The Winner of the Green Carnation Prize 2015 is…

After several months of reading and re-reading, from the highest amount of submissions yet and an incredible shortlist, followed by several hours of discussion the judges of the Green Carnation Prize were unanimous in selecting Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings as the winner for 2015, in association with Foyles.

Haven’t I been good at keeping a secret, and indeed not discussing my thoughts on any of the shortlisted books, well bar the one that I had reviewed. I have to say having been sat as a fly on the wall at every meeting the judges have had, they have been very torn as the shortlist was so strong. There has been much lively debate. Now is the time to celebrate though, celebrating a corking winner and an equally cracking shortlist. When this goes live I shall be at the party celebrating with the judges, shortlisted authors, previous winners and short and long listed authors along with other bookish bods, at Foyles flagship store. While I am doing that I will leave you with a picture of myself and a rather thrilled Marlon, taken last week when I met him to film his winning speech and have a natter.

You can find a proper, more serious, post on all things Green Carnation Prize here. Now what I want to know is who has read A Brief History of Seven Killings and what did you make of it? Which of the shortlisted titles have you read and loved?

The Green Carnation Prize Shortlist 2016

When this news goes live I will be in a  meeting room or restaurant in Soho networking and schmoozing like a demon, ha. So I won’t be able to instantly shout with glee about the shortlist for this years Green Carnation Prize, even though I will be desperate to and have been since the list was decided a week and a bit ago. Anyway here is the official word on it (my unofficial word will follow)…

The six shortlisted titles celebrating LGBT writing have been announced after hours of debates between the judges over an exceptionally strong longlist. Once again with a list including fiction; from debut novelists to well established literary faces, non-fiction; from investigations into the modern drugs world to a memoir of a mother’s illness, from Victorian London to Jamaica, the Green Carnation proves itself as one of the most diverse prizes.

• Sophie and the Sibyl – Patricia Duncker (Bloomsbury)
• A Place Called Winter – Patrick Gale (Tinder Press)
• Chasing the Scream – Johann Hari (Bloomsbury Circus)
• A Brief History of Seven Killings – Marlon James (OneWorld)
• Mrs Engels – Gavin McCrea (Scribe)
• Stammered Songbook – Erwin Mortier (Pushkin Press)

Chair of the judges for 2015, author Niven Govinden said of the shortlist “After a lively and robust debate, we’re proud to unveil our shortlist, which we feel represents the best of the best: books that excel and incite passion in the reader.”

Simon Heafield, Marketing Manager for the prize’s partner Foyles said “We’re very proud to play a part in promoting a shortlist of such quality. Indeed, most are books we’ve been actively promoting instore this year so we’re delighted that readers will again be given good reason to investigate them further.”

The Green Carnation Prize is a prize awarded to LGBT writers for any form of the written word, in any genre, including novels in translation. This year sees the second year of the prize’s partnership with Foyles bookshops. The partnership will see Foyles offer event space in their flagship store to host the award ceremony on Tuesday December the 8^th 2015, with public events celebrating the prize to follow around the UK in 2016.

For more information please visit: www.greencarnationprize.com or www.foyles.co.uk

Back to me and my unofficial thoughts… I really like the list. Yes, there is a lack of women on the shortlist but as someone who was sat in the meeting watching (with slight glee) the judges having the nightmare of shortlisting, from a cracking longlist, the discussions went past genre, gender, race and was just about which of the final six books resonated and were the best of the best. I have no idea how they are going to choose the winner in a couple of weeks, poor things.

I have read three of them in full (without being a judge, obviously) and half of two of them and can see why it was so tough as they were corkers. I will be sharing my thoughts after the winner is announced at the start of December. In the interim, have you read any of these books and what did you make of them?

The Green Carnation Prize Longlist 2015

The twelve strong longlist of titles celebrating LGBT writing have been announced after hours of debates between the judges over an exceptional list of submissions, the most the prize has seen in its history to date. Once again with a list including fiction; from debut novelists to well established literary faces, non-fiction; from poetry to investigations into the drugs world, the Green Carnation proves itself as one of the most diverse prizes. I would say all this (and I did as I wrote the press release) because as regular readers of the blog will know, I am one of the founders and now Honorary Directors of the Prize. What some of you might not know is I find out the longlist very last minute and this year (what with never being anywhere long in the last few weeks) I found out a while after the meeting. The list is a very strong one I think…

