Desmond Elliott Prize

The Desmond Elliott Prize is an annual award for the best debut novel written in English and published in the UK. The winning novel can be from any genre of fiction and must exhibit depth and breadth with a compelling narrative. The winner receives £10,000. The prize is named in honour of the distinguished late publisher and literary agent, Desmond Elliott.

The Desmond Elliott Prize was inaugurated at the bequest of Desmond Elliott, who died in August 2003. He stipulated that his literary estate should be invested in a charitable trust that would fund a literary award "to enrich the careers of new writers". The prize is therefore dedicated to supporting and celebrating aspiring authors and their fiction.

The Desmond Elliott Prize was launched in 2007 as a biennial award for a first novel published in the UK. The inaugural prize was won by Nikita Lalwani for her novel, Gifted, in June 2008. After the successful launch of the prize, the trustees decided to make it an annual award.Edward Hogan won the prize in 2009 for his novel Blackmoor,Ali Shaw the 2010 prize for his novel The Girl with Glass Feet and Anjali Joseph in 2011 for her novel Saraswati Park.

The prize is administered by Emma Manderson and the trustees of The Desmond Elliott Charitable Trust, a UK charitable foundation. The Trust is chaired by Dallas Manderson, Group Sales Director of the Orion Publishing Group. He is joined by Christine Berry, a partner in the charities group at Taylor Vinters, a Cambridge-based law firm, and Liz Thomson, Editor of BookBrunch. Both Dallas and Christine worked with Desmond Elliott at Arlington Books.

The panel of three judges, which changes each year, is selected by the trustees of the prize.

When selecting a winner, the judges look for a novel with a compelling narrative, arresting character, and which is both vividly written and confidently realised.

Previous chairs of the prize include author Sam Llewellyn (2012), BBC broadcaster and presenter Edward Stourton (2011), and authors Elizabeth Buchan (2010), Candida Lycett Green (2009) and Penny Vincenzi (2008).

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