Winner of the 2010 Book Drum Tournament


Victoria Hooper             The Odyssey

Victoria Hooper - The Odyssey

The judges said: "The Odyssey has been brought to life for modern readers in a wonderfully detailed and beautifully illustrated profile that reveals a deep knowledge and love of the work, and clearly establishes its importance and relevance today."

Prize: £1,000

The Fall of Troy Orestes kills Aegisthus, Apulian red-figure oinochoe (wine jug), ca.430-300 BCThe Olympian gods, by Monsiau (1754 - 1837)Eos, goddess of the dawnA map of Homeric Greece showing the locations of Sparta, Pylos, Troy and Ithaca

 

Second Prize


Christopher Brocklebank             Good Morning, Midnight

Christopher Brocklebank - Good Morning, Midnight

The judges said: "This is a passionate and highly intelligent profile that is absolutely true to the spirit of an emotionally complex, introspective novel.  It will undoubtedly bring many new readers to a long-neglected classic."

Prize: £500

 Anatole France at Emile Zola's Funeral, 1902Advert, 1930sExposition posterVogue cover, mid-1930sCafe terrace, Montparnasse 1930s

 

Runner-Up Prizes

 

Don Quixote        In Search of Lost Time (Vol I): Swann's Way        Cloud Atlas        Something Wicked This Way Comes        Speak, Memory

Tim Kelleher             Johanna Trew              Geoffrey Mills              David Loftus             Malika Browne

The judges wished to make special mention of Tim Kelleher's remarkable achievement in capturing the essence of the epic, challenging masterpiece that is Don Quixote.

Prize: £100 each

Our sincere thanks to the judges: 

Kate Williams
A renowned historian, Kate has written biographies of Queen Victoria, Becoming Queen (Hutchinson 2008) and Emma Hamilton, England's Mistress(Hutchinson 2006). Kate regularly appears on radio and TV, and writes for The Telegraph and The Independent. England’s Mistress is currently being d eveloped both as a movie and as a stage musical.

Sam Mills
Under various names, Sam has published eight novels, but she is best known for her edgy and thought-provoking Young Adult books: Blackout (Faber 2010), The Boys Who Saved the World (Faber 2007), and A Nicer Way to Die (Faber, 2006). The Boys who Saved the World, which tells the story of  a group of teenagers driven by their new cultish religion to kidnap a “terrorist” girl, is being developed as a movie.

Matthew Plampin
With a PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art, Matthew has always taken a strongly research-driven approach to his beautifully detailed historical novels.  The Street Philosopher (HarperCollins 2009) tells the story of a young journalist sent to cover the Crimean War in all its vivid brutality, while The Gun-Maker's Gift (HarperCollins 2010) is a tense novel of intrigue set in the new London pistol factory of Colonel Samuel Colt.

Tournament Terms 

Titles Entered