HomeArts & LifestyleJessie Burton leads Specsavers Book Award winners

Jessie Burton leads Specsavers Book Award winners

Jessie Burton has been named as the winner of the Specsavers Book of the Year for 2014 for her literary thriller The Miniaturist.

Burton beat off stiff competition in the shape of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, Us by David Nicholls and Nathan Filer’s The Shock of the Fall.

Set in seventeenth century Amsterdam, The Miniaturist swiftly rose to fame this year as a favourite amongst readers and booksellers alike. In a year of exceptionally strong debut titles, it quickly became the best-selling literary debut hardback of the decade. Fittingly, Jesse Burton won the New Writer of the Year prize at the Specsavers National Book Awards 2014 qualifying for the Specsavers Book of the Year public vote.

Jessie Burton said, “I am indebted forever to the voting public for this incredible honour. It is no exaggeration to say this has been a life-transforming year for me, and this award is a very big cherry on the cake. There are always stories to write, and people who want to read them, and as the year closes, I find this very heartening news indeed. This wonderful acknowledgement will propel me into 2015, and I am deeply thankful to everyone who took the time to vote.”

Dame Mary Perkins, Specsavers founder, said, “Congratulations to Jessie Burton. It’s wonderful to see the Specsavers Book of the Year go to a new talent and we look forward to see what’s next from this very talented author.”

The full list of winners is:

Outstanding Achievement
Mary Berry CBE

Crime/Thriller Book of the Year
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (Transworld)

Magic FM Autobiography/Biography of the Year
Please, Mister Postman by Alan Johnson (Transworld)

Food & Drink Book of the Year
Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Publishing)

Children’s Book of the Year
Awful Auntie by David Walliams (HarperCollins)

Audible.co.uk Audiobook of the Year
Awful Auntie by David Walliams (HarperCollins)

International Author of the Year
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler (Profile Books)

Books Are My Bag New Writer of the Year
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (Pan Macmillan)

Specsavers Popular Fiction Book of the Year
The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer (HarperCollins)

Non-fiction Book of the Year
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe (Penguin Books)

UK Author of the Year
Us by David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)

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Pip Ellwood-Hughes Editor / Owner
Pip is the owner and Editor of Entertainment Focus, and the Managing Director of Piñata Media.

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