HBN, LONDON, England, Fri. Jan. 7, 2005: British-born author and the daughter of Jamaica immigrants, Andrea Levy, is the winner of the Whitbread best novel award for 'Small Island.’
The Whitbread Book Awards, which were established by the UK’s leading hospitality business in 1971, have the single aim of celebrating the most enjoyable books of the last year (2004) by writers based in the UK and Ireland. The winners were announced on Thursday, Jan. 6 (2005).
Levy, 48, who last year won the Orange Prize for women's fiction, tells the story about the experiences of those Jamaicans who joined the British army but found themselves unwelcome in Britain once the war was over.
It is a story which judges described as “moving, humane and eye-popping.”
She will now go forward and compete against other Whitbread Book Award winners to contest the Whitbread Book of the Year award and the overall £25,000 prize to be announced on January 25 (2005). – Hardbeatnews.com
