A book loving village welcomed another prize winning author.
English writer Gavin Extence, a national title holding chess player as a youngster and the holder of a PhD in film studies, is the winner of this year’s Waverton Good Read Award with his debut book The Universe Versus Alex Woods.
Gavin attended a special dinner at Eaton Golf Club to collect his prize of £1,000.
Every seat was sold several weeks in advance as the book, telling the story of wilful teenager Alex, who has a fascination with science and astronomy after being put into a coma by a falling meteorite, was such a popular winner.
After receiving the prize from Richard Taylor of the Cheshire based National Nuclear Laboratory, one of the sponsors of the award, Gavin explained that had the book not found a publisher and been so successful, his alternative career plan was to manage a fast food outlet.
Now with a four-book contract in his pocket from Hodder and Stoughton, his career as a writer is assured for some years to come.
The dinner was hosted by borough culture chief Cllr Stuart Parker and had a ‘heavenly bodies’ theme picking up on the teenager’s mishap.
The table decorations, created by Angela Haswell, were goldfish bowls containing items associated with the events in the story while a table quiz, devised by Gwen Connolly and based on the book title, kept guests in high spirits.
The success of the event delighted co-founders Gwen Goodhew and Wendy Smedley who set up the Waverton Good Read Award in 2003 to foster reading in the community and provide a platform for new British writers of fiction.
Since then there has been a steady stream of talented writers to the village to receive their awards, many of whom are now household names.
More recently a children’s award has been introduced with children in Years 5 and 6 in local schools judging the quality of new fiction for that age group.
Sue Buckley is currently the organiser of this award which is sponsored by Urenco.
With the 12th main award now under way, anyone in the locality who would like to be involved should look on the website www.wavertongoodread.org.uk for contact details.
