Our second finalist is in the category of ‘First Book’ – Kerry Hudson’s Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma has been universally praised, shortlisted for a number of prizes, it’s been described as a ‘one of the best books of the year’ by the Herald.
When Janie Ryan is born, she’s just the latest in a long line of Ryan women, Aberdeen fishwives to the marrow, always ready to fight. Her violet-eyed Grandma had predicted she’d be sly, while blowing Benson and Hedges smoke rings over her Ma’s swollen belly. In the hospital, her family approached her suspiciously, so close she could smell whether they’d had booze or food for breakfast. It was mostly booze.
Tony Hogan tells the story of a Scottish childhood of council flats and B&Bs, fags and booze and drugs, the dole queue and bread and marge sandwiches. It is also the story of an irresistible, irrepressible heroine, a dysfunctional family you can’t help but adore, the absurdities of the eighties and the fierce bonds that tie people together no matter what. Told in an arrestingly original – and cry-out-loud funny – voice, it launches itself headlong into the middle of one of life’s great fights, between the pull of the past and the freedom of the future. And Janie Ryan, born and bred for combat, is ready to win.
About the Author
Kerry Hudson was born in Aberdeen to a family of fishwives and fishermen. Growing up in a succession of council estates, B&Bs and caravan parks provided her with a keen eye for idiosyncratic behaviour, material for life, and a love of travel. Her writing focuses on the colour, love and laughter that can be found in Britain’s working class communities.
Her first novel, Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice-Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma was published in July 2012 and has been shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, Southbank Sky Arts Award for Literature, Scottish First Book Award, Author’s Club First Novel Prize, Saltire Scottish First Book of the Year and longlisted for the Polari First Book Award. Kerry’s second novel, Thirst, was written while travelling across Russia by train and completed in Vietnam and will be published by Chatto & Windus in 2014. She currently lives and writes in London, frequently serving up mince, tatties and skirlie to bewildered locals.
What Kerry says about the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Award
On being the 2013 First Book Winner: “Winning a First Book award like this is so valuable to a debut author like myself just starting out and the prize money will enable me to develop my second novel and my Tony Hogan one-woman play, which I hope to tour around the council estates featured in the novel.
“I would like to say a huge thank you to the judges, Creative Scotland and the sponsors, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust.”
Click to vote for Kerry and watch the animation of her talking about Tony Hogan...
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