Honeyman ‘stunned’ to win book award
● Glasgow writer now in running for Book of the Year
Glasgow author Gail Honeyman said she is ‘stunned’ to have won the 2017 Costa First Novel Award for her book Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – which has also been optioned for the big screen by US actress and producer Reese Witherspoon. Ms Honeyman wins £5,000 and will now compete for the Costa Book of the Year award, which is revealed on 30 January.
A Scottish author has won a prestigious literary prize for her acclaimed debut novel, which is also set to be turned into a Hollywood film.
Glasgow-based Gail Honeyman has beaten 99 other candidates to take the 2017 Costa First Novel Award for Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.
Describing the work, which highlights the loneliness of life and the power of compassion, the judges said: “Eleanor Oliphant is completely fantastic. The end.”
Ms Honeyman, who grew up in Stirling, wrote the book while holding down a full-time job, fitting writing into early mornings, evenings, weekends and holidays.
The story follows Eleanor Oliphant, 31, who lives a simple, orderly life, wearing the same clothes and eating the same lunch every work day and drinking two bottles of vodka each weekend. She is content – until her world is rocked by an unexpected act of kindness.
The book was previously shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize as a work in progress and won the Scottish Book Trust’s Next Chapter Award in 2014, which included a stay at a creative writing retreat.
The work became the focus of an eight-way auction at last year’s Frankfurt Book Fair and has since gone on to sell in more than 30 countries worldwide.
It is also due to be adapted for the big screen after US actress and producer Reese Witherspoon, star of films including the Legally Blonde, Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, and Wild, bought the film rights through her new production firm Hello Sunshine.
Ms Honeyman said she is “stunned” to have received the Costa accolade.
“It’s going to take a while for this news to sink in,” she said.
“I’m completely and utterly delighted about it, and it was an honour to be shortlisted alongside the other incredibly talented writers in this category. It’s a very exciting way to start the new year.”
In his review of the novel for The Scotsman, Alan Massie said: “What is remarkable is the emphasis Honeyman places on the importance of kindness, something met more often in real life than in novels … This is an uncommonly intelligent and sympathetic novel.”
The Scot joins four other winning authors named in the 2017 Costa Book Awards: Jon Mcgregor, whose fourth book Reservoir 13 came top in the Novel category; Rebecca Stott, who claimed the Biography award with her memoir In the Days of Rain; the late Helen Dunmore, whose work Inside the Wave posthumously won her the Poetry award; and Katherine Rundell, whose Amazonian adventure story The Explorer earned her the Children’s Book award.
The five, each of whom will receive £5,000, will now compete for the top prize – the 2017 Costa Book of the Year award, which is set to be announced on 30 January. The winner of the Short Story award will be revealed on the same day.
Last year’s overall winner was Sebastian Barry for Days Without End.
Dominic Paul, managing director of Costa, said: “What a fabulous collection of books, all of them terrific reads. The Costa Book Awards has an extraordinary track record for showcasing and celebrating some of the best and most enjoyable books by authors based in the UK and Ireland, and I’m delighted to say that this year is no exception.”