Having been a shock omission from the Booker prize shortlist, The Stranger's Child author declared author of the year
Alan Hollinghurst. Photograph: Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images
He was overlooked by the Booker judges last month, but the book trade has spoken and named Alan Hollinghurst its "author of the year" for his novel The Stranger's Child.
An academy of 750 book industry experts voted for Hollinghurst as their writer of the year, ahead of Booker winner Julian Barnes and his short novel A Sense of An Ending and Carol Birch's Booker-shortlisted Jamrach's Menagerie. Hollinghurst, who failed to make the final Booker cut for his novel about two families, ranging from 1913 to 2008, also beat poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy's new collection The Bees.
His win was announced at the Galaxy National Book awards on Friday evening and reflects, said the prize's organisers, "the acclaim for Hollinghurst's novel and the support from many in the industry who were dismayed to see it omitted from the Man Booker shortlist last month".
"It's fantastic that he won. It would have been ridiculous if he had gone the year without winning a major award for that title, so it is wonderful he has been recognised," said Jon Howells from Waterstone's, which sponsored the author of the year prize. "Everyone was surprised and disappointed that he wasn't on the Booker shortlist … Everyone felt it was the one glaring omission so it is good he is getting this. It is the book trade saying, this is our book of the year."
Hollinghurst, who won the Booker in 2004 for The Line of Beauty, said that "in a year when so many exceptional books have been published" he was "especially thrilled to be named the Waterstone's UK Author of the Year".
As official figures reveal that sales of celebrity biographies have slumped this year, the awards also saw the book trade spurn celebrity non-fiction for the literary, choosing Claire Tomalin's life of Charles Dickens as its biography of the year, ahead of Keith Richards' bestselling memoir Life and Bear Grylls' autobiography of his adventures Mud Sweat and Tears. Food writer Simon Hopkinson, meanwhile, beat celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to win food and drink book of the year for The Good Cook.
Tomalin described herself as "completely thunderstruck" to win the award. "I thought Keith Richards would win – his book was popular and accessible, and although the Rolling Stones mean nothing to me I hardly know anybody who hasn't read his book," said the author, who has won a host of prizes for her biographies of Pepys and the actress Nelly Ternan. "At my age you don't expect to go on winning prizes, you expect them to go to younger people, so I am deeply delighted and moved to win."
Tomalin admitted that she had received "some stick for hurtling through" the life of Dickens. "I did want to do it at quite a good pace though – I didn't want it to be one of those enormous books you could only read if you cut into them with a bread knife," she said. "But writing about Dickens is terrifying: everyone knows about Dickens. [He] is one of our very great writers who is known all over the world, and a very complicated and extraordinary man. [This prize] is a lifetime achievement award for Dickens," she added.
The "inimitable" Jackie Collins won an outstanding achievement prize for a career which has seen her 28 glitzy, scandalous novels sell over 400m copies to date, while Times columnist Caitlin Moran won the popular non-fiction book of the year for her take on modern feminism, How to Be a Woman, beating physicist Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe. "Brian Cox may have the Wonders of the Universe to play with – but I had the contents of my bra and pants and, ultimately, they were obviously the more mysterious and awesome," Moran said.
The new writer of the year award went to Sarah Winman for her debut When God Was a Rabbit, while a debut novelist, SJ Watson, also triumphed in the crime and thriller of the year category, beating top names including Ian Rankin and Robert Harris with his amnesia thriller Before I Go to Sleep. Dawn French's first novel A Tiny Bit Marvellous, meanwhile, was voted popular fiction book of the year, seeing off Terry Pratchett's new hit Snuff.
Her Pulitzer-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad saw Jennifer Egan named international author of the year, while Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls, drawn from the late Siobhan Dowd's original idea, won the children's book of the year prize.
The Galaxy awards, which will be broadcast over six weeks on More4 from 13 November, are intended to reward titles "that boast both wide popular appeal and critical acclaim". From Saturday 5 November, the public will be able to vote online for their book of the year from the 11 category winners. This top award was won last year by David Nicholls's romantic novel One Day, which is now the biggest selling paperback of 2011.
