Manchester Book Awards
16 March 2008
What a party! This has to be the one to beat. You've never seen, felt, heard, so
much enthusiasm - a riotous roar for books. This was great. I loved every minute of it. Thank you Manchester for such an excellent time. It was a marvellous event with schoolchildren taking part at all levels. You read and you picked your winner (Sophie McKenzie) but as far as I'm concerned there were no losers - you made all of the final six authors feel as though we had all won. And the authors got on like old friends meeting at a party. Here's poet Mike Garry starting the proceedings.
The compere, Paul Sleem, was 100% High Octane, and everyone loved him - me too! He high -revved the pace the whole time.
And even the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Glynn Evans, (and his bling) didn't escape Paul's wicked humour.
Every author had one of their readers give a review of their book and another create a new cover design. My winners were Idiris for the Best Review and Sohail for Best Cover, not only that but out of the six 'Best' covers, Sarah also got Runner Up for another cover of The Devil's Breath.Here's everyone on stage at the end of the awards. Sophie, Graham, Ally,Catherine, Kevin and moi, with the winners of the various school categories.
And finally, much scribbling.
Check out the whole gig at www.manchesterbookaward.com
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