English PEN announced that Claire Wilcox won the £3,000 (about $4,170) PEN Ackerley Prize, which is presented annually to a literary autobiography of outstanding merit, written by an author of British nationality, and published in the U.K. in the previous year, for her memoir Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes. Two other books were shortlisted for the award: Darran Anderson's Inventory: A River, A City, A Family and Jean Sprackland's These Silent Mansions: A Life in Graveyards.
Noting that all three titles "achieved the same high standards that J.R. Ackerley did in his own autobiographical writings: imaginatively constructed, beautifully written, and unafraid to confront sometimes uncomfortable personal truths," chair of judges Peter Parker said: "In the end, however, it was not just the sheer quality of the writing, but the inventive and wonderfully aslant approach Claire Wilcox took to telling her own and other stories that made Patch Work this year's winner.... As its title suggests, the book is made up of vivid scraps skillfully stitched together to create a wonderfully glancing account of her life."