, described the book as "original and ingenious". The Guardian First Book Award recognises and rewards fiction and non-fiction titles. Farming industry Masters was due to collect the award at a ceremony in central London on Thursday evening. This year's judging panel, which included novelist Julie Myerson, poet Owen Sheers, cultural commentator Naseem Khan and broadcaster Clive Anderson, chose the winner from a five-strong shortlist, which was dominated by non-fiction works. Richard Benson's memoir of the destruction of the British farming industry, The Farm, only just missed out on the prize. The shortlist also included Reza Aslan's No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and the Future of Islam; Suketu Mehta's history of Bombay, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found and Rattawut Lapcharoensap's Sightseeing, fictional short stories set around Thailand's tourism industry. Stuart: A Life Backwards, told the story of Mr Shorter as a homeless man, backwards through his time in prison and his difficult childhood. 'Compelling' Claire Armitstead, chair of the judges and Guardian Literary Editor, said: "If you were just going on the subject matter of Stuart, you'd have thought it would be a depressing but worthy read. "But Alexander Masters has such a light touch, and the character of Stuart himself is so spikily attractive and so admirable in unexpected ways, that it becomes absolutely compelling and at times laugh-aloud funny. "It was Stuart himself who suggested it should be written backwards, and the fact that Masters rewrote it accordingly is typical of the relationship that emerges through the book. "Part of the genius of the book lies in the matching of a topsy-turvy structure to a topsy-turvy life." This is the fourth time the award has been won for a non-fiction title since its launch seven years ago. Previous winners of the award include Zadie Smith for White Teeth in 2000. The Valley Vegan..................Peter H To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Security Centre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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