Sara Allerton (OA88) "Making Shore"
Ampleforth novel set for more national awards
Sara Allerton’s (OA88) debut novel, Making Shore, has been nominated for the 2011 Beryl Bainbridge First Time Author Award. The new award was introduced last year to honour the memory of the late Dame Beryl Bainbridge, who won the Whitbread novel award twice and was nominated five times for the Booker Prize.
Allerton’s heart wrenching tale of survival, sacrifice, love and lies, is also a leading contender for the annual People’s Book Prize. Having won the fiction segment of that competition last summer, it is now challenging 11 other books for the leading fiction title of the year.
The winners of all three sections - fiction, non-fiction and children's - will then go head to head and vie for the overall People's Book Prize for 2011. Voting runs until 15 July and winners will be announced on 20 July. You can vote for the book by logging on to http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/finalist.php
Making Shore is set in the aftermath of a torpedo strike by a U-boat on a Merchant Navy vessel in 1942. The fictional drama has been brought to life through the reminiscences of 87-year-old merchant seaman Brian Clarke, a survivor from the sinking of the British merchant ship SS Sithonia.
“Brian’s experience and what he and his fellow survivors had to endure almost beggars belief,” explains Sara. “In writing the novel, I wanted people to dare to imagine how they might fare if exposed to such extreme hardship. We’re both thrilled that it’s fast becoming a favourite with so many readers.”
Andrew Wheatcroft, author of ‘The Enemy at the Gate’, said: “It is an extraordinary story – the grim face of war, chirpy unassuming courage, and running through, the need to keep faith whatever the cost.”
To see an author interview about Making Shore, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMRTZRZLTM0
Sara lives in rural Suffolk with her husband Toby and three children Katharine, Charlie and Meggie.