J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography
Encyclopedia
The J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography is awarded annually by the English Centre for International PEN
to given to a literary autobiography
of excellence, written by an author of British nationality and published during the preceding year. The winner receives £1,000 and a silver pen. The winner is announced on PEN Writers' Day in June. The award was established by Nancy West, née Ackerley, sister of English author and editor J. R. Ackerley
.
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
to given to a literary autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
of excellence, written by an author of British nationality and published during the preceding year. The winner receives £1,000 and a silver pen. The winner is announced on PEN Writers' Day in June. The award was established by Nancy West, née Ackerley, sister of English author and editor J. R. Ackerley
J. R. Ackerley
J. R. Ackerley was arts editor of The Listener, the weekly magazine of the BBC...
.
Past winners
- 1982: Edward BlishenEdward BlishenEdward Blishen was an English author. He is perhaps best known for three books: A Cack-Handed War , a story set in the backdrop of the Second World War, The God Beneath the Sea , a collaboration with Leon Garfield that won the Carnegie Medal and "Roaring Boys",an honest account of teaching in a...
, Shaky Relations - 1983: Joint winners:
- Kathleen DayusKathleen DayusKathleen Dayus was an English author from the West Midlands.Dayus was born in Hockley, Birmingham, 1–2 miles NW of the city centre...
, Her People - Ted WalkerTed WalkerEdward Joseph Walker was a prize-winning English poet, short story writer, travel writer, TV and radio dramatist and broadcaster.-Early life:...
, High Path
- Kathleen Dayus
- 1984: Richard CobbRichard CobbRichard Charles Cobb was a British historian. He became Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford, after an initially unconventional academic career in which he spent a dozen years working as an independent scholar in French archives. His work was recognised in France by the award of...
, Still Life - 1985: Angelica GarnettAngelica GarnettAngelica Vanessa Garnett is a British writer and painter.-Early life:She was the illegitimate daughter of the painters Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, sister of Virginia Woolf, and was a member of the Bloomsbury Group...
, Deceived with Kindness - 1986: Dan JacobsonDan JacobsonDan Jacobson is a novelist, short story writer, critic and essayist. He has lived in Great Britain for most of his adult life, and for many years held a professorship in the English Department at University College London...
, Time and Time Again - 1987: Diana AthillDiana AthillDiana Athill OBE is a British literary editor, novelist and memoirist who worked with some of the most important writers of the 20th century.-Life and writings:...
, After the Funeral - 1988: Anthony BurgessAnthony BurgessJohn Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
, Little Wilson and Big GodLittle Wilson and Big God, Being the First Part of the Confessions of Anthony BurgessLittle Wilson and Big God, volume I of Anthony Burgess's autobiography, was first published by Heinemann in 1986. It won the J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography.... - 1989: John HealyJohn Healy (Irish journalist)John Healy was an Irish journalist from Charlestown, County Mayo, who wrote for Western People and The Irish Times.-Career:...
, The Grass Arena - 1990: Germaine GreerGermaine GreerGermaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
, Daddy We Hardly Knew You - 1991: Paul Binding, St Martin's Ride
- 1992: John OsborneJohn OsborneJohn James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
, Almost a Gentleman - 1993: Barry HumphriesBarry HumphriesJohn Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
, More, Please - 1994: Blake MorrisonBlake MorrisonPhilip Blake Morrison is a British poet and author who has published in a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres. His greatest success came with the publication of his memoirs And When Did You Last See Your Father? which won the J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography. He has also written a...
, When Did You Last See Your Father? - 1995: Paul Vaughan, Something in Linoleum
- 1996: Eric LomaxEric LomaxEric Sutherland Lomax was a British Army officer who was sent to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in 1942. He is most famous for writing a book, The Railway Man , on his experience before, during, and after the war, which won the 1996 NCR Book Award and the J. R...
, The Railway Man - 1997: Tim LottTim LottTim Lott is a British author. After running his own magazine publishing business, he graduated from the London School of Economics in 1986....
, The Scent of Dried Roses - 1998: Katrin Fitzherbert, True to Both Myselves
- 1999: Margaret ForsterMargaret ForsterMargaret Forster is a British author. She was born in Carlisle, England, where she attended Carlisle and County High School for Girls , and then won an Open Scholarship to read modern history at Somerville College, Oxford, from where she graduated in 1960.After a short period as a teacher at...
, Precious Lives - 2000: Mark Frankland, Child of My Time
- 2001: Lorna SageLorna SageLorna Sage was a Welsh-born academic, as well as an award-winning literary critic and author, known widely for her contribution to the consideration of women's writing.-Biography:...
, Bad BloodBad Blood (Lorna Sage)Bad Blood is a 2000 work blending collective biography and memoir by the Welsh literary critic and novelist Lorna Sage.Set in post-war North Wales, it reflects on the dysfunctional generations of a family its problems, and their effect on Sage... - 2002: Michael Foss, Out of India: A Raj Childhood
- 2003: Jenny DiskiJenny Diski-External links:***...
, Stranger on a Train - 2004: Bryan MageeBryan MageeBryan Edgar Magee is a noted British broadcasting personality, politician, poet, and author, best known as a popularizer of philosophy.-Early life:...
, Clouds of Glory: A Hoxton Childhood - 2005: Jonathan Gathorne-HardyJonathan Gathorne-HardyJonathan Gathorne-Hardy is a British author, known for biographies, including one of Alfred Kinsey, and books of social history on the British nanny and public school system. For his autobiography, Half an Arch, he received the J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography in 2005...
, Half an Arch - 2006: Alan BennettAlan BennettAlan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
, Untold Stories - 2007: Brian ThompsonBrian ThompsonBrian Thompson is an American actor.Brian Thompson may also refer to:*Brian Thompson , reporter and anchorman for WNBC-TV*Brian Thomson , senior correspondent for SBS World News *Brian B. Thompson, British writer...
, Keeping Mum - 2008: Miranda SeymourMiranda SeymourMiranda Jane Seymour is an English literary critic, novelist, and biographer.Miranda Seymour was two years old when her parents moved into Thrumpton Hall, the family's ancestral home in Nottinghamshire. This celebrated Jacobean mansion is on the south bank of the River Trent at the secluded...
, In My Father's House - 2009: Julia BlackburnJulia BlackburnJulia Blackburn is a British author of both fiction and non-fiction. She is the daughter of poet Thomas Blackburn and artist Rosalie de Meric...
, The Three of Us - 2010: Gabriel WestonGabriel WestonGabriel Jessie Corfield Weston is an English surgeon and author. Her memoir entitled Direct Red: A Surgeon's Story was published in February 2009...
, Direct Red: A Surgeon's View of Her Life-or-Death Profession