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19 January | ![]() |
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1988: Disabled author wins Whitbread
Writer Christopher Nolan, who cannot move or speak because of an accident at birth, has won the Whitbread Book of the Year.
The 21-year-old Dubliner, who has cerebral palsy, was awarded this year's £18,750 prize at the brewery's London headquarters for his autobiographical view of his life, Under the Clock. Others in the running for the award were Ian McEwan, for the novel, A Child in Time, Francis Wyndham for his first novel, The Other Garden and Seamus Heaney for a volume of poetry, The Haw Lantern. Mr Nolan is able to write only with the aid of a word-processing computer and what has been described as a 'unicorn stick', strapped to his forehead. His mother, Bernadette, has to hold his head while he is writing.
He went on: "You all must realise that history is now in the making. Crippled man has taken his place on the world's literary stage." His prize-winning book tells how he was deprived of oxygen at birth. It left his brain damaged, meaning he was unable to talk, walk or use his hands - but his intellect was unharmed. The book is not told in the first person, but uses the character of a young man called Joseph Mehan to present his own moving struggles with his disabilities. Mrs Nolan said winning the book of the year prize would mean a great deal to her son: "Now he's being taken as a serious writer. "He's up there with all of the established writers and now he's beaten them at their own game so that must give him a sense of respectability as a writer now." Mr Nolan's writing has been likened to that of James Joyce. His first book, a volume of poetry called A Dam-burst of Dreams, was published in 1980 when he was 14.
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