Spear’s Book Awards
in association with Citi Private Bank
5th July, 2010
The Criterion, Piccadilly
The second Spear’s Book Awards, in association with Citi Private Bank, celebrating the very best writing talent and the books of the year – from finance to fiction – took place today (July 5th, 2010), at a glamorous literary lunch held at the legendary Criterion restaurant.
Authors and celebrity judges from the worlds of literature, finance and society were in attendance as prizes were given out for categories which included some of the most important and influential books of the year.
Click here for pictures from the reception and here for pictures of the winners
Guests in attendance included: Phillip Blond, ‘Red Tory’ and one of David Cameron’s closest advisers; Manfredi della Gherardesca, art dealer and style icon; Nick Foulkes, nominated author and dandy; Anne McElvoy, executive editor of the Evening Standard; winner Robert Sackville-West, 7th Baron Sackville and inhabitant of famed country house Knole; winner and biographer of Evelyn Waugh, Selina Hastings; winner and leading architectural historian Mark Girouard; nominee Ion Trewin, editor of Alan Clarke’s diaries; legendary journalist Anthony Haden-Guest; Spear’s editor-in-chief William Cash; and acclaimed illustrator Adam Dant.
Related
The winners were:
CITI PRIVATE BANK FINANCIAL HISTORY OF THE YEAR
John Cassidy
How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities (Allen Lane)
FINANCIAL BOOK OF THE YEAR
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Too Big To Fail: Inside the Battle to Save Wall Street (Allen Lane)
BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR
Michael Scammell
Koestler: The Indispensable Intellectual (Faber & Faber)
FAMILY HISTORY OF THE YEAR
Robert Sackville-West
Inheritance: The Story of Knole and the Sackvilles (Bloomsbury)
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SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE YEAR
Tad Friend
Cheerful Money: Me, My Family and The Last Days of Wasp Splendour (Little, Brown)
ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF THE YEAR
Mark Girouard
Elizabethan Architecture: Its Rise and Fall, 1540-1640 (YUP)
NOVEL OF THE YEAR
William Trevor
Love and Summer (Penguin)
SPEAR’S SPECIAL AWARDS
For Best First Book
Alex Preston
This Bleeding City (Faber and Faber)
For Outstanding Achievement for a body of work
Selina Hastings, author of nominated biography of Somerset Maugham
For an Outstandingly Produced Book.
Hans Luijten (Ed), Leo Jansen (Ed), Nienke Bakker (Ed)
Vincent van Gogh – The Letters: The Complete Illustrated and Annotated Edition (Thames and Hudson)
The prizes, custom-made by Prometheus Bound, were copies of England’s Thousand Best Houses by Simon Jenkins, bound in red lizard-leather.
Background
The 2009 Spear’s Book Awards distinguished themselves by the quality of the nominated books and by picking the winners of both the Man Booker Prize and the FT/Goldman Sachs Prize.
Guests included: Vince Cable, MP, now Business Minister; Frances Osborne, wife of George Osborne, MP, now Chancellor of the Exchequer; Liaquat Ahamed, winning author of Lords of Finance; renowned interior designer David Mlinaric; acclaimed illustrator Adam Dant; Jane Wellesley; Anthony Haden-Guest; host William Cash; Toby Young; and many of the nominated authors and literary London’s leading agents, publishers and editors.
The multi-award winning Spear’s is regarded as the New Yorker of finance titles and was shortlisted as ‘Magazine of the Year’ last year by the British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME). Editor William cash has twice won Editor of the Year at the Independent Publishers PPA awards for his use of dazzling writers in Spear’s. Its website, featuring blogs, expert advice and party photos, is spearswms.com.
The glossy magazine has always been a showcase for the sharpest and most entertaining writing, with such talents as Andrew Roberts, Anthony Haden Guest, Martin Vander Weyer, Luke Johnson and Peter York. Spear’s books pages are edited by noted reviewer and Spear’s deputy editor Christopher Silvester.
The lunch is the sister event of the highly successful Spear’s Wealth Management Awards held last year at Christie’s. The latter, which was featured on CNBC Europe, has rapidly established itself as the Oscars of financial awards.
The iconic Criterion, a stalwart of the London restaurant scene for over 135 years, is the perfect setting to host this year’s Book Awards lunch. Painstakingly restored, this lavish Grade II-listed space reopened at the end of last year under new ownership and new head chef Matthew Foxon, who prepares critically acclaimed British food.
The Criterion has a notable literary history. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle set Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson’s first meeting in train there, while G.K Chesterton attended its luncheon clubs, as did Bertrand Russell and Sir Hugh Walpole. H.G. Wells was the chairman of the Royal College of Sciences, whose alumni held their first annual dinner there.
