Late author wins top prize at children’s book awards

SIOBHÁN DOWD, winner of this year’s Bisto Children’s Book of the Year for her third children’s book, Bog Child, battled against time to get her latest prize- winning novel finished.

Siobhán died from cancer before yesterday’s award was announced, but had the satisfaction of knowing she had left something worthwhile for generations to come.

The 47-year-old began the novel in January 2007 but died seven months later following a long illness.

She wrote the book during the final stages of her illness, and completed it a couple of months before her death.

The writer was no stranger to the prestigious award – it was the second year running that she picked up the prize, winning last year for her book, The London Eye Mystery.

This year’s top prize of a trophy and cheque for €10,000 was accepted on her behalf by her sister, Oona Emerson, at a ceremony at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in Dublin.

The prize money will be donated to The Siobhán Dowd Trust, established by the author before she died to help disadvantaged children to improve their reading skills and experience the joy of reading.

Siobhán, who was born in London to Irish parents and lived in Oxford with her husband, Geoff, kept in close contact with Ireland. Her first novel in 2006, A Swift Pure Cry, introduced readers to a highly intelligent and passionate writer.

“It is a great sadness that Siobhán is not here today but it a tribute to the work she did and richly deserved,” said Oona.

Bog Child, set in the 1980s on the border during the Troubles, begins with the discovery in a peat bog of what appears to be a girl’s body by Fergus and his Uncle Tally.

It centres on Fergus’s journey of self-discovery as he struggles to make sense of his personal, familial and societal situation, as well as the voice of the bog child that comes to him in his dreams.

“To journey through this layered narrative is to be confronted with not only the frailty of life but also the redemptive qualities of love; unsettling yet optimistic, this is radiant prose that sings of the pain and beauty of the human condition,” the judging panel wrote.

Her final novel, Solace of the Road, published this year, is aimed at teenagers and follows a girl who leaves her foster home to try and find her mother in Ireland.

The awards, now in their 19th year, are administered by Children’s Books Ireland and sponsored by Bisto (Premier Foods).