The Betty Trask Prize was established in 1984 as the result of a bequest from the writer Betty Trask, the author of over thirty romantic novels. Under the terms of the bequest the award is made in respect of first novel written by a Commonwealth citizen under the age of thirty-five for "a romantic novel or other novel of a traditional rather than experimental nature". Although to date the judging panels seem to have often ignored these instructions.
Administered by the Society of Authors, there is an annual prize fund, currently of £20,000, which is shared out amongst deserving authors. Varying amounts are awarded each year to anywhere between three and seven authors; the recipient of the largest award is usually seen as being the winner of the 'Betty Trask Prize', with those awarded the lesser amounts being seen as the recipients of a 'Betty Trask Award'.
The Winners of the Betty Trask Prize
1984
- Ronald Frame, Winter Journey, £6,750
- Clare Nonhebel, Cold Showers, £6,750
- James Buchan, A Parish of Rich Women, £1,000
- Helen Harris, Playing Fields in Winter, £1,000
- Gareth Jones, The Disinherited, £1,000
- Simon Rees, The Devil's Looking Glass, £1,000
1985
- Susan Kay, Legacy, £12,500
- Gary Armitage, A Season Of Peace, £1,000
- Elizabeth Ironside, A Very Private Enterprise, £1,000
- Alice Mitchell, Instead of Eden, £1,000
- Caroline Stickland, The Standing Hills, £1,000
- George Schweiz, The Earth Abides For Ever, £1,000
1986
- Tim Parks, Tongues Of Flames, £9,000
- Patricia Ferguson, Family Myths And Legends, £4,000
- Philippa Blake, Mzungu’S Wife, £1,000
- Matthew Kneale, Whore Banquets, £1,000
- J F McLaughlin, The Road To Dilmun, £1,000
- Kate Saunders, The Prodigal Father, £1,000
1987
- James Maw, Hard Luck, £8,000
- Peter Benson, The Levels, £4,500
- Helen Flint, Return Journey, £4,500
- Catherine Arnold, Lost Time, £1,000
- H S Bhabra, Gestures, £1,000
- Lucy Pinney, The Pink Stallion, £1,000
1988
- Alex Martin, The General Interruptor, £6,500
- Candia McWilliam, A Case Of Knives, £6,500
- Georgina Andrewes, Behind The Waterfall, £2,000
- James Friel, Left Of North, £2,000
- Glenn Patterson, Burning Your Own, £2,000
- Susan Webster, Small Tales Of A Town, £2,000
1989
- Nigel Watts, The Life Game, £10,000
- William Riviere, Watercolour Sky, £5,000
- Paul Houghton, Harry’s Last Wedding, £2,000
- Alasdair McKee, Uncle Henry’s Last Stand, £2,000
1990
- Robert McLiam Wilson, Ripley Bogle, £16,000
- Elizabeth Chadwick, The Wild Hunt, £3,000
- Rosemary Cohen, No Strange Land, £3,000
- Nicholas Shakespeare, The Vision Of Elena Silves, £3,000
1991
- Amit Chaudhuri, A Strange and Sublime Address, £10,000
- Mark Swallow, Teaching Little Fang, £7,000
- Suzannah Dunn, Quite Contrary, £2,000
- Lesley Glaister, Honour Thy Father, £2,000
- Nino Ricci, Lives Of The Saints, £2,000
- Simon Mason, The Great English Nude, £2,000
1992
- Liane Jones, The Dream Stone, £10,000
- Peter M Rosenburg, Kissing Through a Pane Of Glass, £5,000
- Tibor Fischer, Under The Frog, £3,000
- Eugene Mullan, The Last of His Line, £3,000
- Edward St Aubyn, Never Mind, £3,000
1993
