Siobhan Dowd - BBA Winner 2007

“I’m moved beyond words at winning the Branford Boase Award. Henrietta Branford had a razor-sharp intellect and compelling honesty in her writing. Fire, Bed and Bone, which I’ve just finished, leaves me mourning the books-that-might-have-been had breast cancer not so cruelly taken her from us. This is an award that taps you on the shoulder and whispers “Hurry up and earn me.” I promise to do my level best. “
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Frances Hardinge - BBA Winner 2006
It is very easy for a first time novelist to feel like an impostor, to spend their time fretting that everybody who has shown faith in them will some day realise that they've made a horrible mistake. Winning the Branford Boase came as a glorious shock. I hope that for many years to come it will provide other new authors with a similar jolt, and help them feel like 'real writers'.

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Meg Rosoff - BBA Winner 2005
How many good things can you cram into a single award? The Branford Boase honours the memory of a close and successful writer/editor team (Wendy Boase and Henrietta Branford) reminding us that it isn’t just the lonely writer and the computer who create a good novel. Add to that, a great rush of recognition for the ever-pessimistic first novelist, convinced his/her readership will be limited to members of the immediate family, and you have a prize that buoys spirit and ambition. (Now if only we could have a similar incentive for the painful second novel, to counteract the winner’s tendency to imagine his/her career has already peaked....)
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Mal Peet - BBA Winner 2004
For someone like me, someone not exactly brimful of confidence and self-belief, winning the BBA was a wonderful thing. It gave me the necessary cheek, the bottle, to carry on writing. So although it's an award for first novels, it's a unique encouragement for second, even third, novels. It's what a prize should be: a pat on the back that sends you staggering forwards.
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Kevin Brooks - BBA Winner 2003
Winning the BBA was a very special moment for me, a moment I'll remember for ever. As a writer, it's always encouraging to have your work recognised, but what makes the BBA special is that it gives that encouragement at the time when a writer most needs it - at the beginning of his or her career.
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Sally Prue - BBA Winner 2002
The thing about the BBA is, that when I won it I was so new that I hadn't the faintest idea what was going on. The thing that really made me realise what a special occasion it was, was when we got to the Oxo Tower afterwards (and I'd never been to a posh restaurant before) and they had a special FRIDGE for our flowers...I'm still hugely impressed by that! And, of course, now I understand more about the BBA, I'm totally gob-smacked at how LUCKY I was.

Winning the BBA was a huge confidence boost: the moment when I stopped being so completely terrified at being published, and really began to enjoy it.
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Marcus Sedgwick - BBA Winner 2001
Writing is a very hard game, and one of the biggest obstacles to starting is the fear of committing yourself to paper, and having people judge what you do. In retrospect, I think the most important thing the Branford Boase Award gave me gave me was validation: it gave me the confidence to believe that I had a right to do what I wanted to do.
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Katherine Roberts - BBA Winner 2000
What did winning the Branford Boase Award mean to me? Confidence! Whenever I feel worthless, the Branford Boase butterfly gives me the courage to spread my wings again.
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