John Llewellyn Rhys Prize

The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize was a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama) by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kingdom.^[1] Established in 1942, it was one of the oldest literary awards in the UK.^[2]

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
Awarded for	the best work of English-language literature published in the UK by an author from the British Commonwealth at the age of 35 or under
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	The Mail on Sunday (1987–2002) BookTrust (2003–2010)
First award	1942; 83 years ago (1942)
Final award	2010; 15 years ago (2010)
Website	http://www.booktrust.org.uk/prizes-and-awards/3

Since 2011, the award has been suspended by funding problems.^[3][4] The last award was in 2010.^[2]

History

The prize was initiated in 1942 by Jane Oliver in memory of her husband, John Llewellyn Rhys, a young author who was killed on 5 August 1940 while serving as a bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force.

From 1987 to 2003, the prize was funded by The Mail on Sunday. The newspaper withdrew in 2003, after the initial winner of 2002 prize, Hari Kunzru, rejected the prize and criticised the Mail of Sunday for "hostility towards black and Asian people"^[5] Subsequently, the prize was sponsored by BookTrust, an independent educational charity, but in June 2011 the award was suspended due to funding problems.^[2] Booktrust said that it "strongly" intended to bring the award "back with a bang as soon as possible" as it looked for outside funding sources.^[2]

In 2010, the winner received £5,000, while the runners-up each received £500.^[2]

Winners (1942–1999)

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners, 1942–1999^[6]

Year	Author	Title	ISBN (or OCLC)	Ref.
1942	Michael Richey	Sunk by a Mine
1943	Morwenna Donnelly	Beauty for Ashes	OCLC 10175035
1944	Alun Lewis	The Last Inspection	OCLC 1648392
1945	James Aldridge	The Sea Eagle	OCLC 1115675
1946	Oriel Malet	My Bird Sings	OCLC 1550666
1947	Anne-Marie Walters	Moondrop to Gascony	OCLC 458854780
1948	Richard Mason	The Wind Cannot Read	OCLC 2188096
1949	Emma Smith	Maidens' Trip	OCLC 771823005
1950	Kenneth Allsop	Adventure Lit Their Star	OCLC 77347740
1951	Elizabeth Jane Howard	The Beautiful Visit	OCLC 1637250
1952	No award
1953	Rachel Trickett	The Return Home	OCLC 21354135
1954	Tom Stacey	The Hostile Sun	OCLC 2451930
1955	John Wiles	The Moon to Play With	OCLC 1508671
1956	John Hearne	Voices Under the Window	OCLC 2175560
1957	Ruskin Bond	The Room on the Roof	OCLC 1579534
1958	V. S. Naipaul	The Mystic Masseur	OCLC 47838372	[7]
1959	Dan Jacobson	A Long Way from London	OCLC 1161266
1960	David Caute	At Fever Pitch	OCLC 753130422
1961	David Storey	Flight into Camden	OCLC 1816514
1962	Robert Rhodes James	An Introduction to the House of Commons	OCLC 1825470
	Edward Lucie-Smith	A Tropical Childhood and Other Poems	OCLC 2469981
1963	Peter Marshall	Two Lives	OCLC 1301629
1964	Nell Dunn	Up the Junction	OCLC 1675517
1965	Julian Mitchell	The White Father	OCLC 1246449	[7]
1966	Margaret Drabble	The Millstone	OCLC 1355165
1967	Anthony Masters	The Seahorse	OCLC 1018374
1968	Angela Carter	The Magic Toyshop	ISBN 978-0-860-68190-8	[7]
1969	Melvyn Bragg	Without a City Wall	ISBN 978-0-340-43102-3
1970	Angus Calder	The People's War	ISBN 978-0-712-65284-1
1971	Shiva Naipaul	Fireflies	ISBN 978-0-140-03150-8	[7]
1972	Susan Hill	The Albatross	ISBN 978-0-140-03649-7
1973	Peter Smalley	A Warm Gun	ISBN 978-0-233-96172-9
1974	Hugh Fleetwood	The Girl Who Passed for Normal	ISBN 978-0-812-87034-3
1975	David Hare	Knuckle	ISBN 978-0-571-04980-6	[7]
	Tim Jeal	Cushing's Crusade	ISBN 978-0-434-37209-6
1976	No award
1977	Richard Cork	Vorticism & Abstract Art in the First Machine Age	ISBN 978-0-900-40624-9
1978	A. N. Wilson	The Sweets of Pimlico	ISBN 978-0-140-06697-5	[7]
1979	Peter Boardman	The Shining Mountain	ISBN 978-0-099-20920-1
1980	Desmond Hogan	The Diamonds at the Bottom of the Sea	ISBN 978-0-241-10123-0
1981	A. N. Wilson	The Laird of Abbotsford	ISBN 978-0-192-11756-4	[7]
1982	William Boyd	An Ice-Cream War	ISBN 978-0-241-95356-3
1983	Lisa St Aubin de Terán	The Slow Train to Milan	ISBN 978-0-140-06954-9
1984	Andrew Motion	Dangerous Play	ISBN 978-0-140-07352-2	[7]
1985	John Milne	Out of the Blue	ISBN 978-0-241-11489-6
1986	Tim Parks	Loving Roger	ISBN 978-0-802-10016-0
1987	Jeanette Winterson	The Passion	ISBN 978-0-099-73441-3	[7]
1988	Matthew Yorke	The March Fence	ISBN 978-0-140-11636-6
1989	Claire Harman	Sylvia Townsend Warner	ISBN 978-0-701-12938-5
1990	Ray Monk	Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius	ISBN 978-0-099-88370-8	[7]
1991	A. L. Kennedy	Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains	ISBN 978-0-099-45006-1
1992	Matthew Kneale	Sweet Thames	ISBN 978-0-140-29663-1
1993	Jason Goodwin	On Foot to the Golden Horn: A Walk to Istanbul	ISBN 978-0-701-13668-0
1994	Jonathan Coe	What a Carve Up!	ISBN 978-0-141-03329-7	[7]
1995	Melanie McGrath	Motel Nirvana	ISBN 978-0-006-54715-0
1996	Nicola Barker	Heading Inland	ISBN 978-0-007-43571-5
1997	Phil Whitaker	Eclipse of the Sun	ISBN 978-0-753-80948-8
1998	Peter Ho Davies	The Ugliest House in the World	ISBN 978-0-395-78629-1
1999	David Mitchell	Ghostwritten	ISBN 978-0-340-73974-7

