... which you may remember was for the Best First Novel award. Well, I didn't win, but I'm happy to say that the prize went to a fellow Random House author, who I sat opposite and who was very nice, to wit: Nicola Monaghan, author of The Killing Jar. The other shortlistees, who I'd like to take this opportunity to plug, were:

Naomi Alderman, author of Disobedience (who approached me in the hallway and said, 'Bareback! Yes? I loved it!', which is reason enough to buy her book right there)

Vanora Bennett, author of Portrait of an Unknown Woman

J.M. Ledgard, author of Giraffe

Stef Penney, author of The Tenderness of Wolves

Ray Robinson, author of Electricity

... and me, of course, but you've already read my book, right? Although, of course, a spare copy never did anybody any harm.

They had some fine apple crumble at the ceremony too. I mean, really nice.