Waverton Good Read

So it seems DRY SEASON has been nominated for a 'Waverton Good Read Award'. It's always nice to be nominated for something . . . well . . . anything . . . so I did a litle searching on Google and found some more information. The award was founded in 2003 and is aimed at stimulating reading and encouraging British Writers – only debut novels published within the year of the award are eligible – and it is judged by readers in the village of Waverton, Cheshire. Apparently the award is based on Le Prix de la Cadière d'Azur, a literary prize awarded by a village in Provencal, which the founders of the Waverton Good Read Award have tried to replicate. There have been six previous winners including 's 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time', Paul Torday's 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen', and Tom Rob Smith's 'Child 44'.

I can't be sure that there aren't other awards like it, but I haven't heard of any; the award isn't voted for by a panel of literary judges, but by the readers themselves. And the manner in which it is done has a lovely feel to it – a number of dedicated readers read the debut novels submitted by publishers, scoring them and whittling them down to a shortlist of 5 books which are then distributed around the village for everyone to read. Then ballot papers are sent out, votes are cast and collected and the winner is announced. Isn't that great?

Anyway, after my research, I received an unexpected email inviting me to Waverton to talk about DRY SEASON. Naturally I accepted and I'll be visiting the village on 10th January next year.

It's always nice to be asked to talk about your book rather than have to press it on people!