A few weeks ago Stephen Fry handed me a Betty Trask Award in a huge envelope and told me to smile at the camera and I did, just. I’m not sure what I’m more proud of: winning the Award, carrying around the envelope without losing it or managing to cash the cheque that was inside. Anyway, here are some nice comments from the judges:
Joanne Harris
“A touching, tough and incisive view of what it’s like to be a child in care, to feel you’ve been robbed of choices, and to end up on the scrap-heap, discarded as bad by everyone – including yourself. For such a tough set of themes it’s a remarkably upbeat and optimistic book – the narrator’s voice never allows self-pity to linger overlong, and her self-awareness and matter-of-fact delivery is both refreshing and oddly likeable.”
Samantha Shannon
“All the Good Things is not only a piercing reminder of how society continues to fail its most vulnerable people, but a celebration of love, endurance, and redemption in the most desperate of circumstances.”
Clare Fisher 