Every year, readers from the London borough of Redbridge's thirteen libraries vote for their favourite shortlisted books. The Fiction category had some seriously fine titles in it this year, including Orange and Booker winners and long/short-listers... so... yes, as you can imagine, I'm utterly thrilled to have won.
I'm especially happy that this is a library award, that my book has been borrowed and read and borrowed again, and that those same readers have cared enough to vote. I'm enormously grateful. As a child I had a voracious and unending appetite for books, and our local library in Chudleigh, Devon, was my second home. Without that service I think my parents would probably have struggled to fund my massive book habit (although I was also adept at rifling through old shoes and white elephants at school jumble sales, unearthing bookish gems). When I moved to Bristol in 2007, one of the the first things I did was to join the local library.
I was sorry not to be able to attend the award ceremony, but I'm greatly looking forward to visiting a Redbridge library soon - to browse the shelves, meet some readers, and talk all things Summers. I've also heard rumours of a trophy with my name on it (figuratively, if not literally)... that's just too exciting. Thank you, Redbridge!