• Blood Relatives – Stevan Alcock (4^th Estate)
• Deep Lane – Mark Doty (Jonathan Cape)
• Sophie and the Sibyl – Patricia Duncker (Bloomsbury)
• Artwash: Big Oil and the Arts – Mel Evans (Pluto Press)
• A Place Called Winter – Patrick Gale (Tinder Press)
• Chasing the Scream – Johann Hari (Bloomsbury Circus)
• A Brief History of Seven Killings – Marlon James (Oneworld)
• The Gracekeepers – Kirsty Logan (Harvill Secker)
• Mrs Engels – Gavin McCrea (Scribe)
• Stammered Songbook – Erwin Mortier (Pushkin Press)
• Don’t Let Him Know – Sandip Roy (Bloomsbury)
• The Curator – Jacques Strauss (Jonathan Cape)

To prove how out of the loop I am with the books, apart from the fact that I chase the submissions, I have only read five of the books and so have rather a lot of wonderful reads in the next month before the shortlist is announced on Thursday the 5th of November. I have shockingly only reviewed two of the five I have read, which I need to sort out sharpish. Yet at the moment book reviews seem like some elusive thing that I dream of doing, or sometimes have nightmares of people screaming down the phone at me for not doing, as I don’t seem to be able to find the time at the moment. But I will, I really will. anyway, you can find out more about the Green Carnation Prize and the longlist on the website.

Do I have any favourites? Were there any I was sad not to see make the list? Well, that would be telling. What I would love to know are your thoughts on the list and which of the books you have read and what you thought of those?

The Green Carnation Prize 2015 (Book Prize Update #1)

Today is a day of prize updates. Tonight the eight winners, from a stonking longlist (slightly biased but very true), of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize will be announced which I have had the pleasure of judging. Another prize I have the pleasure of working on, as the co-founder and Honorary Director, is The Green Carnation Prize which I am thrilled to announce is back and open for submissions. We have a wonderful new logo (thanks Gav) which I looove…

We also have a new judging panel which I was delighted to reveal yesterday and is an absolute corker of a panel. The judges are Jack Monroe, campaigner, writer, blogger and chef; Sophie Ward, actor and writer; Eric Karl Anderson, writer, blogger and reviewer and Celise Galloway, Local Marketing Manager of Foyles. The judges will be chaired by author Niven Govinden…

For more information on the judges head here where you can see there may be a bake off amongst them all, as well as some serious reading ahead. The prize is now open for submissions, for more information on the submissions you can visit the guidelines page here.Now it is down to some serious summer reading for our five new judges as the Green Carnation Prize 2015 in association with Foyles starts officially.

Exciting times! Back later for the big reveal of the Fiction Uncovered titles, in the meantime any books you think you might see on the Green Carnation longlist in the next few months? Or any thoughts on the Fiction Uncovered longlist this year?

Green Carnations & Feeling A Little Proud…

On Friday night I was a bundle of nerves. I had been in London since Wednesday and had been seeing lots of friends and doing loads quite a bit of shopping and just having a break, yet the reason I was down in London was for the Green Carnation Prize Winning Announcement and Party. The bit I was feeling about was giving a speech all about the prize; especially in front of lots of authors, publicists, industry bods and some of my friends. Eek. But I did it…

And as I did it started to hit me how much the prize had achieved in its five years, especially after the announcement that Anneliese Mackintosh had won. Huge congratulations to her. I had the pleasure of speaking to Anneliese afterwards, who was shaking from genuine shock that she had won (and possibly overdosing on Night Nurse, the poor love) and who said a big thank you. Initially I said ‘ooh don’t thank me, it’s the judges who chose it’ (who did an amazing job) and Anneliese replied ‘but thank you for setting it up’. I have to admit I felt a bit emotional, and I hadn’t even won.

I then got very quite drunk and as I was talking to people it seemed to finally click how far it had all come. I was in a room with all these people who were saying what a great long and shortlist it has had over the past few years, how pleased they were about the partnership with Foyles and that it was becoming a prize that they could trust would throw them great reads. By the end of the night I was a beaming mess of happiness, which is a nice feeling to have.

So now Any Other Mouth and Anneliese Mackintosh join the Green Carnation Prize winning family along with Andrew Solomon, Patrick Gale, Andre Carl Van Der Merwe, Catherine Hall and Chrisopher Fowler! So that is all your Christmas stocking lists sorted for this year – oh along with this years corking shortlist. Have you read any of the Green Carnation Prize winners, short listers or long listers and if so what did you think?

