Insights from Branford Boase Award co-founder

Insights from Branford Boase Award co-founder Julia Eccleshare

Set up in memory of award-winning author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase, one of the founders of Walker Books, the Branford Boase Award is given annually to the author of the year’s outstanding debut novel for children. The Branford Boase Award is the only award to honour the editor of the winning book, highlighting the importance of the editor in nurturing new talent.

Here, Branford Boase Award co-founder and director of the Hay Festival children’s programme, Julia Eccleshare, shares her thoughts on the award – from its origins to its impact.

Last week the Branford Boase Award celebrated its 25^th anniversary. At an award ceremony at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, the new winners, debut author Nathanael Lessore and his editors Ella Whiddett and Ruth Bennett of Hot Key Books stepped up to receive their prizes adding their names to the distinguished list of previous winners. Many of those previous winners – both authors and editors – were there too giving the event the air of a roll call of some of the most influential names in children’s books of the past quarter century. 

Set up in memory of the award-winning author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase, one of the founders of Walker Books, the Branford Boase Award is given annually to the author of the year’s outstanding debut novel for children. The Branford Boase Award is still the only award to honour the editor of the winning book, highlighting the importance of the editor in nurturing new talent.

The idea for the Award came out of great sadness following the deaths of both Henrietta and Wendy in 1999. When Henrietta won the Guardian Children’s Book Prize for Fire, Bed and Bone in 1997 she was already receiving treatment for cancer. The prize was a life-affirming boost to her writing especially as she knew that she would not have time to write all that she wanted. In conversations with me and Anne Marley, then the Head of Children’s Library Services in Hampshire, who had championed Henrietta’s books from the very beginning, Henrietta shared he hope that some legacy for her work could be created. A few months before Henrietta died her editor Wendy Boase, whose role it was to find and nurture the wonderful writers who made Walker Books such a creative force in publishing, also died of cancer. Walker Books wanted a memorial to her incredible work for the company and so the idea of a tribute to them both was dreamed up. 

Out of the sadness of their deaths their came the idea of celebrating the vital but often overlooked creative partnership between an author and editor that is at the heart of almost all publishing successes.  That being so, recognising both the creative originality of a new author and the different but also hugely important skill of an editor might seem like a no brainer but the BBA remains the only Award that celebrates that happy connection. Philip Pullman put it best when he said: “The Branford Boase Award is one of the most imaginative and useful prizes there is. Imaginative because imagination is a way of seeing the truth about things, and the truth about writing and publishing novels is that a good editor is a story’s best friend and wisest counsellor.” 

Celebrating an author’s first book and the help they have been given to make it the book that it has become is a priceless legacy of the BBA. On publication, all the winners of the BBA are the newest voices in the rich continuum of stories for children that have both immediacy and universality making them able to cross boundaries of time and place. Stories that have inspired readers and provided the basis of so much culture – within print and in all other media.

Twenty-five years ago that first publishing contract was very hard to come by for a children’s author. In the first year of the BBA we only had 19 submissions. This year there were over 60 debut novels eligible for the Award. 

The BBA didn’t make that change but, by having an award specifically for a debut author and their editor, it showed an external respect for this niche part of every publisher’s list. 

So, 25 years on BBA not only has a legacy of winners – Meg Rosoff, Liz Hyder, Marcus Sedgwick, M.G. Leonard, Annabel Pitcher and Frances Hardinge among them – many of whom went on to make a significant contribution long after they were no longer just beginners at this. It has also played a part in encouraging publishers to take up the exciting challenge of publishing new authors. The risk part of all publisher’s business suddenly got riskier…But so did the rewards. In such fast-changing times, a new author can hit an unexpected and novel note that has the power to reach out and create new readers.

While the creative partnership between author and editor, so evident in Wendy and Henrietta’s working relationship, is still the heart of successful publishing the books on the BBA shortlist have charted the notable changes in children’s publishing. These changes are in who is writing books, what they are writing about and who they are writing for. 

Wrapped up within an adventure, children’s books have always carried useful information about the contemporary world. These stories equip readers with a big picture view of the world from which they can make up their own minds without any interference from their parents. Over the years, in responsibly told stories, the BBA titles have reflected the big existential threats from climate change, migration, plague, poverty and despair.  They have also included the equally important stories of smaller scale, domestic or personal experiences which reflect the everyday realities of today’s children. Sometimes told as fantasies and sometimes as gritty realities titles shortlisted and winning the BBA have helped children who read pace with changes. And, if adults bothered to read them, they would also find themselves comfortably abreast of how children see the world around them.

This year, the BBA judges were especially aware of the number of new voices writing for children. Own stories are revealing of how many young people had never seen themselves represented in a book leading to them believing that writing was not for them for reasons of class, gender orientation, education or ethnicity. It has been a delight to see that by telling their stories and by the Brandford Boase Award recognising them these steps towards greater inclusivity for writers and readers alike will soon become giant strides.