Twenty winners of James Patterson’s Young Bookseller Special Achievement Award receive £500 prize 

The twenty winners of James Patterson’s Young Bookseller Special Achievement Award have been announced and will receive a prize of £500 each. Of all the candidates nominated, the winners were carefully selected for their outstanding work. 

Bestselling author and bookshop devotee, James Patterson, announced the award in March this year to recognise the outstanding contribution of young booksellers. James Patterson is committed to bringing attention to bookshops, and he is especially concerned with encouraging young people into the industry to continue to inspire lifelong reading.

The award commends booksellers aged 25 and under who have worked in a bookshop for a minimum of 12 months. Candidates were nominated by their managers or colleagues from high street bookshops across Britain and Ireland. 

Tom McKnight, one of the recipients of the award from The Haslemere Bookshop, says

“This award means a massive amount to me as it offers a hopeful future for bookshops all over the UK and Ireland. I know reading will continue to inspire young minds as it always has thanks to awards like this.”

This award is the latest of James Patterson’s numerous financial donations to support bookshops. In the past five years, Patterson has donated £500,000 to independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland to encourage children to read. This funded projects ranging from refurbishment and expansion of children’s sections to organising a bedtime reading project. And in 2013, Patterson pledged $1million to US bookshops which funded everything from customising a school bus as a mobile bookshop to providing free books for underprivileged children.

James Patterson commented: 

“I am delighted for the twenty winners who were chosen for their talent and extraordinary contribution to the bookselling industry. The passion and energy of all the young booksellers that were nominated has been overwhelming.”

Nic Bottomley, President of The Booksellers Association, says: 

“The BA is in the business of celebrating and improving bookselling, and I can think of no better way to do both those things than to award outstanding young booksellers in this way.  James Patterson’s generosity and vision in deciding to reward our rising young stars in the bookselling landscape is a wonderful way for us to celebrate our emerging leaders and watch their careers develop.”

The Winners

• Amy Vale – Book-ish, Crickhowell, Powys
• Callum Churchill – Topping & Company Booksellers of Bath
• Callum McAllister – Foyles, Bristol
• Charlotte Elizabeth – Blackwell’s Bookshops, Reading
• Emily Smith – Waterstones, Crewe
• Helen Mair – The Alligator’s Mouth, Richmond, Surrey
• Imogen Hargreaves – Mostly Books, Abingdon, Oxfordshire
• Inga Maciulyte – Foyles Waterloo Station, London 
• Jacob Tunks – Kett’s Books, Wymondham, Norfolk
• James Firth – The Stripey Badger, Skipton, North Yorkshire
• Meg Prince – The Ironbridge Bookshop, Telford, Shropshire
• Mia Colleran – Dubray Books, Dublin
• Miriam Mathie – The GLO Bookshop, Motherwell, North Lanarkshire
• Olivia Farmery – Magic Alley, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire
• Olivia Kekewich – The Edinburgh Bookshop, Edinburgh
• Phoebe Edwards – Little Ripon Bookshop, North Yorkshire
• Saoirse Behan – Woodbine Books, Kilcullen, County Kildare
• Sarah Gillett – East Grinstead Bookshop, West Sussex
• Taylor McDonald – Bookpoint, Dunoon, Argyll
• Tom McKnight – The Haslemere Bookshop, Haslemere, Surrey