Julia Blackburn wins PEN/Ackerley Prize



The PEN/Ackerley Prize for literary biography has gone to Julia Blackburn for The Three of Us (Vintage).


Blackburn's memoir is about her relationship with her father, an alcoholic, and with her mother, who became her sexual rival.
Telegraph photo left shows Julia Blackburn with her father, the poet Thomas Blackburn, at their home in south London, 1958. The photo was taken in his study as part of a series done by a professional photographer for a book jacket .
For the Telegraph review published in April link here.

Other titles shortlisted:
Nothing To Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes (Vintage); My Judy Garland Life by Susie Boyt (Virago); Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes by Ferdinand Mount (Bloomsbury); and The Boy with the Topknot (hb title If You Don’t Know Me by Now): A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton by Sathnam Sanghera (Penguin).