The Mind Book of the Year Award celebrates writing that enriches people’s understanding of mental health issues.
It is presented to a book, either fiction or non-fiction, which deals with the experience of emotional or mental distress.
Following our 30th anniversary in 2011, Mind’s Book of the Year award will be taking a sabbatical in 2012. We are planning to review the award during this time. Please keep an eye on this page for further announcements.
The winner of the 2011 Book of the Year was Bobby Baker for Diary Drawings: Mental Illness and Me. The shortlist also included:
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Blake Morrison is a poet, novelist and dramatist, who has also had a distinguished journalistic career working as a literary editor (at the Observer and the Independent on Sunday) before becoming a full-time writer in 1995. He has won numerous prizes for his writing, including the Eric Gregory Award, Somerset Maugham Award, Dylan Thomas Memorial Prize, and the E. M. Forster Award. His books include As if, a study of the Bulger case, and two memoirs – one of which was ‘And when did you last see your father?’ which was made into a film starring Colin Firth in 2007. He is currently Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths’ College, London.
Michèle Roberts is the author of 12 novels, two collections of short stories, three volumes of poetry, two plays, one TV film, and one collection of essays. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, and regularly reviews for the national media. Her novel Daughters of the house won the W.H. Smith Literary Award (1993) and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize (1992). She is a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des lettres.
Fay Weldon is one of Britain’s most influential, best-read and versatile writers. As well as over 20 novels and four collections of short stories, she writes for stage, screen, television and radio, and she is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University. Her essays and reviews appear regularly in leading newspapers and journals. Her novels include Down Among the Women (1971), Praxis (1978) (shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction), The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1983), The Cloning of Joanna May (1989), and Wicked Women (1995). She has worked extensively for television, and wrote the pilot episode for the notable ITV series Upstairs, Downstairs, aswell as a favourite adaptation Pride and Prejudice for the BBC. Her autobiography Auto Da Fay was published in 2002 to much critical acclaim, and her latest book is The Spa (2009).
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the prize which was started in 1981 by Mind and the National Book League, in memory of Allen Lane.
Previous winners have included:
1982 The art of starvation, Sheila Macleod
1983 Annie's coming out, Rosemary Crossley and Anne McDonald
1984 Depression: the way out of your prison, Dorothy Rowe
1985 Art as healing, Edward Adamson
1986 A woman in custody, Audrey Peckham
1987 Talking to a stranger: a guide to therapy, Lindsay Knight
1988 The minotaur hunt, Miriam Hastings
1989 Out of mind, J Bernlef
1990 No winner
1991 The trick is to keep breathing, Janice Galloway
1992 The catch of hands, Benedicta Leigh
1993 50 years in the system, Jimmy Laing
1994 Scar tissue, Michael Ignatieff
1995 Mustn't grumble, Ed. Lois Keith
1996 Phone at nine just to say you're alive, Linda Hart
1997 Push: the life of Precious Jones, Sapphire
1998 Skating to Antarctica, Jenny Diski
1999 Remind me who I am, again, Linda Grant
2000 Making us crazy, Herb Kutchins and Stuart A. Kirk
2001 Growing up severely autistic: they call me Gabriel, Kate Rankin
2002 The noonday demon: an anatomy of depression, Andrew Solomon
2003 Will the circle be unbroken: reflections on death and dignity, Studs Terkel
2004 Giving up the ghost, Hilary Mantel
2005 The cruel mother, Siân Busby
2006 Borrowed body Valerie Mason-John
2007 Living with mother Michèle Hanson
2008 The father I had Martin Townsend
2009 The boy with the topknot: a memoir of love, secrets and lies in Wolverhampton' Sathnam Sanghera
2010 Sectioned: a life interrupted John O'Donoghue. Read an interview with John (PDF)