Book of the year: Conn & Hal Iggulden, The Dangerous Book for Boys
Reader's Digest author of the year: Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Biography of the year: Peter Kay, The Sound of Laughter
Children's book of the year: Ricky Gervais, Flanimals of the Deep
For a full list of winners click here
An interesting night but with few surprises (when you realised it rewarded the mass-market and TV friendly), however it was good to see Granta coming close in the Richard and Judy best read of the year and suggests that there might be greater variety in future years. One disappointment was that the range of publishers represented was also minimal, with the majority of the awards split between Random House, the Hachette Group and Harper Collins.
Highlights of the night were Peter Kay's and Ricky Gervais' acceptance speeches, along with several low points including the interaction between presenters and celebrities.
An unintentional highlight was when Gervais provoked a foul-mouthed reaction from Richard Madeley by quipping about phone vote scams.
In a TV link to one of the comic's stand-up gigs, Gervais said: "This is voted for by the public, isn't it? "Well, tell them to stop voting now cos otherwise it will be another phone con."
The comment sparked Madeley's foul-mouthed rant during which he told the Office and Extras star to "f*** off" and branded him an "ungrateful f***ing b*****d". You can read the full story here.
Overall a positive night which will hopefully encourage more people to read and discover new books. Despite lacking the prestige of a Booker (several literary snobs were heard commenting as such during the night), this is a positive addition to the awards list, rewarding widely read works, rather than those that are critically acclaimed yet little-read, and incorporating readers voting. The one danger, often quoted, is that more will read less due to the predictability of the awards, and that the bigger publishers will further widen the gap between themselves and the rest. But that is down to the smaller publishers to fight and break through.
Highlights of the event, which may or may not include Richard Madeley's outburst, can be seen tonight (30th March) at 8 p.m. on Channel 4.
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