The Stirrings: A Memoir in Northern Time by Catherine Taylor won the £4,000 (about $5,120) TLS Ackerley Prize, honoring "a literary autobiography of outstanding merit, written by an author of British nationality, and published in the U.K. in the previous year." The award is given in partnership with the Times Literary Supplement.
Taylor said: "I've never won anything, actually, so I'm really pleased. It's an amazing pedigree, the Ackerley Prize, and I am following in the footsteps of Lorna Sage and Blake Morrison, for example, who are two of my favorite writers. I'm not going to say anything else, except that my mother probably wouldn't have wanted me to write the book, but I think she'd have been--not surprised that I wrote it, but I know she'd have been proud this evening. Thank you so much."
Chair of judges Peter Parker said: "Our shortlist this year consisted of three very different, wholly involving, startlingly candid and beautifully written memoirs. We hope that by drawing attention to these books we will encourage everyone to buy and read all three of them, but the winner... is Catherine Taylor's The Stirrings."