The Green Carnation Prize Longlist 2014

Now if you have seen me chuntering on about this on Twitter, you can forgive me, ignore this post or just enjoy the exciting news all over again. Yes, today has been the announcement of the Green Carnation Prize 2014’s longlist. You may or may not know that this prize is very close to my heart as it is one that I co-founded way back in 2010 (I won’t go on you can read all about it here) to celebrate LGBT writing as it is something, that believe it or not, there is still sometimes some stumbling blocks in the way of. The prize has gone from strength to strength in the last five years, with a lot of hard work I won’t lie, and is now in association with Foyles Bookshops and this years judges have come up with this rather wonderful selection of books…

The Green Carnation Prize Longlist 2014

• Through The Woods – Emily Carroll (Faber & Faber)
• The Absent Therapist – Will Eaves (CB Editions)
• The Fair Fight – Anna Freeman (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• All The Days and Nights – Niven Govinden (The Friday Project)
• Vixen – Rosie Garland (Borough Press)
• Thirst – Kerry Hudson (Chatto & Windus)
• The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales – Kirsty Logan (Salt)
• In Search of Solace – Emily Mackie (Sceptre)
• Any Other Mouth – Anneliese Mackintosh (Freight)
• The Lives of Others – Neel Mukherjee (Chatto & Windus)
• Unspeakable Things – Laurie Penny (Bloomsbury)
• Invisible Love – Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt (Europa Editions)
• The Glasgow Coma Scale – Neil D. A. Stewart (Corsair)

What is exciting is that while I do all the admin of the prize and the snaring of judges, I have absolutely no control over what the judges choose as their longlist out of the submissions they get (this year was the most ever). I just make sure they all have them really and sit in on meetings to make sure it is all above board. I have to keep my mouth shut and remain nonchalant throughout even if books I love get culled – after all I haven’t read the whole lot of submission have I? Well, not since I stopped judging. So the longlist is always a surprise to me. Having had a few days to think on this list (a small bonus that almost makes up for all the press release, website and social media scheduling madness that follows the decision) the more and more I have fallen in love with it.

To me, at least, it seems like a really diverse and exciting list of all sorts of writing be it a thick epic novel or a short snappy one, a memoir, a short story collection, memoir, non fiction or graphic novel. Amazing. There is a mix of the big publishers and the smaller indies. There is also a wealth of authors I had and hadn’t heard of, meaning some new exciting voices look to be on my reading horizon… Yes, I am planning on reading all (eight) that I haven’t yet in the next few weeks and I am really excited about it. Though I might not be able to talk to you about them until after the winner, though maybe not being a judge I can? What do you think? Hmmm, I will have a think! Either way is it bad that I feel very proud of the prize, the judges and even a teeny weeny bit proud of myself?

For more info on the prize, the judges, events and more head to the website here. What are your thoughts on the list? Have you read any of them? Will you be reading any of them? As always I would love to hear your thoughts.

Foyles & The Green Carnation Partner Up… Hoorah!

I have been sat on this news ever since January, so it might be a bit squished, and been bursting to tell anyone and everyone… The Green Carnation Prize has now partnered up with Foyles bookshops, for the next two years! I am honestly so thrilled that anytime someone has asked me what the latest is with the Green Carnation, or indeed if it is happening this year, I have had to just demurely (a hard look for me to carry off) say that it will be coming back the final details just being decided. Well the cat is out the bag now and I am so excited about what Foyles and I have planned for the prize it makes me go dizzy! Anyway in case I haven’t said it I am thrilled that Foyles are on board and believe in the prize and LGBT writing as much as I do! Hoorah all round! Here is all the news in full…

Foyles, National Bookseller of the Year 2013 and 2012, has today, Thursday 5^th June, announced its two year partnership with the Green Carnation Prize for writing…

The Green Carnation Prize is a prize awarded to LGBT writers for any form of the written word, and has a reputation of championing LGBT writers from the UK. This year will see the growth of the prize, to encompass works of translation, which only can be encouraged by a partnership with Foyles. The partnership will see Foyles offer event space in their new flagship shop to host the award ceremony and public events celebrating the prize, with Simon Heafield Communications Manager at Foyles on the judging panel, the full line up of judges will be announced next week. On joining the panel and the prize Simon Heafield said:

“As a bookshop Foyles is very committed to showcasing the wonderfully diverse world of literature, we’re proud to be supporting the Green Carnation Prize. In its short history, the Prize has already established itself as a dependable marque of quality, bringing new readers to books that really deserve to be more widely known. Among the many literary prizes that have done little to move with the times, the Green Carnation stands out as one destined to become one of the highlights of the literary calendar.”