The awards in full:
Waterstone's UK Author of the Year: The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst (Picador)
Outstanding Achievement award: Jackie Collins
Specsavers popular fiction book of the year: A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French (Penguin)
More4 popular non-fiction book of the year: How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (Ebury Press)
Crime and thriller of the year (available on iBookstore): Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson (Doubleday)
Daily Telegraph biography of the year: Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin (Viking)
International author of the year: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
Food and drink book of the year: The Good Cook by Simon Hopkinson (BBC Books)
WHSmith paperback of the year: Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador)
National Book Tokens children's book of the year: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Audible.co.uk audiobook of the year: My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young, read by Dan Stevens (HarperAudio)
Galaxy new writer of the year: When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman (Headline Review)
An academy of 750 book industry experts voted for Hollinghurst as their writer of the year, ahead of Booker winner Julian Barnes and his short novel A Sense of An Ending and Carol Birch's Booker-shortlisted Jamrach's Menagerie. Hollinghurst, who failed to make the final Booker cut for his novel about two families, ranging from 1913 to 2008, also beat poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy's new collection The Bees.
His win was announced at the Galaxy National Book awards on Friday evening and reflects, said the prize's organisers, "the acclaim for Hollinghurst's novel and the support from many in the industry who were dismayed to see it omitted from the Man Booker shortlist last month".
"It's fantastic that he won. It would have been ridiculous if he had gone the year without winning a major award for that title, so it is wonderful he has been recognised," said Jon Howells from Waterstone's, which sponsored the author of the year prize. "Everyone was surprised and disappointed that he wasn't on the Booker shortlist … Everyone felt it was the one glaring omission so it is good he is getting this. It is the book trade saying, this is our book of the year."
Hollinghurst, who won the Booker in 2004 for The Line of Beauty, said that "in a year when so many exceptional books have been published" he was "especially thrilled to be named the Waterstone's UK Author of the Year".
As official figures reveal that sales of celebrity biographies have slumped this year, the awards also saw the book trade spurn celebrity non-fiction for the literary, choosing Claire Tomalin's life of Charles Dickens as its biography of the year, ahead of Keith Richards' bestselling memoir Life and Bear Grylls' autobiography of his adventures Mud Sweat and Tears. Food writer Simon Hopkinson, meanwhile, beat celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to win food and drink book of the year for The Good Cook.
Tomalin described herself as "completely thunderstruck" to win the award. "I thought Keith Richards would win – his book was popular and accessible, and although the Rolling Stones mean nothing to me I hardly know anybody who hasn't read his book," said the author, who has won a host of prizes for her biographies of Pepys and the actress Nelly Ternan. "At my age you don't expect to go on winning prizes, you expect them to go to younger people, so I am deeply delighted and moved to win."
Tomalin admitted that she had received "some stick for hurtling through" the life of Dickens. "I did want to do it at quite a good pace though – I didn't want it to be one of those enormous books you could only read if you cut into them with a bread knife," she said. "But writing about Dickens is terrifying: everyone knows about Dickens. [He] is one of our very great writers who is known all over the world, and a very complicated and extraordinary man. [This prize] is a lifetime achievement award for Dickens," she added.
The "inimitable" Jackie Collins won an outstanding achievement prize for a career which has seen her 28 glitzy, scandalous novels sell over 400m copies to date, while Times columnist Caitlin Moran won the popular non-fiction book of the year for her take on modern feminism, How to Be a Woman, beating physicist Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe. "Brian Cox may have the Wonders of the Universe to play with – but I had the contents of my bra and pants and, ultimately, they were obviously the more mysterious and awesome," Moran said.
The new writer of the year award went to Sarah Winman for her debut When God Was a Rabbit, while a debut novelist, SJ Watson, also triumphed in the crime and thriller of the year category, beating top names including Ian Rankin and Robert Harris with his amnesia thriller Before I Go to Sleep. Dawn French's first novel A Tiny Bit Marvellous, meanwhile, was voted popular fiction book of the year, seeing off Terry Pratchett's new hit Snuff.
Her Pulitzer-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad saw Jennifer Egan named international author of the year, while Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls, drawn from the late Siobhan Dowd's original idea, won the children's book of the year prize.
The Galaxy awards, which will be broadcast over six weeks on More4 from 13 November, are intended to reward titles "that boast both wide popular appeal and critical acclaim". From Saturday 5 November, the public will be able to vote online for their book of the year from the 11 category winners. This top award was won last year by David Nicholls's romantic novel One Day, which is now the biggest selling paperback of 2011.
The awards in full:
Outstanding Achievement award: Jackie Collins
Specsavers popular fiction book of the year: A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French (Penguin)
More4 popular non-fiction book of the year: How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (Ebury Press)
Crime and thriller of the year (available on iBookstore): Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson (Doubleday)
Daily Telegraph biography of the year: Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin (Viking)
International author of the year: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
Food and drink book of the year: The Good Cook by Simon Hopkinson (BBC Books)
National Book Tokens children's book of the year: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Audible.co.uk audiobook of the year: My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young, read by Dan Stevens (HarperAudio)
Galaxy new writer of the year: When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman (Headline Review)
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