Pullman wins Whitbread Award (was Nebula)

[davewitley]

i queen plus wrote:

>[Drieux on the Nebula]:
> > Interesting to note that Pullman made it for _The Amber Spyglass_ 
but Rowling didn't for any of hers.
> 
> Amy
> who, forced to take only one or the other to that mythical desert 
> island, would take The Amber Spyglass 
> 
A couple of days ago Pullman actually *won* the Whitbread Award 
(£25,000), which is for *all* types of fiction:

news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/arts/newsid_1777000/1777169.st
m

(or just go to news.bbc.co.uk and search on Pullman).

It's the first time the award has been won by a book which was 
entered in the children's category.

He made some interesting comments about childrens' fiction, notably 
that he's not happy with the idea of writing for a particular 
audience, and he implied (I heard him on the Today programme) that he 
thinks children are just as capable of grasping the big themes as 
adults, provided they are put in story form.

Interestingly the Whitbread seems to have gone through a similar 
phase to the NYT, marginalising children's literature, and has now 
pulled back from it.

If you think HP is children's literature, or is wrongly labelled as 
such, you can take encouragement from the adult acceptability of 
another book that is, or is so labelled; if you don't believe in 
categories, the Whitbread has implicitly blurred a few.

David