Rise of the comics! Two graphic novels listed for Costa Book Awards

‘Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes’ by Mary and Bryan Talbot tells the story of James Joyce’s daughter, Lucia
‘Days of the Bagnold Summer’ by Joff Winterhart is a ‘funny’ tale of teenage angst
The graphic novels will compete against more established names for the prestigious £30,000 prize

By
Adam Shergold

PUBLISHED:

11:24 GMT, 21 November 2012

|

UPDATED:

11:51 GMT, 21 November 2012

Two comic-style novels have been shortlisted for the prestigious Costa Book Awards for the first time.

One is the story of a heavy metal-loving teenager forced to spend all summer with his mother and the other is a graphic novel biography of James Joyce’s daughter.

‘Days of the Bagnold Summer’ by Joff Winterhart and ‘Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes’ by husband and wife Mary and Bryan Talbot are among 20 books nominated across five categories.

Nominated: Mary and Bryan Talbot have been shortlisted in the biography category of the Costa Book Awards for their illustrated memoir about James Joyce's daughter, Lucia

Nominated: Mary and Bryan Talbot have been shortlisted in the biography category of the Costa Book Awards for their illustrated memoir about James Joyce’s daughter, Lucia

Graphic novel: The Talbot's book, Dotter of her Father's Eyes, was one of two comic-style books nominated this year

Graphic novel: The Talbot’s book, Dotter of her Father’s Eyes, was one of two comic-style books nominated this year

The overall winner, to be announced on January 29, wins £30,000, while the category winners receive £5,000.

Also nominated is the latest novel by double Man Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel, ‘Bring Up The Bodies’.

Earlier this year, Mantel, 60, became the first British writer to win the Booker Prize twice for her historical novels on Thomas Cromwell.

‘Bring Up The Bodies’ is nominated in the Best Novel category, alongside Winterhart’s graphic novel, Stephen May’s ‘Life! Death! Prizes!’ and James Meek’s ‘The Heart Broke In.’

Winterhart’s graphic novel tells the story of the Bagnolds – librarian mother Sue and her 15-year-old heavy metal fan son, Daniel.

Daniel is supposed to be visiting his father and pregnant stepmother in the United States but the trip is cancelled at the last minute, leaving mother and son to spend the summer together.

Sue knows she can’t communicate with Daniel, who looks ‘like a big, black, sad kangaroo’ and the illustrations bring across these generational difficulties in a heart-tugging way.

Winterhart, 38, was extremely surprised to receive a nomination: ‘It doesn’t feel like a novel, it’s got pictures in it!

‘I didn’t know it had enough words to constitute a novel. Some novels are quite epic and very cinematic in scope and mine is incredibly not like that.’

Enlarge

Delightful illustrations: Two examples of the cartoons drawn by Bryan Talbot in ‘Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes’

Wendy Holden, one of the category’s three judges, said it was funny, thought-provoking and ‘sniff-makingly sad’.

She added: ‘Anyone with a teenager in the family, or anticipating having one in the future, should read it.

‘It’s not only hilarious and brilliant but deals with real life, as people really live it.’

'Funny and thought-provoking': The judges praised the 'sniff-makingly sad' story of Joff Winterhart's 'Days of the Bagnold Summer'

‘Funny and thought-provoking’: The judges praised the ‘sniff-makingly sad’ story of Joff Winterhart’s ‘Days of the Bagnold Summer’

Strong competition: Winterhart's 'Days of the Bagnold Summer' is in the novel category

Strong competition: Winterhart’s ‘Days of the Bagnold Summer’ is in the novel category

Hilary Mantel's Bring Up The Bodies

Stephen May's 'Life! Death! Prizes!'

Strong competition: Winterhart will go up against Booker Prize-winning Hilary Mantel’s ‘Bring Up The Bodies’ and ‘Life! Death! Prizes!’ by Stephen May

The Talbot’s work is an illustrated biography-cum-memoir of Joyce’s daughter Lucia, which also draws on Mary Talbot’s personal memories of her troubled relationship with her father, the Joycean scholar James S Atherton.

The judges called it ‘ a strikingly original graphic memoir which links two lives in a highly imaginative way.’

It will compete in the Biography category alongside ‘Patrick Leigh-Fermor: An Adventure’ by Artemis Cooper, ‘The Crocodile By The Door’ by Selina Guinness and ‘Serving Victoria’ by Kate Hubbard.

THE SHORTLIST FOR THE £30,000 PRIZE IN FULL

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-GB
X-NONE
X-NONE

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”;}

Novel

Hilary Mantel for Bring Up The Bodies

Stephen May for Life! Death! Prizes!

James Meek for The Heart Broke In

Joff Winterhart for Days Of The Bagnold Summer

First Novel

JW Ironmonger for The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder

Jess Richards for Snake Ropes

Francesca Segal for The Innocents

Benjamin Wood for The Bellwether Revivals

The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder