Three times lucky for triumphant children’s writer

Fionnuala Quinlan, Books Editor

Annan Water, Ms Thompson's tale of two teenagers whose lives have been marred by tragedy but whose love of horses binds them together, was chosen for its economy of language, plotting and characterisation, which the judges said give it "a powerful emotional force that lingers like the echo of the tragic ballad."

The writer, who won in 2002 for The Beguilers and was a joint winner in 2003 for The Alchemist's Apprentice, was presented with a cheque for 3,000 and the Bisto perpetual