Husband and wife cast as literary rivals
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Your support makes all the difference.The novelist and playwright Michael Frayn and the biographer Claire Tomalin have been shortlisted for this year's Whitbread Book of the Year, the first time a husband and wife have been pitted against one another for the prize.
The £35,000 Whitbread prize, now in its 31st year, is unique among literary awards in having novels, biographies, poetry and children's books competing against each other. Frayn is on the novel shortlist for his Second World War story Spies; Tomalin is on the biography shortlist for Samuel Pepys: the Unequalled Self.
Both the novel and first novel shortlists are all-male. The Story of Lucy Gault, a Booker prize nominee, by William Trevor is on the shortlist for best novel alongside Rumours of a Hurricane by Tim Lott and White Lightning by Justin Cartwright. Trevor is a past winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year, while Lott is a previous first novel winner and Cartwright is a past winner in the best novel category.
Women authors dominate in the biography award. Tomalin's life of Pepys is competing against studies of the spy Anthony Blunt, the Mrs Miniver author Jan Struther and Rosalind Franklin, the scientist said to have played a main role in the discovery of DNA.
Overall, this year's Whitbread prize attracted a record number of 447 entries, with the highest number so far of entries, 101, in the biography category, indicating the current resurgence in the genre.
Category winners will be announced on 8 January and each will receive £5,000. The five finalists then compete for the overall prize, worth a further £25,000, which will be announced at a ceremony in London on 28 January.
The judges for the awards include the authors Joanna Trollope and Michael Dobbs, the poet Wendy Cope, and the GQ editor Dylan Jones. Two schoolchildren have joined the CBBC presenter Lizo Mzimba on the judging panel for the children's book award.
The Whitbread Shortlist
Novel Award
White Lightning Justin Cartwright
Spies Michael Frayn
Rumours Of A Hurricane Tim Lott
The Story Of Lucy Gault William Trevor
First Novel Award
The End Of My Tether Neil Astley
Homage To A Firing Squad Tariq Goddard
The Impressionist Hari Kunzru
The Song Of Names Norman Lebrecht
Poetry Award
Something For The Ghosts David Constantine
The Ice Age Paul Farley
Voodoo Shop Ruth Padel
The Beautiful Lie Sheenagh Pugh
Biography Award
Anthony Blunt: His Lives Miranda Carter
Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady Of DNA Brenda Maddox
The Real Mrs Miniver Ysenda Maxtone Graham
Pepys: The Unequalled Self Claire Tomalin
Children's Book Award
Exodus Julie Bertagna
Saffy's Angel Hilary McKay
Sorceress Celia Rees
Mortal Engines Philip Reeve
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