{"id":82163,"date":"2025-10-15T12:47:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T12:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/82163\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T12:47:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T12:47:16","slug":"isle-of-wight-book-awards-launch-literary-festival-with-prize-giving-lunch-in-cowes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/82163\/","title":{"rendered":"Isle of Wight Book Awards launch Literary Festival with prize-giving lunch in Cowes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Tuesday (7th October), the annual Isle of Wight Book Awards<\/a> opened the Island\u2019s Literary Festival<\/a> with a well-attended prize-giving lunch at the Island Sailing Club in Cowes.<\/p>\n

The 2025 Awards celebrated books published in 2024 that were either set on, or about the Isle of Wight. Authors from anywhere in the world could enter, as long as their work featured Isle of Wight content.<\/p>\n

Eligibility and opening remarks
Entries came from both professionally published and self-published authors, reflecting the Awards\u2019 long-standing inclusivity. Only printed books qualified, as e-books were not eligible.<\/p>\n

Guests enjoyed a three-course meal before the announcement of the winners. The event began with opening remarks from organiser Paul Armfield<\/a>, who reaffirmed that the Awards aim to raise the profile of Island writing. He also read a poem by the late poet Tony Harrison.<\/p>\n

\"Katie<\/a>Katie Daysh<\/p>\n

Awards founder Hunter Davies then gave a warm and humorous talk, which included a tribute to his close friend, the best-selling author Jilly Cooper, who had passed away the previous day.<\/p>\n

Judging panel and categories
The Awards featured three categories \u2013 Children\u2019s, Fiction and Non-Fiction \u2013 each with its own judge.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Allan, the bestselling children\u2019s author and illustrator, judged the Children\u2019s category.
Mark Eccleston, former BBC journalist and winner of the first Isle of Wight Book Award, judged Fiction.<\/p>\n

Lucinda Hawksley, award-winning author, art historian, broadcaster and great-great-great granddaughter of Charles Dickens, judged Non-Fiction.<\/p>\n

\"Book<\/a> Nicholas Allan, Mark Eccleston, Lucinda Hawksley, Julia Ross, Tracy Mikich, Jo Cooper, Katie Daysh, Magnus Weatley, Richard C. Long, Susanna Hoe<\/p>\n

Winners announced
The winners were:<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s<\/p>\n

There Will Be Blue Skies by Jo Cooper<\/p>\n

The Search for Donkey Paradise by David Goodday<\/p>\n

Chuffle by Tracy Mikich<\/a><\/p>\n

Fiction<\/p>\n

The Devil to Pay by Katie Daysh<\/p>\n

A Drowning Tide by Sarah Lawton<\/p>\n

The Laughing Robot by Julia Ross<\/p>\n

Non-Fiction<\/p>\n

There Is No Second by Magnus Wheatley<\/p>\n

The Isle of Wight: Women, History, Books and Places by Susanna Hoe<\/p>\n

Upgrading the Isle of Wight\u2019s Railway by Richard C. Long<\/p>\n

Book of the Year
The Devil to Pay by Katie Daysh<\/p>\n

Supporting Island charity
Continuing tradition, the event raised funds for a local charity. This year\u2019s chosen organisation was Sporting Opportunities IW<\/a>, an independent sports charity that provides training and competition for athletes with learning disabilities.<\/p>\n

Now accredited with Special Olympics Great Britain, the charity offers access to local, regional and national events across the country. Funds were raised through a raffle and sales of the judges\u2019 copies of the entered books.<\/p>\n

Prizes and sponsors
Each category winner received \u00a3200, with an additional \u00a3500 awarded to the overall winner.<\/p>\n

Sponsors of this year\u2019s event included David and Patsy Franks, Isle of Wight Festival<\/a>, Creative Island<\/a>, Medina Publishing and Monkton Arts<\/a>.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Tuesday (7th October), the annual Isle of Wight Book Awards opened the Island\u2019s Literary Festival with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[288,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-82163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}