Saying goodbye to the Guardian first book award

After 17 years of hunting the best new writing, of terrific winners and terrific rows, we’re saying goodbye to the prize. It will leave lots of great memories – please share yours

All the winners of the Guardian first book award, year by year

It was conceived in the ashes of the old millennium as a prize that would celebrate new voices, challenge old genre boundaries and capitalise on the wisdom of crowds.

The scale of the challenge we had set ourselves back in 1999 became immediately clear when the wisdom of the reading groups based at bookshops around the country, whose votes helped shape the shortlist, clashed with that of the celebrity judging panel over who should be the first winner. The groups united behind David Mitchell’s novel Ghostwritten, while the individual judges ruled in favour of Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed with our Families.

Related: Guardian first book award: all the winners

“Are you a musician?”

“I play a bit in the garage with my brother.”

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