- Abroad in Japan takes home two awards, while Tokyo-born writer Asako Yuzuki is Breakthrough Author of 2024
- David Nicholls, Hollie McNish, Holly Jackson and Ross Montgomery among other winning authors
- The Books Are My Bag Readers Awards winners were announced at ceremony hosted by Loose Women’s Charlene White tonight
- National Book Tokens is the headline sponsor
PRESS IMAGES HERE
London, Tuesday 12th November 2024: Readers across the UK have picked books with a Japanese flavour among the best books of 2024, in the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, sponsored by National Book Tokens.
Announced tonight at an awards ceremony held at Foyles, Charing Cross Road and hosted by Loose Women’s presenter and author Charlene White, the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards celebrate the best books of the year. With a shortlist curated by booksellers, winners were selected entirely by readers across the UK and Ireland, through a public vote.
Japanese-inspired books were among the readers’ favourite books of the year, with Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad winning in the Non-Fiction category and also in the public vote driven category Readers’ Choice. The book chronicles the author’s life in Japan, which he also documents on his YouTube channel, followed by over 3.1 million fans. Meanwhile, Tokyo-born writer Asako Yuzuki was crowned Breakthrough Author, for her cult Japanese bestselling novel which took the world by storm, Butter, based on a real-life case of a cook turned murderer.
Other winners in the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2024 include: much-loved best-selling author David Nicholls, for his new love story of first encounters, second chances and the search for human connection in You Are Here; Readers Awards previous winner Hollie McNish, for her new poetry collection Lobster, exploring love in a flawed world; master of mystery Holly Jackson and creator of the best-selling A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, for her the thrilling novel The Reappearance of Rachel Price; and Ross Montgomery, award-winning fantasy children’s author for his latest adventure, I Am Rebel.
The 2024 Books Are My Bag Readers Awards Winners, as voted by readers:
Fiction
You Are Here by David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)
Non-Fiction
Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad (Transworld)
Poetry
Lobster: and other things I’m learning to love by Hollie McNish (Little Brown)
Young Adult Fiction
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson (HarperCollins)
Children’s Fiction
I Am Rebel by Ross Montgomery (Walker Books)
Breakthrough Author
Asako Yuzuki, author of Butter (HarperCollins)
Readers’ Choice
Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad (Transworld)
David Nicholls said: “I’m entirely thrilled to win the Fiction Award, and to find You Are Here alongside these fine novels. The booksellers who select the shortlist have chosen some fantastic books this year, and I’m hugely grateful to all the readers who voted. Thank you.”
Hollie McNish said: “I am totally honoured to have won the Books Are My Bag Poetry Award. I have such respect for this brilliant organisation and it was a real pleasure to sit alongside such beautiful other poets. Thank you really, that’s what I’d like to say. I love writing poetry so much and to get this award for a book I worked on for nearly four years is really lovely.”
Ross Montgomery said: “I’m absolutely made up that I Am Rebel has won the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Children’s Fiction – I’m so happy that this book has found its readers, and that’s in huge part thanks to the booksellers who have been so behind it, so this feels like a double honour. Rebel is absolutely speechless! Though that’s mainly because he’s a dog.”
Asako Yuzuki said: “I’m very happy to be the Reader’s Choice winner in the UK for the Books Are My Bag Reader Awards. Thank you very much. I would like to thank all of my readers, my translator Polly Barton, the publisher Fourth Estate, and National Book Tokens.”
Chris Broad said: “When I heard the Abroad in Japan book had been nominated by booksellers for the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, I was shocked. I was happy. Because whilst I’m immensely proud of the book, the stories I get to tell, and the people I meet, I felt that what I’ve written is important. Knowing the Abroad in Japan book was shortlisted by booksellers themselves, who spend their days literally amidst a pile of fantastic books, it really genuinely does mean a lot. From the bottom of my heart, a huge thanks to the booksellers who shortlisted the book, to the readers who voted for it. I look forward to coming back to the UK very soon to celebrate the award with a pint of cider—cider’s quite rare in Japan!”
The Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, now in their ninth year, are the only book awards curated by booksellers, and with winners chosen by readers. The judging panel of booksellers that selected the shortlist included: Rachel Airey (WHSmith), Jude Brosnan (Stanfords), James Firth (The Stripey Badger), Lucy Jakes (Waterstones), Elle Moyse (Sevenoaks Bookshop), Mariasanta Tedesco (Blackwell’s Oxford) and Christopher Walthorne (Foyles Charing Cross), with Vivien Godfrey (Stanfords) presenting an award at the ceremony.
National Book Tokens is the headline sponsor of the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, which are part of Books Are My Bag – the annual campaign celebrating the vital importance of bookshops.
For more information visit www.booksaremybag.com and follow the latest developments on social media @BooksAreMyBag / #BAMBReadersAwards
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About the Judges & Presenters
Rachel Airey, Buying Manager for Childrens Books at WHSmith High Street. I have been lucky enough to work with books for my whole career. I’ve always loved reading and I can remember the magic of opening a book and getting completely lost in it as a child, and now my job means that I can bring a little bit of that magic to a new generation of young readers. I am passionate about all books from contemporary fiction to picture books, to illustrated non-fiction, and even after decades in the business I am genuinely excited to see a book sell when I’ve had a hand in launching it.