Simon Savidge, Honorary Director and co-founder of the Green Carnation said: “I am beyond delighted that the Green Carnation Prize is to be in association with Foyles in 2014 and 2015 bringing you the best LGBT writing published in the UK. Both parties have a clear vision to bring readers the best published LGBT writing available in the UK both in print and in person, with some great events celebrating long listed authors and winners past and future plus LGBT’s literary history which is sometimes forgotten, it is a very exciting time for the prize.”

For more information please visit: www.foyles.co.uk or www.greencarnationprize.com

Green Carnation Prize 2013; Winner & Thoughts

On Tuesday afternoon it was announced that Andrew Solomon’s was the latest winner of the Green Carnation Prize with Far From The Tree, a book about exceptional children and celebrates what it means to be human in all its diversity. Chair of the judges, Uli Lenart, has described it as “A work of extraordinary humanity. Life affirming, insightful and profoundly moving. Andrew Solomon continuously makes you reassess what you think. An opus of diversity, resilience and acceptance; Far From The Tree is a book that has the power to make the World a better place.” I have to admit that I am yet to read it though of course it is now high on my TBR pile – I think I might try and read a chapter at a time between fiction reads.

What has been really lovely is that the author himself said this “I am profoundly honored and utterly thrilled to have won this prize.  When I was born, it was a crime, a sin, and a mental illness to be gay; now it is an identity, and a much celebrated one at that, as the very existence of this prize clearly demonstrates.  My book is about how we can use that shift, of which gay people today are the fortunate beneficiaries, as a model for helping others with stigmatized differences to find dignity in them.  I believe with all my heart in a prize that celebrates the particular contributions of gay literature, and that recognizes that human diversity, like species diversity, is necessary to sustain the world as we know and love it.  I am delighted to play any part in putting forward that idea, and I thank the judges with all my heart.”

It is that sort of comment from a writer, which really makes you think, and now many people (myself included) will hopefully go off and read a book that Kerry Hudson says “is the sort of book that makes you grateful to have found it and that remains a gift for a lifetime”. I am up for that, aren’t you? Every year it has been the aim of the prize to highlight brilliant books, some you will have heard of some will be new to you, hopefully you go off and read them. I think the prize has a great track record of that.

Someone asked me the other day if I felt proud of the prize and the part I had played in setting it up. I had never thought about it like that before, yet taking pictures of all the winners together (like the one above) the other day, I thought ‘yes, I am bloody proud’ but I am also as proud as the people who have taken part and supported it be they readers, publishers, all sorts of folk on social media and most importantly the amazing judges this year are what make the prize so worthwhile. And I would like to personally thank Christopher Bryant, Sarah Henshaw, Kerry Hudson, Clayton Littlewood and Uli Lenart – who should get extra thanks as he chaired amazingly and kept me going through the process – as without them there wouldn’t have been a prize this year. Now I have to get thinking about next year…

Anyway, do go off and read them, winners and long and short listers alike ok? And let me know how you get on with them, it is hearing about people reading them that really makes me beam like a loon! I am hoping some of you already have read some of the winners and shortlisted books though?

The Green Carnation Prize Shortlist 2013…

As the press release (which I wrote) states, the shortlist for the Green Carnation Prize has now been announced and “With subjects from the abolition of death in Civil War 1836 to dysfunctional families in modern America; from marital breakdowns to crime and conspiracy over continents; from transvestites in London to tolerance in modern times, it seems that this year’s Green Carnation Prize shortlist has shown once again just what diverse list of titles the prize can produce.” Which I think I can agree with even though, as yet I haven’t read all the short list (I am still working on the longlist, and the blinking ‘Luminaries’ when I can) but I will be reading them all. The six titles are…

Doesn’t my lounge look lovely in this shot?

• Gob’s Grief – Chris Adrian (Granta Books)
• Black Bread White Beer – Niven Govinden (The Friday Project)
• May We Be Forgiven – A. M. Homes (Granta)
• The Kills – Richard House (Picador)
• Fanny & Stella – Neil McKenna (Faber and Faber)
• Far From The Tree – Andrew Solomon (Chatto & Windus)

Congratulations to all of them, I did rather large cheers for Neil McKenna (review coming soon) and Niven Govinden (review here) and am really interested in reading the three that I still haven’t read. Yes, I know I am missing one but will be talking about it in due course as it’s a book that is so good it actually started to annoy me. You see this year it has been really interesting for me as I haven’t judged the books or read all the submitted novels  so I can be rather impartial, which is quite exciting. I get to watch the judges judging and clap or tear out my hair with their decisions; mind you I have done that in past years when I was part of the panel.

