Jenny Downham
Winning author of
Before I Die

“I am deeply moved to have won the Branford Boase Award.  For any children’s novelist whose first book is out there in the world, but whose next is still only half-realised, it provides an enormous confidence boost.   Unique in honouring the author/editor relationship, this award is also a tribute to David Fickling - a sensitive and energetic champion.   He tells me, ‘I believe in you, keep going.’   This award seconds that in the most wonderful way possible.”
Photo: Rolf Marriott

David Fickling
Winning editor of
Before I Die

“Winning The Branford Boase once was a great honour. Winning it twice in a row, this time with Jenny, has left me nearly speechless. I love this award because it recognises the finest of our new writers for young children and in my view is chosen by people I deeply respect according to criteria which my own publishing heart responds to (if publishers can be said to have a heart!). Jenny Downham’s book is an absolute wonder and Jenny herself a real writer. You could say she sprang into our midst like Athena from the head of Zeus, at any rate, one moment she wasn’t there and then suddenly there she was on our children’s book Mount Olympus!”