British Book Awards Shortlists Announced
17 March 2023
The shortlists for the 2023 edition of the British Book Awards, otherwise known as the Nibbies, have been announced. Find out more information about Ulverscroft's shortlisted titls below.
Book Of The Year - Fiction
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
Published in Large Print in January 2023.
Medusa is the only mortal in a family of gods. Growing up with her sisters, she quickly realizes that she is the only one who gets older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.
When the sea god Poseidon commits an unforgivable act in her sacred temple, the goddess Athene takes her revenge on an innocent - and Medusa's life is changed forever. Snakes have replaced her hair, and her gaze can now turn any living creature to stone. Medusa can no longer look upon anyone she loves without destroying them, and so condemns herself to a life lived in shadow and solitude to limit her murderous rage.
That is, until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon...
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in October 2022.
Florence, the 1560s. Lucrezia, third daughter of Cosimo de' Medici, is free to wander the palazzo at will. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight when the duke requests her hand in marriage. Having barely left girlhood, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appears to be before their wedding, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble? As Lucrezia sits in uncomfortable finery for the painting that is to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferrarese dynasty. Until then, her future hangs entirely in the balance.
Book Of The Year - Pageturner
The Summer That Changed Us by Cathy Bramley
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook in April 2022.
The sparkling seaside village of Merle Bay, with its beautiful beach scattered with seaglass, is a place where anyone can have a fresh start. For Katie, it is the perfect hideout after a childhood trauma left her feeling exposed. For Robyn, the fresh sea air is helping to heal her scars, but maybe not her marriage. For Grace, a new start could help her move on from a heartbreaking loss. When they meet on Seaglass Beach one day, they form an instant bond and soon they're sharing prosecco, laughter - and even their biggest secrets... Together, the women feel stronger than ever before. So can their friendship help them face old fears and find happy endings - as well as new beginnings?
Sunday's Child by Dilly Court
Published in Large Print in August 2022.
Left on the steps of an orphanage when she was just days old, Nancy Sunday was brought up in hardship - until the kindly Rosalind Carey took her in. Now eighteen years old, Nancy is an adopted member of the Carey family. But she can't help wondering who her parents really were.
When Nancy is sent away to finishing school, she finds herself in the midst of London society. There she meets Freddie Ashton - kind and warm-hearted, he might just be the man of Nancy's dreams. But she knows his wealthy parents would never let him marry a penniless foundling.
And she has also caught the eye of another man - the charming and dangerous Gervase North, who has reasons of his own for discovering Nancy's parentage...
Book Of The Year - Crime And Thriller
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook and uLibrary eAudiobook in March 2022.
Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a copy of a famous children's book, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. He took it to his English teacher, Miss Isles, who became convinced it was the key to solving a secret code that ran through all Edith Twyford's novels. Then Miss Isles disappeared on a class field trip, and Steven's memory won't allow him to remember what happened. Desperate to recover his memories and find out what really happened, Steven revisits the people and places of his childhood. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn't just a writer of forgotten children's stories. The Twyford Code has great power, and he isn't the only one trying to solve it...
The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
Published in Large Print in October 2022.
It is an ordinary Thursday, and things should finally be returning to normal.
Except that trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club is concerned. A local news legend is on the hunt for a sensational headline, and soon the gang are hot on the trail of two murders, ten years apart.
To make matters worse, a new nemesis pays Elizabeth a visit, presenting her with a deadly mission: kill or be killed...
While Elizabeth grapples with her conscience (and a gun), the gang and their unlikely new friends (including TV stars, money launderers and ex-KGB colonels) unravel a new mystery. But can they catch the culprit and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?
Murder Before Evensong by Reverend Richard Coles
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook in July 2023.
Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton. He has been there for eight years, living at the Rectory alongside his widowed mother - opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoying Audrey - and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda. When Daniel announces a plan to install a lavatory in church, the parish is suddenly (and unexpectedly) divided: as lines are drawn, long-buried secrets come dangerously close to destroying the apparent calm of the village. And then Anthony Bowness - cousin to Bernard de Floures, patron of Champton - is found dead at the back of the church, stabbed in the neck with a pair of secateurs. As the police moves in and the bodies start piling up, Daniel is the only one who can try and keep his fractured community together . . . and catch a killer.
Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
Published in CD and MP3 CD audiobook in September 2022.
It's every parent's nightmare.
Your happy, funny, innocent son commits a terrible crime: murdering a complete stranger.
You don't know who.
You don't know why.
You only know your teenage boy is in custody - and his future lost.
Somewhere in the past lie the answers, and you don't have a choice but to find them...