Alan Johnson, Margaret Hodge, Melvyn Bragg and John Bew Win at Parliamentary Book Awards
Parliamentarians’ Political Books of the Year Unveiled
London. 6 December 2016: Alan Johnson, Margaret Hodge, Melvyn Bragg and John Bew have been announced as the winners of the inaugural Parliamentary Book Awards, as voted for by MPs and members of the House of Lords.
Alan Johnson won Best Memoir by a Parliamentarian for his multi-award-winning autobiography The Long and Winding Road (Transworld), charting his journey from the slums of West London to Westminster.
Margaret Hodge was awarded Best Non-Fiction by a Parliamentarian for Called to Account: How Corporate Bad Behaviour and Government Waste Combine to Cost us Millions (Little, Brown), reflecting on her time as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee from 2010-2015, tasked with scrutinising the use of public money and holding the government to account for this use.
Melvyn Bragg took home Best Fiction by a Parliamentarian for Now is the Time (Sceptre), bringing the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 to life.
John Bew won Best Political Book by a Non-Parliamentarian for Citizen Clem (Quercus), his biography of Clement Attlee, who became Labour’s unlikely post-war hero.
The Rt Hon Gisela Stuart MP, editor of the House magazine and a former bookseller, presided over the ceremony at the House of Commons. The winners were presented with their awards by The Times’s Red Box Editor, Matt Chorley.
Launched by the Booksellers Association and the Publishers Association, the Awards celebrate political writing by parliamentarians across Memoir, Non-Fiction and Fiction, and Best Political Book by a Non-Parliamentarian. The shortlist was voted for by UK bookshops, with parliamentarians voting on the winner in each category.
Stephen Lotinga, Chief Executive of The Publishers Association, said: “The winners of tonight’s awards showcase the writing talents that exist in politics, and demonstrate the close connection between publishing and the political world. All four writers were for the first time voted on by parliamentarians themselves, who better to determine the best of the best in political writing?”
Tim Godfray, Chief Executive of the Booksellers Association, added: “Tonight’s winners represent the very pinnacle of political writing, curated by booksellers and voted for by MPs and Peers. Now is a moment to reflect on the sheer quality of writing in evidence, and I am sure that on a hugely enjoyable evening, the importance of books and bookshops on the high street has been illustrated yet again, and I hope, will be to a wider audience this Christmas.”
The winners saw off competition from a strong shortlist that included Ken Clark’s Kind of Blue, Jeffrey Archer’s Cometh the Hour, Jeremy Paxman’s A Life in Questions and Yanis Varoufakis’ And the Weak Suffer What They Must?
Notes to Editors
About the Parliamentary Book Awards
Winning titles must have been published in the UK in hardback or paperback between 1 January 2015 and 31 October 2016. Books by Parliamentarians have been written by a current or former MP, Member of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly or Northern Irish Legislative Assembly, MEP or Member of the House of Lords. Political Works by non-Parliamentarians relate to UK or EU parliamentary politics or politicians.
The Parliamentary Book Awards Winners:
Best Memoir by a Parliamentarian
- The Long and Winding Road by Alan Johnson
Best Non-Fiction by a Parliamentarian
- Called to Account by Margaret Hodge
Best Fiction by a Parliamentarian
- Now is the Time by Melvyn Bragg
Best Political Book by a non-Parliamentarian
- Citizen Clem by John Bew
Titles shortlisted for the Parliamentary Book Awards were:
Best Memoir by a Parliamentarian
- Hinterland: A Memoir by Chris Mullin
- Kind of Blue by Ken Clarke
- The Long and Winding Road by Alan Johnson
Best Non-Fiction by a Parliamentarian
- Called to Account by Margaret Hodge
- Game of Spies by Paddy Ashdown
- The Silent Deep: Royal Navy Submarine Service Since 1945 by Peter Hennessy & James Jinks
Best Fiction by a Parliamentarian
- The Angel of Lovely Lane by Nadine Dorries
- Cometh the Hour by Jeffrey Archer
- Now is the Time by Melvyn Bragg
Best Political Book by a non-Parliamentarian
- A Life in Questions by Jeremy Paxman
- And the Weak Suffer What They Must? by Yanis Varoufakis
- Citizen Clem by John Bew
About The Booksellers Association (BA)
The Booksellers Association is a membership organization for all booksellers in the UK & Ireland, and we represent over 95% of specialist booksellers selling new books. The BA exists to support, advise and work with its members to create excellent products for booksellers. These range from National Book Tokens, our gift card which prompts increased footfall and keeps gift spending in the book trade, and Batch, our award-winning payments service, which saves time, money and hassle when settling invoices and organising returns, to a full range of money-saving affinity deals, a free Business Support Helpline and a whole range of tailored events, marketing and promotional campaign work, including IndieBound, World Book Day, the Christmas Books catalogue and Independent Booksellers Week.
About the Publishers Association
The Publishers Association is the trade association serving book, journal, audio and electronic publishers in the UK. Members represent the UK publishing industry including global companies such as Elsevier, Wiley, Pearson, Penguin Random House, Hachette and the University presses, as well as many independent publishing houses. www.publishers.org.uk.