Friday, September 28, 2012

Plenty of big names in for Manchester's Portico Prize


Literary heavyweights including AS Byatt and Jeanette Winterson battle it out for the biennial literary award, hosted by the library once frequented by Elizabeth Gaskell and Eric Cantona. Alan Sykes reports in The Guardian

Mrs Gaskell Eric Cantona Portico Manchester
 The Club Room at the Portico. The magazines are less than three months old now

The biennial Portico Prize for Literature has attracted a heavyweight shortlist this year. With the prize money being more than doubled from £4,000 to £10,000 each for the winners of the fiction and non-fiction sections, previous winners of the Booker and Whitbread prizes are in line for the awards.
Manchester's Portico Library is one of the city's finest – and least known – buildings. Most people walk past its discrete door without realising what lies behind – one of the country's best libraries in a magnificent setting. The slightly austere Ionic columns conceal a beautiful oasis of calm in the bustle of central Manchester, with around 25,000 books, comfortable chairs and excellent coffee and cake.

Full story at The Guardian

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