I Spy Pinhole Eye named Wales Book of the Year 2010
1st July 2010
The English language Wales Book of the Year 2010 has been won by poet Philip Gross for his collection I Spy Pinhole Eye.
In taking the GBP 10,000 prize, Gross beat off competition from Nikolai Tolstoy with The Compilation of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi and Terri Wiltshire with Carry Me Home.
I Spy Pinhole Eye saw the poet collaborate with photographer Simon Denison. The collection was written to accompany Denison's pinhole photographs of everyday objects.
James Hawes, one of the judges for the English language award, said the decision to give the prize to Gross was a 'close-fought battle' that failed to reach a unanimous agreement.
'We hope that Philip will relish the fact that this was a real five-set tussle, not a straight sets walkover,' he added.
In the Welsh language section, John Davies won the GBP 10,000 prize with his Cymru: Y 100 lle i'w gweld cyn marw.
Earlier this year, Gross scooped the T.S. Eliot Prize for his collection The Water Table, which judge and poet Simon Armitage praised for its 'great clarity and concentration'.