Winners and shortlists (since 2000)

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners and shortlists, 2000–2010

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
2000	Edward Platt	Leadville	Winner	[8]
	Julia Leigh	The Hunter	Finalist
	Roddy Lumsden	The Book of Love	Finalist
	Cole Moreton	Hungry for Home Leaving the Blaskets: A Journey from the Edge of Ireland	Finalist
	Ben Rice	Pobby and Dingan	Finalist
	Zadie Smith	White Teeth	Finalist
2001	Susanna Jones	The Earthquake Bird	Winner
	Esther Morgan	Beyond Calling Distance	Finalist
2002[a]	Mary Laven	Virgins of Venice	Winner	[9]
	Sonya Hartnett	Thursday's Child	Finalist	[9]
	Chloe Hooper	A Child's Book of True Crime	Finalist	[9]
	Mary Laven	Virgins of Venice	Finalist	[9]
	Kamila Shamsie	Kartography	Finalist	[9]
2003	Charlotte Mendelson	Daughters of Jerusalem	Winner	[10]
2004	Jonathan Trigell	Boy A	Winner	[11]
	Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie	Purple Hibiscus	Finalist	[12]
	Neil Bennun	The Broken String: The Last Words of an Extinct People	Finalist	[12]
	Anthony Cartwright	The Afterglow	Finalist	[12]
	Colin McAdam	Some Great Thing	Finalist	[12]
	Rory Stewart	The Places in Between	Finalist	[12]
2005	Uzodinma Iweala	Beasts of No Nation	Winner	[13]
	Rana Dasgupta	Tokyo Cancelled	Finalist	[14]
	Peter Hobbs	The Short Day Dying	Finalist	[14]
	Sinéad Morrissey	The State of the Prisons	Finalist	[14]
	Rebecca Ray	Newfoundland	Finalist	[14]
	Rachel Zadok	Gem Squash Tokoloshe	Finalist	[14]
2006/7	Sarah Hall	The Carhullan Army	Winner	[15][16][17]
	Ceridwen Dovey	Blood Kin	Finalist	[18]
	Joanna Kavenna	Inglorious	Finalist	[18]
	Robert Macfarlane	The Wild Places	Finalist	[18]
	Gwendoline Riley	Joshua Spassky	Finalist	[18]
	Rory Stewart	Occupational Hazards	Finalist	[18]
2008	Henry Hitchings	The Secret Life of Words	Winner	[19]
	Aravind Adiga	The White Tiger	Finalist	[19][20][21]
	Adam Foulds	The Broken Word	Finalist	[19][21]
	James Palmer	The Bloody White Baron	Finalist	[19][21]
	Ross Raisin	God's Own Country	Finalist	[19][20][21]
	Brian Schofield	Selling Your Father's Bones	Finalist	[19][20][21]
2009	Evie Wyld	After the Fire, a Still Small Voice	Winner	[22]
	Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie	The Thing Around Your Neck	Finalist	[23]
	Aravind Adiga	Between the Assassinations	Finalist	[23]
	Emma Jones	The Striped World	Finalist	[23]
	James Maskalyk	Six Months in Sudan	Finalist	[23]
	Tristram Stuart	Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal	Finalist	[23]
2010	Amy Sackville	The Still Point	Winner	[24][25][26][27]
	Cordelia Fine	Delusions of Gender	Finalist	[28]
	Susan Fletcher	Corrag	Finalist	[28]
	Kei Miller	A Light Song of Light	Finalist	[28]
	Nadifa Mohamed	Black Mamba Boy	Finalist	[28]
	Daniel Swift	Bomber County	Finalist	[28]

Notes

1. The 2002 prize was initially awarded to Hari Kunzru for his book The Impressionist on 20 November 2003, but the author decided to decline the award due to its sponsorship by The Mail on Sunday.

See also

• Literature portal

• List of British literary awards
• List of literary awards
• List of years in literature