2001 daggers
Gold and Silver
Non-Fiction
John Creasey
Historical
Short Story
Debut
Click the link for a list of Dagger awards in other years.
The winners of The Macallan Daggers, the leading awards for literary crime fiction in the UK, were announced on November 16th.
HENNING MANKELL, a well-established novelist in his native Sweden, wins The Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction and a cheque for £3000 with his novel Sidetracked (The Harvill Press), the tenth title in his acclaimed Kurt Wallander series. Mankell was born in Stockholm in 1948; his work has been translated into 19 languages.
GILES BLUNT is the winner of The Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction with his atmospheric second novel, Forty Words for Sorrow (HarperCollins). Blunt, who wins a cheque for £2000, is Canadian and lives in New York. He has previously written one novel, Cold Eye, and scripts for Law and Order, Street Legal and Night Heat.
Undercover policemen PHILIP ETIENNE and MARTIN MAYNARD with crime correspondent of The Observer, TONY THOMPSON, win The Macallan Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and a cheque for £2000. The Infiltrators (Michael Joseph) is a nail-biting exposé of the life of an undercover policeman.
MARION ARNOTT wins The Macallan Short Story Dagger and a cheque for £1500 for her Prussian Snowdrops (TTA Press) a subtle tale set in 1930s Germany. Marion Arnott teaches English and History at St Andrew's Academy, Paisley. Her work has been published in a wide variety of magazines.
Click an award name (above) for more details.
"For crime writers, The Macallan Daggers are like The Booker and Whitbread Prizes rolled into one: We all take it seriously; we all want to win."
Since 1824, The Macallan single malt has flowed from the site close to an ancient crossing on the majestic River Spey, Scotland's premier salmon river. The only distillery that has remained true to the tradition of maturing all of its whisky in Spanish sherry oak casks, The Macallan is a consistent international award winner. It has deservedly won the reputation as "the single malt against which all others must be judged".
The Macallan Daggers are the UK's leading literary awards for crime writing. Previous winners of the awards have included Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Janet Evanovich, and Lady Antonia Fraser. Between 1995 and 2002, the awards were sponsored by The Macallan Single Malt Scotch Whisky, and are managed by the Crime Writers' Association, originators of The Daggers.
This year, The Macallan Daggers Award ceremony took place at The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London EC1 on Friday 16 November. Bestselling author and BBC Radio 4 presenter, Louise Doughty, was the Guest Speaker.
SUSANNA JONES is this year's winner of the Creasey Dagger, the UK's leading literary award for first time novelists writing crime fiction. The author won the award with The Earthquake Bird (Picador).
The announcement was made at Dead on Deansgate, Britain's biggest crime fiction convention organised by Waterstone's Booksellers in conjunction with the Crime Writers' Association (CWA).
THE EARTHQUAKE BIRD
Susanna Jones, £12.99 Hardback (Picador, ISBN 0-3304-8501-6)
A British translator in Tokyo is sucked into the investigation of a friend's murder. A beautifully written novel which explores the nature of guilt and responsibility and builds to a remarkable conclusion.
Susanna Jones grew up in Yorkshire and studied drama at London University. She has worked in Japan as a teacher and radio script editor. At present she lives in Brighton. She received her ornamental dagger and a cheque for £1000 at the Dagger Award Lunch on Friday, the 16th of November at The Brewery in London.
Click for more details of the 2001 Creasey Dagger.
ANDREW TAYLOR is this year's winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the UK's leading literary prize for writers of historical crime fiction. The author won the award for The Office Of The Dead (HarperCollins).
The judges also want to specially commend the runner up, Michael Pearce. They wished it had been possible to award a Silver Dagger too!
The winner was announced at a champagne reception at the London crime fiction bookshop Crime in Store on Wednesday, October 24. Andrew Taylor was presented with a cheque for £3,000, and he received his ornamental dagger at the Dagger Award Lunch on Friday, the 16th of November at The Brewery in London.
Andrew Taylor, £5.99 Paperback (HarperCollins, ISBN 0-0064-9655-5)
This skilfully plotted novel is set in Fifties England, with a wonderful recreation of the dreary post-war atmosphere and some fascinating characters. The first person narrative is very effective in creating a real feeling of the period, while deftly unravelling a most absorbing puzzle.
Andrew Taylor is the award-winning author of a number of crime novels, including the Dougal series, the Lydmouth Books and The Barred Window. He and his wife live with their children in the Forest of Dean.
Click for more details of the 2001 Historical Dagger.
EDWARD WRIGHT is this year's winner of the Debut Dagger, the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) award for unpublished writers of crime fiction. The title of his winning entry is Clea's Moon.
The runner up, Edwin Thomas, was very highly commended by the judges for his excellent entry, The Blighted Cliffs. And in 2007 Allan Guthrie won the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year for Two Way Split. This first saw the light as the 2001 shortlisted entry Blithe Psychopaths, credited to Allan under his real name of Allan Buchan. Click for details of these entries.