From postman to twice-crowned political prize-winner: Labour MP Alan Johnson won his second literary award in a week when his bestselling memoir, This Boy, won the Orwell Book Prize, days after winning the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje prize.
“I’m not sure what Orwell would have made of giving his prize to a former Home Secretary who tried to introduce ID cards to Britain,” quipped Johnson, before joking that the 1984 writer shared characteristics with our most recent Prime Ministers. “He was called Blair, he went to Eton and he had a ferocious temper. I’ll leave you to work out which one was which.”
The journalism prize went to the Guardian’s Ghaith Abdul-Ahad for his reports on Syria. There was criticism from some Left-wing supporters who argued that David Goodhart’s anti-immigration book The British Dream should never have been shortlisted. The tome came second but organiser Jean Seaton wasn’t to be cowed by the controversy. “I say bring it on,” she dryly remarked.
