Michael Nott wins Hatchards first biography prize
‘Vibrant’ life of poet Thom Gunn takes £2,500 prize, run by the Biographers’ Club
The Hatchards & Biographers’ Club Best First Biography Prize 2024 has gone to Michael Nott for Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life (Faber). Nott received the £2,500 prize at a reception yesterday evening (4 March) at Hatchards Piccadilly.
Tom Baily of Hatchards, a judge of the prize along with Telegraph books editor Iona McLaren and author Sarah Watling, said: “We were particularly impressed by the meticulous detail and commanding use of material, which enables Nott to draw a vibrant picture not just of Thom Gunn’s life but also his era.”
Nott said: “I am honoured to receive this distinguished prize. Mike Kitay, August Kleinzahler, Wendy Lesser, and Clive Wilmer helped me all the way along, and I hope this book helps Thom Gunn’s poetry reach new generations of readers.”
Also shortlisted were titles by Ashley John-Baptiste (Looked After: A Childhood in Care, Hodder); Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell (These Heavy Black Bones, Canongate); Catherine Coldstream (Cloistered: My Years As a Nun, Chatto); Chloe Dalton (Raising Hare, Canongate); and Michael Sheridan (The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and His New China, Headline Press).
This is the first year of Hatchards’ involvement with the prize, previously sponsored by Slightly Foxed.
Read more about the shortlist here.
The Hatchards Best First Biography Prize: the shortlist | The Biographer’s Club
Photo from left: Ariane Bankes (Biographers’ Club prize administrator), Francis Cleverdon (manager, Hatchards Piccadilly), Michael Nott, Sarah Watling, Tom Baily
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