Book award to put winner on the gravy train

LEGENDARY author Roddy Doyle’s latest tale for young readers, an account of a futuristic Titanic voyage and an old Irish yarn about a warrior are among the treasured reads up for the Irish children’s book of the year award.

Unusually, a non-fiction book — Jessica O’Donnell’s guide to the artworks at Dublin’s Hugh Lane Gallery — is also on the shortlist for the Bisto Book of the Year.

With €10,000 up for grabs for the winner, this year’s shortlist also includes four-times previous winner Kate Thompson, whose book The Last of the High Kings is based on the fabled land of youth, Tír na nÓg.