Ruth Hadden Memorial Award Explained

The Ruth Hadden Memorial Award is a former award for the best first novel published in Britain, which was administered by the Booktrust. It was awarded in the early 1990s and has now been discontinued.^[1]

The award was unusual in that the prize was awarded to a completed manuscript before acceptance by a publisher, and the prize money (in 1994, £2000) went to the publishers of the novel to spend on promoting it.^{[2] [3] [4]}

Winners

• 1991: The Last Room, by Elean Thomas^[5]
• 1992: Leaving the Light On, by Catherine Merriman^[6]
• 1993: In the Place of Fallen Leaves, by Tim Pears
• 1994: Pig, by Andrew Cowan

Notes and References

1. http://www.booktrustdev.org.uk/info/prizes/prize/152 Ruth Hadden Memorial Award
2. [Andrew Motion]
3. Louisa Young (28 August 1994). Love thy neighbour; Books. The Sunday Times, p. 8
4. David Robson (8 November 1992). Politics, prickles and perversity. David Robson considers a political Julian Barnes and other new fiction. The Sunday Telegraph, p. 80
5. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jul/31/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries Johnson, Buzz. Elean Thomas: Writer with a message of human rights. The Guardian (31 July 2004)
6. http://www.academi.org/members-committee/ Academi: Members Committee