Debatable Land is a 1995 novel by Scottish author Candia McWilliam . It seeks to raise questions about the direction in which Britain (and more specifically the devolution project ) is moving in the 21st century. The title refers to the debatable lands , land lying between Scotland and England when they were distinct kingdoms which perennially switched between English and Scots rule, before becoming an independent lawless territory ruled by warring clans . Set on a boat on the beautifully evoked South Pacific , the relations between the characters mirror contemporary devolutionary debates between the constitutive British states, particularly the relationship between England and Scotland.
6-425: The novel won the 1994 Guardian First Book Award . This article about a 1990s novel is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See guidelines for writing about novels . Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page . Guardian First Book Award The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by The Guardian newspaper. It annually recognised one book by
12-517: A new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspaper had sponsored from 1965. The Guardian First Book Award was discontinued in 2016, with the 2015 awards being the last. The newspaper determined to change its book award after 1998, and during that year also hired Claire Armitstead as literary editor. At the inaugural First Book Award ceremony in 1999, she said that she
18-448: A week, September to November, and selected a shortlist of six. A panel of eight judges including two Guardian editors chose the winner. The newspaper called it "the first time the ordinary reading public have been involved in the selection of a major literary prize." In the event, the 1999 reading groups selected a shortlist including six novels, and all four groups favoured the novel Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. Their second favourite
24-547: Was informed of the change, details to be arranged, by the head of the marketing department during her second week on the job. "By the time we left the room we had decided on two key things. We would make it a first book award, and we would involve reading groups in the judging process. This was going to be the people's prize." About the opening of the prize to nonfiction she had said in August, "readers do not segregate their reading into fiction or non-fiction, so neither should we." There
30-544: Was no restriction on genre; for example, both poetry and travel would be included in principle, and so would self-published autobiographies. For the first rendition, 140 books were submitted, including a lot of nonfiction strongest "by far" in "a hybrid of travel-writing and reportage"; weak in science and biography. Experts led by Armitstead selected a longlist of 11 and Borders book stores in Glasgow , London , Brighton and Leeds hosted reading groups that considered one book
36-521: Was one of the travelogue and reporting hybrids, by Philip Gourevitch of The New Yorker . The judges chose the latter, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families —"a horrifying but humane account of the Rwandan genocide , its causes and consequences", the newspaper called it in August. The prize was worth £10,000 to the winner. Eligible titles were published in English, and in
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