You see I trust the judges and their discussions and have been chatting with them about the list since they informed me of it last week (aren’t I good at keeping secrets) and so when I did an initial ‘oh no’ for both ‘Maggie and Me’ by Damian Barr (which I loved and beyond) and ‘Almost English’ by Charlotte Mendelson (which recently charmed the reading glasses off me), instead of getting cross (which nearly happened) I just had to think ‘wow this must be a bloody brilliant shortlist’ which of course makes me very excited about the reading I have ahead of me. Though I will also admit the size (and font size too) of ‘Far From The Tree’ scares me somewhat. I am looking forward to the surprise of finding out the winner in two weeks.

It is interesting though as after the initial ‘who is and who isn’t on the list’ discussion dies down the same question rears its head. ‘Why do we need a prize like this?’ It is one I will be answering in the Guardian tomorrow but until then I would be interested in hearing both what you think of the Green Carnation Prize shortlist this year and do you think we need a prize that celebrates LGBT writing?

The Green Carnation Prize 2013 Longlist

Some of you will have already probably heard the news that the Green Carnation Prize 2013 longlist, which celebrates LGBT writing, was announced earlier today. For the first year in the prizes four years I’ve actually not done been on the judging panel or indeed been involved in the judging process/discussions (I have been doing all the admin behind the scenes) so it has all been rather weird and also extremely exciting as I have been desperate to know what the longlist would be. Well, here it is…

• Gob’s Grief – Chris Adrian (Granta Books)
• Five Star Billionaire – Tash Aw (4^th Estate)
• Maggie & Me – Damian Barr (Bloomsbury)
• Environmental Studies – Maureen Duffy (Enitharmon)
• Fallen Land – Patrick Flanery (Atlantic Books)
• Black Bread White Beer – Niven Govinden (The Friday Project)
• The Sea Inside – Philip Hoare (4^th Estate)
• May We Be Forgiven – A. M. Homes (Granta)
• The Kills – Richard House (Picador)
• Fanny & Stella – Neil McKenna (Faber and Faber)
• Almost English – Charlotte Mendelson (Mantle Books)
• Far From The Tree – Andrew Solomon (Chatto & Windus)

What an eclectic mix! I have only read two and a half of these so far (loved the Barr, need to review the brilliant Govinden – though I have interviewed him – and am now reading the Homes, by coincidence. for book club this week) and so I have decided that I will try, when the mood takes, to read them before the shortlist is announced on November the 5th. You can find out about the longlisted titles in more detail here.

What do you think of the list? Which of these have you read and what did you make of them?

The Winners of the Green Carnation Prize 2012 are…

Well it is a bit of a shocker as for the first time in the prizes history the judges announce two winners in a tie as Patrick Gale and André Carl Van Der Merwe become joint winners of The Green Carnation Prize 2012. And what a pair of winners they are…

Patrick Gale’s ‘A Perfectly Good Man’ is his sixteenth novel, a story of the moral dilemmas of a Cornish priest and his family and looks at what makes people good or bad. André Carl Van Der Merwe’s debut novel ‘Moffie’ is a tale of coming out in South Africa in the military during some of the country’s most turbulent times.

 

As you can imagine after all the reading that has lead up to this and all the discussion (which we had to extend the announcement of the winner/s by several days in order to come to a final agreement) I am rather shattered and booked out, though fear not it won’t last long. If you want to see all the official thoughts from the judges, including my thoughts on the whole shortlist, then you can go to the Green Carnation website here. I will be reviewing the winners, the short listed and long listed (well the ones I haven’t already) books in the new year, I can tell you though that they are all corking and it has been the hardest whittling down process I have ever encountered in three years. It might be just the high point for me to hang my judging boots up for a while.

Have you read either of the two winners and if so what did you think? If you haven’t yet, might you give them a whirl now?

