2024 Winner & Listees
The Bath Novel Awards are annual international prizes for unagented emerging writers. Recipients of the Bath Children’s Novel Award include Struan Murray for the manuscript of Orphans of the Tide, Matthew Fox for The Sky Over Rebecca and Lucy Van Smit for The Hurting.
The Bath Children’s Novel Award is a £5,000 prize for children’s novels, YA, chapter books and picture book texts and we are delighted to announce 2024’s winner and listees.
The prize was open from March through November 2024 and attracted a record number of 1,928 submissions, with over 100 writers receiving sponsored entry places.
A 21-strong longlist was announced in December, with their full manuscripts called in from authors in Asia, Europe and North America. Over the Christmas holidays our international team of Junior Judges aged seven to seventeen years shortlisted their favourite four books, from which Enrichetta Frezzato, children’s literary agent at Curtis Brown, then judged the overall winning book.
Our heartfelt thanks to Enrichetta and the Junior Judges for their wise and careful consideration of this year’s manuscripts.
JUDGE’S COMMENTS: “Riding through the world of PANJANDRUM was such a thrilling adventure. Every character comes alive vividly on the page starting from young Esme, a witch with a talent for solving puzzles and a remarkably eccentric family, to the brave apprentice Master-Pick Alfred Bartleby, to Kazimir the loyal mechanical spider. The hidden world of Plunder- and Vendor-Wizards, spirit-skiffs and enchanted vaults is imaginatively crafted to the most minute detail. The stakes are high, the story is gripping, the writing is a delightful mix of tension and humour.” – Enrichetta Frezzato.
CRAIG PEARSON FENDER is from a tiny village in England’s Pennines where there are more sheep than people and has been living in Newcastle, England for the last 20 years trying to master the toon accent. Inspired by David Eddings’ Belgariad, he wrote his first fantasy novel at 16 and has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sunderland University. Between raising children and after “following a false path of trying to write adult literature” he returned to his first love of writing fantasy and now writes around part-time cleaning work. Panjandrum is a rip-roaring adventure which opens in a magical mansion accessed via an enchanted cleaning cupboard, and was inspired by his daughter Esme, and Craig’s long familiarity with cleaning cupboards.
Judge’s comments: “The pace and the tension in Nine Rooms are built masterfully from the very first pages. Emmy’s voice is so credible and the shock of how she finds herself trapped in a nightmare hit me like a slap in the face, hooking me and keeping me glued all the way to the last page.” – Enrichetta Frezzato
SHARON BOYLE lives in East Lothian, Scotland, where she works in a hardware store, jotting down notes for novels when the boss isn’t looking. She likes banoffee pie, not exercising, and coorying by the fire on rainy Sundays. She doesn’t like the fact that Sharons are a dwindling species. She enjoys novels with a noirish, gothic feel such as those by Gillian Flynn, Lemony Snicket, and Jess Kidd, and Agatha Christie’s closed-house murder mysteries. Nine Rooms is a creepy and compelling thriller about identity, belonging and forgiveness. It won the Retreat West 2024 First Chapter Competition and Sharon’s work has also listed for the Mslexia Children’s Novel Competition and SCWBI’s Undiscovered Voices.
Judge’s comments: “Spooky the Sprite and the Great Hullaballoo is such a fun and joyful adventure. The bond between Emily and Spooky grows fiercely and made me immediately root for the duo. I also loved how inventively everything is named in their magical world.” Enrichetta Frezzato.
R A HUDSON was born and bred in Lincolnshire, England. He obtained a BA in English Literature from Queen Mary University of London in the 90’s and has lived in South London ever since with a busy career in voiceovers. He attempted his first novel at twelve (a science fiction epic) and designed huge, convoluted factory production lines producing sweets, which stood him in good stead when he came to write Spooky the Sprite and the Great Hullaballoo, the story of Emily, a little girl from Camberwell who lives in the shadow of a treacle tart factory and goes on a magical adventure with a new friend. This magical adventure for younger children is about friendship, identity, finding purpose and belonging and the many great perils of loving treacle tarts.
Judge’s comments: “The writing in Celery’s Giant is outstanding. Celeste’s friendship with a giant named Marie and her brother, real or imagined, is portrayed in convincing and beautiful tones and the book conveys an important message about the connections we build with other people as well as the environment we live in.” – Enrichetta Frezzato
MIRANDA NUGENT lives on a farm in Devon, England and worked as a teaching assistant for children with special needs before becoming a writer for the children’s sections of The Times and The Sunday Times. It was there she met Eva Ibbotson, who inspired her to write middle grade adventure stories and Miranda graduated from Bath Spa University’s Writing for Young People MA with distinction. Celery’s Giant is set in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, islands imbued with their own ancient tales and where, in 1825, a real life giant was born. He went on to become a strongman in Barnum’s Circus, whilst some of his brothers and sisters perished. Celery’s Giant isn’t a story isn’t about him, however, it’s a story about what might have been had his siblings survived, as well as being about family, friendship and courage. Celery’s Giant was also shortlisted for Searchlight’s Best Novel Opening for Children or Young Adults 2024.
Judging comments: “It’s a delightful story that channels Mary Poppins – with a dystopian version of the nanny coming through to stay. It also put me in mind of the magical books of E Nesbit, where the children need to unite and show their resourcefulness when everything seems against them. Wonderful writing and engaging characters, I loved this.” – Monica Chakraverty, Editorial Director and Head of Scouting at Cornerstones Literary Consultancy.
CHARLOTTE GIBBON wins the Cornerstones PWA Children’s Longlist Prize, which is awarded for the most promising longlisted full manuscript. Charlotte wins a place on the Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and the Professional Writing Academy’s eighteen week Edit Your Novel course worth £1,980.
The Bath Children’s Novel Award 2024 Longlist
Congratulations to all of this year’s longlistees who win feedback worth £180 from Monica Chakraverty, Editorial Director and Head of Scouting at Cornerstones Literary Consultancy.
| James Doug: Monster Hunter | Anthony Barletta |
| Luna and the Sky Gods | Fran Benson |
| The Wishing Creek | Katie Joy Blake |
| Nine Rooms | Sharon Boyle |
| Escape from Etheldra | Grace Cullen |
| How To Catch a Faerie | Rachel Darwin |
| Panjandrum | Craig Pearson Fender |
| Anomaly Island | Lois Foster |
| To The Bottom Of The World | Charlotte Gibbon |
| The Peregrine’s Apprentice | Jenny Glover |
| Spooky the Sprite and the Great Hullaballoo | R A Hudson |
| Uncle Ulric’s Home for Unusual Animals | Jason Lang |
| Puffling and the Light | Anne Mawdsley |
| The Red Line | Mahrukh McDonald |
| Major Calling | Lindsay McHansen |
| Celery’s Giant | Miranda Nugent |
| Children of the Chimneytops | Lottie Saahko |
| Dark Horse | Fraer Stevenson |
| The Plantation | Sharon Tandy |
| The Unsavory Secrets of Bogswoddle Inn | Noah Weisz |
| Ortun and the Seakers | A P Yates |
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