Brown, Williams win 2018 James Tait Black Prizes

Monday, 20 August 2018 Books+Publishing

The winners of the James Tait Black Prizes for fiction and biography—the UK’s oldest literary awards—have been announced.

Craig Brown’s Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret (HarperCollins) has won the £10,000 (A$17,440) prize for a biography. The book documents the life of Princess Margaret—Queen Elizabeth’s sister—combining interviews, parodies and essays to present a witty and unconventional picture of royal life in the mid 20th century.

Eley Williams’ Attrib. and Other Stories (Influx Press) has won the £10,000 (A$17,440) prize for fiction. The book features a series of experimental short stories focused on the challenges that people face when communicating their thoughts and feelings.

Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Prizes are awarded annually by the University of Edinburgh and judged by postgraduate students and senior academics at the university.

The winners of last year’s prizes were Eimear McBride’s novel The Lesser Bohemians (Text) and Laura Cumming’s biography The Vanishing Man (Vintage).