Angry Robot Books (along with a slew of other sites) shows off the list of winners for this year’s British Fantasy Awards. The big winner? Graham Joyce, writing under the pseudonym of William Heaney.
Best Novel (The August Derleth Fantasy Award)
Memoirs of a Master Forger, by Graham Joyce, writing as William Heaney (Gollancz)
Best Novella
The Reach of Children, by Tim Lebbon (Humdrumming)
Best Short Fiction
Do You See, by Sarah Pinborough, from Myth-Understandings, ed. by Ian Whates (Newcon Press)
Best Collection
Bull Running for Girls, by Allyson Bird (Screaming Dreams)
Best Anthology
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 19, ed. Stephen Jones (Constable & Robinson)
The PS Publishing Best Small Press Award
Elastic Press, run by Andrew Hook
Best Non-Fiction
Basil Copper: A Life in Books, by Basil Copper, ed. Stephen Jones (PS Publishing)
Best Magazine/Periodical
Postscripts, ed. Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers (PS Publishing)
Best Artist
Vincent Chong
Best Comic/Graphic Novel
Locke and Key, by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW Publishing)
Best Televison
Doctor Who, head writer Russell T. Davies (BBC Wales)
Best Film
The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan (Warner Brothers)
The Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer
Joseph D’Lacey, for Meat (Bloody Books)
The Karl Edward Wagner Award (the Special Award)
Hayao Miyazaki
“I’m having a good week,” said Joyce
[…]
“It’s extraordinary really: everything’s quiet for a couple of years and then this,” said Joyce. “I’ve been a professional writer for 20 years, and there are contours in that time, crescents and troughs … This is a crescent.”
[…]
“Fantasy gets a mixed reception – a lot of fantasy is formulaic but most of the award-winning fantasy on the contrary tends to be the stuff at the edges of the genre, rather than swimming in the middle,”
Joyce is one of those author who, despite owning a few of his novels, I’ve yet to read. From the sounds of it, that’s something I should soon rectify, if I know what’s good for me.
I was happy to see that Memoirs won. Memoirs of a Master Forger is at the top of my list for favorite novels for this year and otherwise. It really was a great book and it led me to obtain (either through purchase or the library) a number of Joyce’s other novels. Ended up having a bit of a Joyce marathon. I heartily enjoyed all of the novels I have read by him, some more than others. (The Facts of Life and The Tooth Fairy were fantastic, but The Limits of enchantment, though very well written, was not my cup of tea and Smoking Poppy seemed to have lost the charm of the novels, though that could be attributed to it being the fifth and last book in the marathon.) Definitely an author I recommend.
I hate you because you’ve given me a book to go buy.
I love you because you’ve given me a book to go buy.
I’ve got the US version of Joyce’s novel, which is titled here as How to Make Friends with Demons and published by NightShade. I’ll be bumping this up the list.
The Tooth Fairy was both uncomfortable at times, but a completely addictive novel nonetheless.
I really liked his take on modern witchcraft in Dark Sister
James – I guess I’m set, then, considering The Tooth Fairy and The Facts of Life are the two books by Joyce that I own!
Cara – Sounds like I’m doing my job, then.
Rob – Ahh, I remember running across that book… and being thoroughly unimpressed by the title. Still, knowing that it’s a Graham Joyce book means I’ll give it a closer look.