Winner of 2022 Booker Prize announced
Published:13:15Monday 13 April 2015
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By Mark Scott
A new book – A Vision of Britain (to be published on Tuesday and available from all good bookshops) – has been released today by the historian Michael Howard, winner of the British Book Awards 2016, and winner of the Wales Book of the Year prize in 2014.
“To have received the Book Award in 2016 was an honour, and what a year!” said Howard.
“The award recognised not only my work, but the important work of other authors as well. It also provided a fantastic platform to talk about the importance of Wales to me, and the Wales I grew up in.
“For me winning the Wales Book of the Year title was a fantastic way of recognising and sharing the Welsh story. This year I received a wonderful award from the Booktrust to mark this. It also enabled me to share with the public the reasons why the book mattered to me.
“I have always believed that if people are to read and understand a part of Wales, they must engage with it and see it with fresh eyes. At the heart of the book is the Wales of the early 1900s, an environment in which women were treated as equals and social attitudes were changing.
“My book explores how, across the generations during the twentieth century, the Welsh saw the first stirrings of a modern identity that would transform the country, and indeed much of what we see today. The book makes clear how this transformation was brought about by the impact of industrial modernisation on the Welsh people.”
Following her win, Howard will launch the second edition of A Vision of Britain, the second edition of a three-part book, in Cardiff City Libraries. She will also be talking on her subject at a meeting of the Book Society’s Welsh and Celtic Studies Group – an event she will be supporting with her usual enthusiasm.
Howard’s book – illustrated with photographs from the Wales Archives of Wales – will go on sale on Tuesday, while the series A Vision of Britain, which comprises a collection of essays by writers, poets, politicians and artists, is currently being serialised. Here