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Annual award for autobiographies of literary excellence
The TLS Ackerley Prize is awarded annually to a literary
autobiography of excellence, written by an author of British nationality and published during the preceding year. The winner receives £3,000.
The prize was established by Nancy West, née Ackerley, sister of English author and editor
J. R. Ackerley , and was first awarded in 1982.
The prize is judged by the trustees of the J. R. Ackerley Trust; biographer and historian
Peter Parker (Chair), the biographer and critic
Claire Harman , and the writer and editor Michael Caines.
[1] There is no formal submission process for the award — judges simply "call in" books to be added to their longlist.
[2]
Former judges include the novelist
Francis King , the biographer
Michael Holroyd , the editor of Ackerley’s letters, Neville Braybrooke, food writer and historian
Colin Spencer , the biographer and historian
Richard Davenport-Hines and the novelist and short story writer
Georgina Hammick .
In 2023, the Prize’s long partnership with
English PEN , when it was known as the PEN Ackerley Prize, came to an end, and it reverted to its original name of the Ackerley Prize.
In 2024, the Prize formed a partnership with the
Times Literary Supplement and was renamed the TLS Ackerley Prize.
[3]
Recipients
1982:
Edward Blishen , Shaky Relations
[4]
1983: Joint winners:
1984:
Richard Cobb , Still Life
[4]
1985:
Angelica Garnett , Deceived with Kindness
[4]
1986:
Dan Jacobson , Time and Time Again
[4]
1987:
Diana Athill , After the Funeral
[4]
1988:
Anthony Burgess ,
Little Wilson and Big God
[4]
1989:
John Healy ,
The Grass Arena
[4]
1990:
Germaine Greer , Daddy We Hardly Knew You
[4]
1991:
Paul Binding , St Martin's Ride
[4]
1992:
John Osborne , Almost a Gentleman
[4]
1993:
Barry Humphries , More, Please
[4]
1994:
Blake Morrison , When Did You Last See Your Father?
[4]
1995:
Paul Vaughan , Something in Linoleum
[4]
1996:
Eric Lomax , The Railway Man
[4]
1997:
Tim Lott , The Scent of Dried Roses
[4]
1998:
Katrin Fitzherbert , True to Both Myselves
[4]
1999:
Margaret Forster , Precious Lives
[4]
2000:
Mark Frankland , Child of My Time
[4]
2001:
Lorna Sage ,
Bad Blood
[4]
2002:
Michael Foss , Out of India: A Raj Childhood
[4]
2003:
Jenny Diski , Stranger on a Train
[4]
2004:
Bryan Magee , Clouds of Glory: A Hoxton Childhood
[4]
2005:
Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy , Half an Arch
[4]
2006:
Alan Bennett , Untold Stories
[4]
2007:
Brian Thompson , Keeping Mum
[4]
2008:
Miranda Seymour , In My Father's House
[4]
2009:
Julia Blackburn , The Three of Us
[4]
2010:
Gabriel Weston , Direct Red: A Surgeon's View of Her Life-or-Death Profession
[4]
2011:
Michael Frayn , My Father’s Fortune
[4]
[5]
2012:
Duncan Fallowell , How to Disappear
[4]
[6]
2013:
Richard Holloway , Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt (Canongate)
[4]
[7]
2014:
Sonali Deraniyagala , Wave (Virago)
[4]
[8]
2015:
Henry Marsh , Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
[4]
[9]
2016:
Alice Jolly , Dead Babies and Seaside Towns
[4]
[10]
2017:
Amy Liptrot ,
The Outrun (Canongate)
[4]
[11]
2018:
Richard Beard ,
The Day That Went Missing (Harvill Secker)
[12]
2019:
Yrsa Daley-Ward , The Terrible (Penguin)
[4]
[13]
2020:
Alison Light , A Radical Romance: A Memoir of Love, Grief and Consolation (Fig Tree)
[4]
[14]
2021:
Claire Wilcox , Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes (Bloomsbury)
[4]
[15]
2022:
Frances Stonor Saunders , The Suitcase: Six Attempts to Cross a Border (Jonathan Cape)
[4]
[16]
References
^
"PEN Ackerley Prize" .
^
"PEN Ackerley Prize" . English PEN . Retrieved 30 June 2015 .
^
"The TLS Ackerley Prize 2024" . TLS . Retrieved 24 June 2024 .
^
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"PEN Ackerley Prize" . English Pen. Retrieved 5 April 2023 .
^
"Michael Frayn wins PEN Ackerley Prize 2011" . English PEN .
^ Sharp, Robert.
"Duncan Fallowell wins PEN Ackerley Prize 2012" . English PEN .
^ Sharp, Robert.
"Richard Holloway wins PEN Ackerley Prize 2013" . English PEN . Retrieved 30 June 2015 .
^ Sharp, Robert.
"Watch: Lennie Goodings reads Sonali Deraniyagala's PEN Ackerley Prize acceptance speech" . English PEN . Retrieved 30 June 2015 .
^ Sharp, Robert.
"Henry Marsh awarded PEN Ackerley Prize 2015" . English PEN . Retrieved 30 June 2015 .
^ Cowdrey, Katherine (13 July 2016),
"Alice Jolly's crowdfunded memoir wins PEN Ackerley Prize" ,
The Bookseller .
^ Sharp, Robert (6 July 2017).
"Amy Liptrot awarded PEN Ackerley Prize 2017 for 'The Outrun' " . English PEN . Retrieved 6 July 2017 .
^
"Richard Beard awarded PEN Ackerley Prize 2018 for 'The Day That Went Missing' " . English Pen . Retrieved 6 February 2022 .
^ Chandler, Mark (10 July 2019),
"Daley-Ward wins PEN Ackerley Prize" , The Bookseller . Retrieved 12 July 2019.
^
"Light wins 2020 PEN/Ackerley Prize" . Books+Publishing . 21 August 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2020 .
^ Comerford, Ruth (5 August 2021).
"Wilcox wins PEN Ackerley Prize for 'vivid' memoir Patch Work" . The Bookseller . Retrieved 5 August 2021 .
^ Brown, Lauren (15 July 2022).
"PEN Ackerley Prize goes to Stoner Saunders' 'riveting' memoir of borders and belonging" . The Bookseller . Retrieved 15 July 2022 .
External links