The Green Carnation Prize Shortlist 2012

I am thrilled to be able to announce the Green Carnation Prize shortlist for 2012. After a whole weekend, yes weekend, of debating and discussing the long list the six shortlisted titles we have chosen are…

The Green Carnation Shortlist 2012

• Carry The One – Carol Anshaw (Penguin Books, American, 4^th novel)
• A Perfectly Good Man – Patrick Gale (4^th Estate, British, 16^th novel)
• Scenes from Early Life – Philip Hensher (4^th Estate, British, 8^th novel)
• Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice Cream Before He Stole Me Ma – Kerry Hudson (Chatto & Windus, British, debut novel)
• Moffie – Andre Carl Van Der Merwe (Europa Editions, South African, debut novel)
• Jack Holmes and his Friend – Edmund White (Bloomsbury, American, 10^th novel)

I think I am allowed to say (though who is really going to tell me off) that in the three years I have judged the prize this was the hardest longlist to shortlist selection we have had to make. That is how good the longlist was. I know that judges of prizes say that all the time and it is a bit of a cliché but in this case it is genuinely true. All the judges individually had to say goodbye to some of their favourite reads of the year (none more so than me – martyr much) and while we are thrilled with the shortlist we were sorry to see seven of the titles go and we have a proper mission ahead deciding the winner. If you are hankering for some great reads though do check out the short and long listed titles. Actually the good thing is I can talk about the books that I loved which didn’t make the shortlist now, can’t I?

The winner will be announced on the 12th fo December 2012. For more info visit the Green Carnation website. Which of these titles have you read and what did you think? Might you be tempted to try any of the shortlisted titles you haven’t read?

The Green Carnation Prize Longlist 2012

One of the joys of blogging was meeting lots of new people and getting very excited about books. Three years ago along with Paul Magrs, Nick Campbell and joined by Lesley Cookman I started on an exciting new venture co-founding a prize for LGBT literature of all kinds which eventually, after a small glitch with the initial name, was called The Green Carnation Prize. Well just over three years later the prize has changed a little bit yet the current team of judges, and one is an old ropey judge who refuses to leave, has brought you a very exciting longlist of thirteen books which are…

• Carry The One – Carol Anshaw (Penguin)
• Are You My Mother? – Alison Bechdel (Jonathan Cape)
• Ninety Days – Bill Clegg (Jonathan Cape)
• The Purple Shroud – Stella Duffy (Virago)
• Absolution – Patrick Flanery (Atlantic Books)
• A Perfectly Good Man – Patrick Gale (4^th Estate)
• Scenes From An Early Life – Philip Hensher (4^th Estate)
• Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice Cream Before He Stole Me Ma – Kerry Hudson (Chatto & Windus)
• Snake Ropes – Jess Richards (Sceptre)
• Hawthorn & Child – Keith Ridgway (Granta Books)
• Valentine Grey – Sandi Toksvig (Virago)
• Moffie – Andre Carl Van Der Merwe (Europa Editions)
• Jack Holmes and his Friend – Edmund White (Bloomsbury)

It is nice to be able to share at least the titles of some of the books that I have been secretly reading away over the past few months. Alas, I can’t tell you exactly what I thought of these thirteen because there is the short listing and the winning announcement to go, but it might be time to start telling you about some of the amazing books that didn’t make the longlist this year… because that is how good the submitted books were this year.

Always keen to get in on the act, a certain Oscar cat is now casting his eyes over the selected few and will be accompanying me in some re-reading. However I think I might have a week of reading just what I fancy first.

So what do you think of the list? Have you read any of them? What do you think might make the shortlist? Are there any you are surprised not to see? Are you going to give any of them a whirl? All thoughts, as always, most welcome.

Full details and thoughts from all the judges, and updates over the next few weeks, on the Green Carnation Prize can be found on the website.

The Green Carnation Prize 2012

I seem to have gone off radar on Savidge Reads recently, apologies for that but it has all been a little bonkers of late. I have had a poorly other half to contend with and a sudden dash back to A&E when everything got a bit worse suddenly (The Beard is now doing much better), then had a trip to Cardiff (more on that soon), a mass of recordings for The Readers Summer Book Club (more on that later today) and to top it all off I was finalising everything for The Green Carnation Prize which I am delighted to say is back again this year.

I am thrilled it is back, I have had several moments of panic but this year I think, if a little belatedly, it might be back bigger than ever with some very exciting new judges who I am looking forward to working alongside, plus there are some changes coming to it and we have a few extra surprises coming along the way. We are just currently looking at how to make it more interactive and such like so if you have any ideas then let me know.

Anyway, I thought I would pop by briefly and explain my absence and give you an update on one of the bookish projects I am really passionate about. Do pop and visit the website and find out more. Before normal service resumes later today… What have you all been up to over the last weekend/week, any news and the like?