Hilary Spurling wins Whitebread award for her 'Matisse the Master'

Hilary Spurling wins Whitebread award for her 'Matisse the Master'

	Published : Fri, 27 Jan 2006 02:10 By : David Simms Print this Story

LONDON: Biographer Hilary Spurling won the prestigious Whitebread Book of the Year award for her biography of French painter Henri Matisse, titled "Matisse The Master". She edged out Kate Thompson, who was the winner in the children's category for her time travel saga "The New Policeman," in a keenly contested run for the award.

Chairman of the judges deciding the award Michael Morpurgo said it was an unbelievable close contest among a shortlist of five. "She managed to paint a picture of a painter. It was an extraordinary work," he said. The award is for Spurling's second volume of the Matisse biography.

The judges hailed the book as "one of the landmark biographies of the last few years which has already changed the history of art". Spurling took more than 15 years to complete the work with full access to Matisse's family papers and his correspondence.

The Whitbread has five categories -- novel, first novel, children's book, biography and poetry, each category carrying a price of 5,000 pounds. An overall winner is selected and given 25,000 pounds.

Poet Christopher Logue won the third place for his reworking of Homer's Iliad.

Novelist Ali Smith was the hot favourite for the Whitbread Book of the Year. She was shortlisted for the Booker and the Orange awards, but did not win. However, she never figured in the final 10 of Whitebread.

The nominees need to be based in Britain and Ireland. This year there were some 476 entries.

Announcing Spurling as the winner at a ceremony in London, Morpurgo eulogised the work, saying "So many people felt it was a massive work, but yet it didn't read like it. It read like a story.

"We were reading about this man and his pictures and the life that he had, his family and his travels. Somehow she managed to paint a picture of a painter that was accessible to people not necessarily familiar with art. It was an extraordinary achievement to write a book that length and you get to the end and you're sorry it's finished.

"What is remarkable is the way that Spurling enters into the character of her subject, communicating his charm, his obsessiveness and restlessness, his enjoyment of life, the tensions within him and - hardest of all - his creativity."

Born in Stockport in1940, Hilary Spurling studied at Oxford and took up job as a journalist. She was the arts editor, theatre critic and literary editor for The Spectator. Her previous biographies include the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and George Orwell's wife, Sonia.

Whitbread, which runs Pizza Hut in the U.K. and the David Lloyd fitness centers, set up the awards in 1971 to recognize ''the most enjoyable books'' of the year from authors. It has now announced the end of its sponsorship, saying consumers do not associate the prize with its products. No new sponsor has been found.