Click here to download a PDF of the shortlist
These books are available to buy with Amazon discounts in the Spear’s/Amazon store (click on categories to right)
SPEAR’S BOOK AWARDS SHORTLIST
CITI PRIVATE BANK FINANCIAL HISTORY OF THE YEAR
For a corporate history or non-fiction book that examines a historical incident, trend or period of interest to Spear’s readers. 2009 winner: Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed (William Heinemann).
Alan Beattie
False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World (Penguin)
John Cassidy
How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities (Allen Lane)
Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff
This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (Princeton University Press)
Benjamin Roth
The Great Depression: A Diary (Public Affairs)
Robert Sloan
Don’t Blame The Shorts: Why Short Sellers Are Always Blamed for Market Crashes and How History Is Repeating Itself (McGraw-Hill) Read Spear’s review here
FINANCIAL BOOK OF THE YEAR
For a non-fiction book that tackles a contemporary economic issue, including but not limited to the credit crisis and recession. 2009 winner: Fool’s Gold by Gillian Tett (Little, Brown).
John Lanchester
Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No-One Can Pay (Allen Lane)
Michael Lewis
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (Allen Lane)
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Too Big To Fail: Inside the Battle to Save Wall Street (Allen Lane)
Vicky Ward
The Devil’s Casino: Friendship, Betrayal, and the High Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers (Wiley)
Gregory Zuckermann
The Greatest Trade Ever: How John Paulson Bet Against the Markets and Made $20 Billion (Viking)
BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR
For a biography or autobiography of an individual of interest to Spear’s readers. They may be from the worlds of business, society, politics, art or others. Biographies of historical figures are eligible for this award. 2009 winner: Chagall: Love and Exile by Jackie Wullschlager (Allen Lane).
Selina Hastings
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham (John Murray)
Mark Hudson
Titian: The Last Days (Bloomsbury)
Michael Scammell
Koestler: The Indispensable Intellectual (Faber & Faber)
Robert Service
Trotsky: A Biography (Macmillan)
Ion Trewin
Alan Clark: The Biography (W&N)
FAMILY AND SOCIAL HISTORIES OF THE YEAR
One award for a book that provides an account of a UK or international family or dynasty of interest to Spear’s readers, one for an account of a UK or international social or historical period of interest to Spear’s readers. 2009 winner: Sissinghurst by Adam Nicolson (HarperPress).
Nick Foulkes
Gentleman and Blackguards: Gambling Mania and the Plot to Steal The Derby of 1844 (W&N)
Tad Friend
Cheerful Money: Me, My Family and The Last Days of Wasp Splendour (Little, Brown) Read Spear’s review here
Robert Sackville-West
Inheritance: The Story of Knole and the Sackvilles (Bloomsbury)
Marcus Scriven
Splendour and Squalor: The Disgrace and Disintegration of Three Aristocratic Dynasties (Atlantic)
Rupert Thomson
This Party’s Got to Stop (Granta Books)
ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF THE YEAR
For a large-format image-led book. 2009 winner: The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé (Thames & Hudson).
Heston Blumenthal
The Fat Duck Cookbook (Bloomsbury)
Hamish Bowles
The World in Vogue: People, Parties, Places (Knopf)
Philip Davies
Lost London: 1870-1945 (Transatlantic)
Mark Girouard
Elizabethan Architecture: Its Rise and Fall, 1540-1640 (YUP)
Deanna Petherbridge
The Primacy of Drawing: Histories and Theories of Practice (YUP)
Tim Richardson
Great Gardens of America (Frances Lincoln)
NOVEL OF THE YEAR
For a work of fiction, not necessarily on an economic or financial theme. The winner of this award will be chosen by the readers of Spear’s. 2009 winner: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate).
Martin Amis
The Pregnant Widow (Jonathan Cape)
Robert Harris
Lustrum (Hutchinson)
Jon McGregor
Even the Dogs (Bloomsbury)
David Mitchell
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Sceptre)
Alex Preston
This Bleeding City (Faber and Faber)
William Trevor
Love and Summer (Penguin)
SPEAR’S SPECIAL AWARDS
For Best First Book
For Outstanding Achievement for a body of work
For an Outstandingly Produced Book deserving of recognition which does not fit into the other categories. 2009 winner: The Highgrove Florilegium (Addison Publications).
Hans Luijten (Ed), Leo Jansen (Ed), Nienke Bakker (Ed)
Vincent van Gogh – The Letters: The Complete Illustrated and Annotated Edition (Thames and Hudson)
Sebastian Schütze
Caravaggio: The Complete Works (Taschen)
All books must have been first published or made available in English between 1st May 2009 and 30th April 2010.
Click here to download a PDF of the shortlist
These books are available to buy with Amazon discounts in the Spear’s/Amazon store (click on categories to right)
For more information, please contact Josh Spero, Senior Editor, Spear’s, on 020 7313 8030 or at josh.spero@spearswms.com.
