The winner of the Wales Book of the Year in English has been announced as Tom Bullough for his “modern classic” Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future (Granta), with the Welsh-language award going to Mari George for her novel, Sut i Ddofi Corryn (Sebra).
The winners were announced at a ceremony in Galeri Caernarfon by Literature Wales.
It was a double win for Bullough; he collected the prize for the best English-language creative non-fiction book, before returning to be crowned winner of the 2024 Wales Book of the Year Award. He takes home £4,000 prize money and a trophy by the artist Angharad Pearce Jones.
Sarn Helen, a non-fiction account of the author’s walk along the old Roman road that runs from Neath in the south to Caerhun on the north coast of Wales, and which also won the Waterstones Welsh Book of the Year in 2023, is illustrated by Jackie Morris.
Judge Dylan Moore said: “Despite the fierce competition from fabulous and fantastical fiction and dazzling verse, [Sarn Helen] stood out. It is the one that will stay with us longest. The depth of its explorations and stark facts, and the momentous import of its message, carries it beyond the prize and into the realm of a true modern classic.”
Each year, the Wales Book of the Year Award celebrates talented Welsh writers who excel in a variety of literary forms in both Welsh and English. There are four categories in both languages – poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction and children and young people. Each category winner takes home a prize of £1,000, with the overall award winner in each category earning a further £3,000 and claiming the title, Wales Book of the Year.
Artistic director of Literature Wales, Leusa Llewelyn said: “This year, Literature Wales marks 20 years of running this award which has given so many writers a platform, and of course thousands of pounds’ worth of prizes.
We’ve brought readers and writers together in Cardiff, Caernarfon, Merthyr Tydfil and Aberystwyth to celebrate and be celebrated. Meanwhile, our planet has seen rapid changes. Tom articulates beautifully in his foreword to Sarn Helen the importance of learning about and valuing our little pocket of land to make sense of the ’inconceivably vast’ threat to our planet. How fitting, that as the UK is today selecting who will govern from Westminster, that the book most worthy of this award in 2024 is one that perfectly illustrates the challenge facing the newly elected UK government.”
This year’s English-language panel were author, journalist, and chair of PEN Cymru, Dylan Moore; author, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and experienced mentor, Patrice Lawrence; novelist, playwright, and former Dylan Thomas Prize winner, Rachel Trezise; and poet, novelist, and former chair of the TS Eliot Prize, Pascale Petit.
This year’s Welsh-language panel includes producer, director, and writer, Nici Beech; actor, director and writer, Hanna Jarman; poet and WJEC senior Literature examiner Tudur Dylan Jones; and author and senior lecturer at Cardiff University’s School of Welsh, Rhiannon Marks.
George’s novel Sut i Ddofi Corryn follows Muriel and Ken, a married couple in their forties. When her husband is diagnosed with cancer, Muriel turns to an ancient text, Llyfr Corynnod y Mwmbwls (The Mumbles Book of Spiders), going to drastic lengths to find a cure.
