Lucy Christopher has been announced as the winner of the 2010 Branford Boase Award for her debut novel Stolen.
Lucy and her editor, Imogen Cooper of Chicken House, collected their awards at a ceremony in London on 14 July.
Stolen is set in the Austrailian Outback and tells the story of 16-year-old Gemma, who is kidnapped while on holiday. Chair of the judges, Julia Eccleshare commented:
‘Stolen is a wonderfully accomplished first novel. Sure-footed and without a word wasted Lucy has created a fantastic sense of place. Intense, vivid and very cleverly told Stolen is a worthy winner’.
The Branford Boase Award was set up to reward the most promising new writers and their editors, as well as to reward excellence in writing and in publishing. The Award is made annually to the most promising book for seven year-olds and upwards by a first time novelist.
