Desmond Elliott Prize

The Desmond Elliott Prize was an annual award for the best debut novel written in English and published in the UK.^[1] The winning novel could be from any genre of fiction and had to exhibit depth and breadth with a compelling narrative.^[2] The winner received £10,000. The prize was named in honour of the distinguished late publisher and literary agent, Desmond Elliott.^[3]

The Desmond Elliott Prize was inaugurated at the bequest of Desmond Elliott, who died in August 2003. He stipulated that his literary estate should be invested in a charitable trust that would fund a literary award "to enrich the careers of new writers".^[4] The prize was therefore dedicated to supporting and celebrating aspiring authors and their fiction.^[5]

The Desmond Elliott Prize was launched in 2007 as a biennial award for a first novel published in the UK. The inaugural prize was won by Nikita Lalwani for her novel, Gifted, in June 2008.^[6] After the successful launch of the prize, the trustees decided to make it an annual award.^[7] Edward Hogan won the prize in 2009 for his novel Blackmoor,^[8] Ali Shaw the 2010 prize for his novel The Girl with Glass Feet^[9] and Anjali Joseph in 2011 for her novel Saraswati Park.^[10]

The prize is administered by Emma Manderson and the trustees of The Desmond Elliott Charitable Trust, a UK charitable foundation.^[11] The Trust is chaired by Dallas Manderson, former Group Sales Director of the Orion Publishing Group. He is joined by Christine Berry, a partner in the charities group at Taylor Vinters, a Cambridge-based law firm, and Liz Thomson, an arts journalist and author. Both Dallas and Christine worked with Desmond Elliott at Arlington Books.^[12]

The panel of three judges, which changed each year, was selected by the trustees of the prize.

When selecting a winner, the judges looked for a novel with a compelling narrative, arresting character, and which was both vividly written and confidently realised.^[13]

Previous chairs of the prize include author Sam Llewellyn (2012), BBC broadcaster and presenter Edward Stourton (2011), and authors Elizabeth Buchan (2010), Candida Lycett Green (2009) and Penny Vincenzi (2008).

The prize was awarded annually for the best first full-length work of fiction written in English published in book form in the UK, written by an author whose permanent place of residence was in the UK or Ireland. Entries were considered from all fiction genres.

The prize was selected from a longlist of 10 titles, followed by a shortlist of three outstanding books. For inclusion in this shortlist, a novel had to have the full support of at least one judge in whose opinion it is a valid contender for the Prize. Each shortlisted author received a hamper from Fortnum & Mason.

The winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize was announced at an awards ceremony held at Fortnum & Mason, Desmond Elliott's local grocer.^[14]

On 14 December 2019, the Desmond Elliott Charitable Trust was wound up, and its remaining funds were transferred to the National Centre for Writing.^[15] The Centre administered the Prize in the same way as previously, with awards made in 2020, 2021, and 2022. However, difficulties in finding sponsors for the Prize led to it being put on hold in 2022 until funding was available.^[16] In its place, the Centre launched residencies for three debut fiction writers in 2023.^[17]

The Desmond Elliott residencies allowed the selected authors to spend a fully-funded week at the Centre's residential cottage for visiting writers at Dragon Hall, Norwich. The selected authors, all of whom had published their first novel between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023, were Santanu Bhattacharya, Carole Hailey, and Csilla Toldy. No further residencies have been annouced since 2023.^[18] However, the Centre still promotes the Desmond Elliott Prize on its website as one of three Early Career Awards, alongside the UEA New Forms Award and the Laura Kinsella Fellowship.^[19]