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| The Essex Serpent beats Harry Potter to win Waterstones book of the year The Essex Serpent beats Harry Potter to win Waterstones book of the year | |
| (about 7 hours later) | |
| A book born from sudden inspiration on a journey, akin to the grand plan for a story about wizards that first seized JK Rowling on a train to London, has beaten the Harry Potter author to win the lucrative Waterstones book of the year. The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry’s acclaimed gothic tale of a mythological beast terrorising a Victorian community, beat Rowling’s script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and was the “overwhelming choice” of the chain’s booksellers. | A book born from sudden inspiration on a journey, akin to the grand plan for a story about wizards that first seized JK Rowling on a train to London, has beaten the Harry Potter author to win the lucrative Waterstones book of the year. The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry’s acclaimed gothic tale of a mythological beast terrorising a Victorian community, beat Rowling’s script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and was the “overwhelming choice” of the chain’s booksellers. |
| A novel of passion, ideas and friendship, Perry’s novel saw off an eclectic shortlist that also included Christopher de Hamel’s Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts, Emma Jane Kirby’s The Optician of Lampedusa and Beatrix Potter’s newly discovered The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, illustrated by Quentin Blake. | A novel of passion, ideas and friendship, Perry’s novel saw off an eclectic shortlist that also included Christopher de Hamel’s Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts, Emma Jane Kirby’s The Optician of Lampedusa and Beatrix Potter’s newly discovered The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, illustrated by Quentin Blake. |
| Announcing the prize, Waterstones managing director James Daunt said: “The Essex Serpent blazed as the overwhelming choice by our booksellers to be their book of the year. A novel of rare intelligence and utterly compelling to read, it takes complete possession of the reader.” | Announcing the prize, Waterstones managing director James Daunt said: “The Essex Serpent blazed as the overwhelming choice by our booksellers to be their book of the year. A novel of rare intelligence and utterly compelling to read, it takes complete possession of the reader.” |
| Daunt headed a panel that chose the winner from a shortlist nominated by booksellers. Waterstones will be heavily promoting the winning title in the run-up to Christmas. Last year’s winner, The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith saw an increase in sales of more than 5,000% across the chain to make it one of the bestselling books of 2015. | Daunt headed a panel that chose the winner from a shortlist nominated by booksellers. Waterstones will be heavily promoting the winning title in the run-up to Christmas. Last year’s winner, The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith saw an increase in sales of more than 5,000% across the chain to make it one of the bestselling books of 2015. |
| Until now, prizes have eluded Perry’s bestselling second novel, which is shortlisted with three others for the Costa novel award, to be be announced in January. It has been described as a masterclass of gothic prose and Perry has been hailed as the lost love child of Dickens and Bram Stoker. Perry has laughed off the description, although she acknowledged the influence of 19th-century gothic authors on her work. “I like the genre because it is a place where the most concealed parts of the human heart can find expression,” she said. | Until now, prizes have eluded Perry’s bestselling second novel, which is shortlisted with three others for the Costa novel award, to be be announced in January. It has been described as a masterclass of gothic prose and Perry has been hailed as the lost love child of Dickens and Bram Stoker. Perry has laughed off the description, although she acknowledged the influence of 19th-century gothic authors on her work. “I like the genre because it is a place where the most concealed parts of the human heart can find expression,” she said. |
| In The Essex Serpent, widow Cora Seaborne moves with her autistic son to Colchester, where she hears that a mythological creature – once said to roam the local estuary – has returned and is attacking locals. A scientific rationalist, Cora sets out to discover the truth and meets local vicar William Ransome, who is convinced the stories are the result of moral panic. What follows is a page-turning tour de force of ideas. | In The Essex Serpent, widow Cora Seaborne moves with her autistic son to Colchester, where she hears that a mythological creature – once said to roam the local estuary – has returned and is attacking locals. A scientific rationalist, Cora sets out to discover the truth and meets local vicar William Ransome, who is convinced the stories are the result of moral panic. What follows is a page-turning tour de force of ideas. |
| Perry said that the plot for the novel “walked into her imagination” fully formed as she passed the village of Henham, the real-life model for Aldwinter and home of the legend at the heart of the book. “I was driving past Henham with my husband when he mentioned the legend,” she told the Guardian. “By the time we reached home 45 minutes later I had the entire outline of the book in my head, including Cora Seaborne and her son.” | Perry said that the plot for the novel “walked into her imagination” fully formed as she passed the village of Henham, the real-life model for Aldwinter and home of the legend at the heart of the book. “I was driving past Henham with my husband when he mentioned the legend,” she told the Guardian. “By the time we reached home 45 minutes later I had the entire outline of the book in my head, including Cora Seaborne and her son.” |
| She likened writing the book, which comes in at more than 100,000 words, to a “possession”. “I felt so full of joy writing it. It was as if I had read this book several times and loved it so much that the only way to tell people about it was to write it and let them read it for themselves.” | She likened writing the book, which comes in at more than 100,000 words, to a “possession”. “I felt so full of joy writing it. It was as if I had read this book several times and loved it so much that the only way to tell people about it was to write it and let them read it for themselves.” |
| Perry’s prose has been likened to the iambic pentameter of the King James Bible, which was one of the few books allowed into her childhood home by her parents, who were Strict Baptists. Reading the Bible aloud as a child, she said, has affected her prose style. “I find myself reciting as I write. The King James was written in iambic pentameter so it would be easy to remember. With both my books, I memorised the first paragraph before I wrote them.” | Perry’s prose has been likened to the iambic pentameter of the King James Bible, which was one of the few books allowed into her childhood home by her parents, who were Strict Baptists. Reading the Bible aloud as a child, she said, has affected her prose style. “I find myself reciting as I write. The King James was written in iambic pentameter so it would be easy to remember. With both my books, I memorised the first paragraph before I wrote them.” |
| The novelist, who gave up her job as a legal journalist in order to concentrate on her novels, is now working on her third book, which she describes as “the most gothic I’ve gone”. Set in contemporary Prague, it is about “bearing witness”, she said. | The novelist, who gave up her job as a legal journalist in order to concentrate on her novels, is now working on her third book, which she describes as “the most gothic I’ve gone”. Set in contemporary Prague, it is about “bearing witness”, she said. |