Lucy Jakes, Children’s Buyer at Waterstones. Having grown up in Cheltenham, she attended the Cheltenham Literature Festival annually, but soon decided two weeks a year celebrating books wasn’t enough, so began working as a bookseller. She worked for three years as a Children’s and YA bookseller, and joined Waterstones Head Office in 2022, where she is now the Children’s Buyer for ages 0-5 and non-fiction.
Mariasanta Tedesco, Bookshop Manager at Blackwell’s Oxford. Mariasanta is based at the historic bookseller’s flagship shop on Broad Street in Oxford. Her bookselling journey has taken her across a variety of elements of the trade: from academic non-fiction, to gifts, to fiction, particularly in translation, art and photography and to today when she leads the shop’s commercial offer and runs the three trade floors. Shortlisted as Bookseller of the Year, Mariasanta has been a books and gift buyer across genres and has also run the bookshop at the Oxford Literary Festival. She has a keen interest in bookshops as cultural hubs and is an advocate for power of books and excellent bookselling. In her spare time, she is an emerging photographer and writer contributor to various photography organisations.
Christopher Walthorne, Senior Bookseller at Foyles Charing Cross. Aside from being an avid reader, he is also a playwright and director, and has produced three of his own plays for the stage: In My World (2013), Honest Lies (2017) and Secondhand Stories (2018).
James Firth, Co-Owner of The Stripey Badger Bookshop. James co-owns the bookshop with his mum Linda in the Yorkshire Dales village of Grassington, which is a family business with his Aunt Jacqui owning the adjoining cafe. James has recently returned from a year’s sojourn in New Zealand, where he realised that bookselling in a Dales village is the life he wants to lead. The Stripey Badger doubles as G F Endleby in the popular Channel 5 TV series All Creatures Great and Small.
Elle Moyse, Bookseller at Sevenoaks Bookshop. Elle is an ex-librarian turned full-time bookseller with a particular penchant for the dark and the strange. When she’s not lovingly placing her most treasured reads into the hands of customers, she is managing the bookshop’s subscription service, their Young Readers’ Review Scheme, and packing web orders.
Vivien Godfrey, CEO and Owner of Stanfords and Battersea Bookshop. Stanfords is an independent map and travel book shop in London’s Covent Garden established in 1853. In 2022, Vivien also opened the Battersea Bookshop, an independent neighbourhood bookshop with a hub for community events in the iconic Battersea Power Station. She has agreed to present an award.
Jude Brosnan, Marketing Manager at Stanfords. Stanfords is an independent map and travel book shop in London’s Covent Garden established in 1853.
About the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards
The Books Are My Bag Readers Awards are the only book awards with a shortlist curated by bookshops and winners chosen by readers. To qualify for the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, books must have been published in hardback or paperback between 1 January 2024 and 12 October 2024. Breakthrough Authors are those who have achieved significant breakthrough in 2024. They don’t have to be debut writers, and their books don’t have to have been published in 2024.
The Books Are My Bag Readers Awards are sponsored by Hachette UK, Penguin Random House UK, HarperCollins Publishers, Pan Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, DK, Bloomsbury, Usborne, Scholastic, Faber & Faber, Bonnier Books UK, Chicken House, Profile Books and Walker Books, David Fickling, and Ingram Content Group. National Book Tokens is the headline sponsor for the Readers Awards.
About Books Are My Bag
Books Are My Bag is a year-round campaign to celebrate bookshops across the UK and Ireland. It was established in 2013 by the Booksellers Association, working closely with its members (both independent and chain bookshops) publishers, authors, illustrators, poets and many other partners within the book world and beyond.
Books Are My Bag exists to make connections between bookshops and people who value them; to champion the work booksellers do within their communities; and to remind people of the joy and benefits of doing their book-shopping with their local bookshop.
Books Are My Bag comprises a range of calendar moments and book recommendations including Independent Bookshop Week (June), Bookshop Day (second Saturday in October), Irish Book Week (October), Indie Book Awards, Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, Indie Book of the Month and Booktime magazine.
About The Booksellers Association (BA)
The Booksellers Association is the membership organization for booksellers in the UK & Ireland, and represents over 95% of booksellers. The BA exists to support, advise and work with its members to provide business-critical products and services for booksellers. These include National Book Tokens, our gift card which prompts increased footfall and keeps gift spending in the book trade; Batchline and Batch, our award-winning EPOS, stock management and payments service, which saves time, money and hassle when settling invoices and organising returns; a full range of money-saving affinity deals; a free Business Support Helpline; Booktime magazine; government lobbying and representation work across the nations and regions; networking opportunities and events; and Books Are My Bag, our range of consumer-facing activity and campaigns, which include Indie Book of the Month, Independent Bookshop Week, Bookshop Day, the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, Christmas Books and Summer Books catalogues and more.
About National Book Tokens
National Book Tokens have inspired booklovers for more than 90 years, empowering readers to choose just the right books for them. National Book Tokens gift cards are accepted in hundreds of bookshops across the UK and Ireland, and online. Available to purchase in bookshops, supermarkets, or online – including personalised and e-gift cards, and Bookily – there are designs for booklovers of all ages and for all occasions. National Book Tokens gift cards are produced on FSC-certified card, have an expiry of 8 years from last use, and expired cards can be replaced. Find out more by visiting: www.nationalbooktokens.com