- Mark Blackaby, You’ll Never Be Here Again, £10,000
- Andrew Cowan, Pig, £7,000
- Simon Corrigan, Tommy Was Here, £5,000
- Joanna Briscoe, Mothers and Other Lovers, £2,000
- Olivia Fane, Landing On Clouds, £2,000
1994
- Colin Bateman, Divorcing Jack, £12,000
- Nadeem Aslam, Season Of The Rainbirds, £10,000
- Guy Burt, After The Hole, £1,000
- Frances Liardet, The Game, £1,000
- Jonathan Rix, Some Hope, £1,000
1995
- Robert Newman, Dependence Day, £10,000
- Mark Behr, The Smell of Apples, £8,000
- Martina Evans, Midnight Feast, £3,000
- Rohit Manchanda, A Speck of Coaldust, £1,000
- Juliet Thomas, Hallelujah Jordan, £1,000
- Philippa Walshe, The Latecomer, £1,000
- Madeleine Wickham, The Tennis Party, £1,000
1996
- John Lanchester, The Debt To Pleasure, £8,000
- Meera Syal, Anita And Me, £7,000
- Rhidian Brook, The Testimony Of Taliesin Jones, £5,000
- Louis Caron Buss, The Luxury Of Exile, £5,000
1997
- Alex Garland, The Beach, £12,000
- Josie Barnard, Poker Face, £5,000
- Ardashir Vakil, Beach Boy, £5,000
- Diran Adebayo, Some Kind Of Black, £1,500
- Sanjida O’Connell, Theory Of Mind, £1,500
1998
- Kiran Desai, Hullabaloo In The Guava Orchard, £10,000
- Nick Earls, Zigzag Street, £8,000
- Phil Whitaker, Eclipse Of The Sun, £5,000
- Gail Anderson-Dargatz, The Cure For Death By Lighting, £1,000
- Tobias Hill, Underground, £1,000
1999
- Elliot Perlman, Three Dollars, £7,000
- Catherine Chidgey, In A Fishbone Church, £6,000
- Giles Foden, The Last King Of Scotland, £4,000
- Dennis Bock, Olympia, £3,000
- Rajeev Balasubramanyam, In Beautiful Disguises, £2,500
- Sarah Waters, Tipping The Velvet, £1,000
2000
- Jonathan Tulloch, The Season Ticket, £10,000
- Julia Leigh, The Hunter, £7,000
- Susan Elderkin, Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains, £4,000
- Galaxy Craze, By The Shore, £2,000
- Nicholas Griffin, The Requiem Shark, £2,000
2001
- Zadie Smith, White Teeth, £6,000
- Justin Hill, The Drink And Dream Teahouse, £5,000
- Maggie O’Farrell, After You’d Gone, £5,000
- Vivien Kelly, Take One Young Man, £4,000
- Mohsin Hamid, Moth Smoke, £2,500
- Patrick Neate, Musungu Jim And The Great Chief Tuloko, £2,500
2002
- Hari Kunzru, The Impressionist, £8,000
- Rachel Seiffert, The Dark Room, £5,000
- Shamim Sarif, The World Unseen, £4,000
- Helen Cross, My Summer of Love, £2,000
- Chloe Hooper, A Child’s Book of True Crime, £2,000
- Susanna Jones, The Earthquake Bird, £2,000
- Gwendoline Riley, Cold Water, £2,000
2003
- Jon McGregor, If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things, £10,000
- Sarah Hall, Haweswater, £6,000
- Stephanie Merritt, Gaveston, £4,000
- Elizabeth Garner, Nightdancing, £2,000
- Zoe Strachan, Negative Space, £2,000
- Adam Thirlwell, Politics, £1,000
2004
- Louise Dean, Becoming Strangers, £8,000
- Hannah MacDonald, The Sun Road, £6,000
- Anthony Cartwright, The Afterglow, £3,000
- Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, The Last Song Of Dusk, £3,000
2005
2006
References
http://facstaff.unca.edu/moseley/trask.html
http://www.societyofauthors.net/soa/page_id_sub.php4?pid=52&par_nm=Prizes%2C+grants+and+awards&parentid=7