2009 Daggers
Overview
International
Steel
John Creasey
Library
Short Story
Debut
Daggers forum
Rules
Overview
International
Steel
John Creasey
Library
Short Story
Debut
Daggers forum
Rules
“I would like to dedicate this award to the memory of Harry Patch and the generation he came to represent.”
London, Wednesday, 21st October, 2009: WILLIAM BRODRICK has won the 2009 CWA Gold Dagger and a cheque for £2500. He was presented with his award at The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2009, a prestigious event hosted by comedian Alan Davies at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, which will be televised on ITV3 on Tuesday, 27th October at 9pm.
The CWA Dagger Awards are the longest established literary awards in the UK and are internationally recognised as a mark of excellence and achievement. The Gold Dagger is the year’s top award, for the best crime novel by an author of any nationality, as long as the book, originally written in English, was first published in the UK between June 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009. William Brodrick now joins a long and illustrious line stretching back to 1955 and The Little Walls by Winston Graham, now best known as the author of the Poldark novels.
The judges described A Whispered Name as ‘A moving novel that stretches the parameters of the crime genre, intertwining past and present and throwing light on a neglected aspect of World War One.’ In accepting his award, William Brodrick said: “I find myself in the hinterland of speechlessness... I would like to dedicate this award to the memory of Harry Patch and the generation he came to represent.”William Brodrick grew up in Britain, Australia and Canada, receiving various forms of Catholic education. On leaving school he became an Augustinian Friar. After completing his novitiate in Ireland, Brodrick was sent to a parish-based community in London while attending Heythrop College, where he took degrees in philosophy and theology. He subsequently left the Order and worked with the homeless, helping to set up a charity, the Depaul Trust.
He then studied law and began practise as a barrister, specialising in personal injury. Of his career at the bar, he says, ‘It was everything that I liked; courteous argument, independence of thought and a civilised environment’.
See William Brodrick talk about A Whispered Name on the Whole Story Audio Books website.
He lives with his wife and young children in France.
The other shortlisted books (described in more detail on the shortlist page) were:
Kate Atkinson: When Will There Be Good News? (Black Swan/Transworld)
Mark Billingham: In the Dark (Little, Brown)
Lawrence Block: Hit and Run (Orion)
MR Hall: The Coroner (Pan Macmillan)
Gene Kerrigan: Dark Times In The City (Harvill Secker)
Judges’ comments: ‘A moving novel that stretches the parameters of the crime genre, intertwining past and present and throwing light on a neglected aspect of World War One.’
Synopsis: When Father Anselm meets Kate Seymour in the cemetery at Larkwood, he is dismayed to hear her allegation. Herbert Moore had been one of the founding fathers of the Priory, revered by all who met him, a man who'd shaped Anselm's own vocation. The idea that someone could look on his grave and speak of a lie is inconceivable. But Anselm soon learns that Herbert did indeed have secrets in his past that he kept hidden all his life. In 1917, during the terrible slaughter of the Passchendaele campaign, a soldier faced a court martial for desertion. Herbert, charged with a responsibility that would change the course of his life, sat upon the panel that judged him. In coming to understand the court martial, Anselm discovers its true significance: a secret victory that transformed the young Captain Moore and shone a light upon the horror of war.
Dr Ann Ferguson is a retired consultant anaesthetist, with a longstanding fascination for crime writing. Since retiring, she has worked as a medical historian, with a particular interest in curare and arrow poisons.
Barry Forshaw’s books include British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia, The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction and Italian Cinema. He has written for the Independent, the Express and The Times, and edits Crime Time.
Margaret Kinsman is a London-based academic with teaching and research interests in women's writing and crime and mystery fiction. She is Executive Editor of the scholarly publication CLUES: A Journal of Detection.
Heather O'Donoghue is Reader in Old Norse literature at Linacre College, University of Oxford. She regularly reviews crime fiction for the Times Literary Supplement, and is an avid reader of crime writing of all kinds.
Steve Pound worked on the London buses, as a seaman and for ten years as a hospital porter. A mature graduate of the London School of Economics and the Labour MP for Ealing North since 1997 Steve takes a keen interest in criminality and its literary depiction.
David Wilkerson is Commercial Manager for Publishing and Retail at the British Library. Formerly a manager for both Heffers of Cambridge and Ottakar's Bookstores, he lives in the Cambridgeshire Fens.
Richard Reynolds (Chair) is the organiser of regular events for readers of crime fiction at Heffers in Cambridge, including the annual Bodies in the Bookshop, and is an expert in crime fiction.
Books eligible for this prize are thrillers, suspense novels and spy fiction by an author of any nationality, as long as the book, originally written in English, was first published in the UK between June 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009. (Books translated into English are eligible for the International Dagger.)