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Journalism of Courage
Poet Christopher Reid was awarded Britain8217;s Costa Book of the Year Award with a poetry collection written in tribute to his late wife.
Reid8217;s 8220;A Scattering8221; 8211; inspired by his wife8217;s death from cancer in 2005 8211; beat four other finalists to the USD 48,426 prize,which aims to reward the most enjoyable book in the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.
8220;I8217;m delighted and bewildered to be the recipient of this important literary prize,8221; the 60-year-old yesterday said as he accepted the award in central London. 8220;The book itself was difficult to write8230; It hasn8217;t quietened the grief but it8217;s helped me think more clearly.8221;
Judge Josephine Hart described Reid8217;s winning collection as 8220;austere and beautiful and moving.8221; She compared Reid8217;s work to those by Thomas Hardy and WB Yeats,who were both inspired to write by personal tragedy.
8220;We feel that what Christopher Reid did was to take a personal tragedy and to make the emotion and the situation universal,8221; she said. 8220;It is bizarrely life-enhancing because it speaks of the triumph of love before and after death.8221;
Hart said the judging panel arrived at the decision by a majority. The Book of the Year prize was chosen from five finalists,each already a winner of separate Costa genre awards 8211; novel,first novel,poetry,biography and children8217;s book. Each category winner receives USD 8,000.
