Top book prize nominees announced

3:06pm Friday 4th July 2008

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THE Long List of contenders for this year’s Lakeland Book of the Year Prize has been announced, with the cream of Cumbria’s literary talent vying for the top honour.

Renowned authors Bill Birkett and Martin Edwards are included in the list of 26 entries, which is being whittled down to a final 15 by the competition’s lead judge, the celebrity biographer Hunter Davies.

Mr Davies runs the annual awards in partnership with Cumbria Tourism and 2008 marks the 24th year of competition.

Following last year’s success of US author Linda Lear with her acclaimed Beatrix Potter biography, A Life In Nature, entries from far and wide have again been flooding in.

Novels on the list include 104 Men, Amanda M Garraway’s moving story of the 1947 William Pit explosion in Whitehaven, and Martin Edwards’s latest crime novel, The Arsenic Labyrinth, his third mystery to be set in the Lake District.

History, heritage and the region’s natural beauty also feature strongly, with the fascinating book Between The Tides by Cedric Robinson, the official Queen’s Guide to the Sands likely to be a strong contender.

Other books on the long list include Bill Birkett’s Scafell: Portrait of a Mountain, Jennifer Forsyth’s Cartmel Fell: A Patchwork History, Roger Bingham’s Memories of Heversham and John and Gilly Hodkinson’s A Coniston Notebook.

The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Langdale Chase Hotel, Windermere, on July 8.