Author Catherine Hall has been named the winner of the Green
Carnation literary prize 2011 for her book, The Proof of
Love.
Set during the long hot summer of 1976, it is the tale of a young
Cambridge mathematician who arrives in a remote village in the Lake
District and takes on a job as a farm labourer. Just as he is
slowly winning the trust of the suspicious local community, tragedy
strikes.
It is Hall's second book.
Chair of the judges, Simon Savidge, said: "I am thrilled, along
with all the other judges, that Catherine Hall has won this year's
Green Carnation prize with her extraordinary second novel The Proof
of Love.
"This is one of those rare novels in which you get so lost you
forget that it is fiction. The characters walk off the page and you
can feel the atmosphere simmering and brooding in every sentence.
It's a book that quietly takes you by the hand, leading you gently
into a false sense of security before gripping you and it doesn't
let go until the very last moment. It is the sort of novel that
storytelling and reading are all about, wonderfully written and a
book you want to pass on and recommend to everyone you know."
Winner Catherine Hall said "I'm utterly delighted to have won the
Green Carnation Prize - a completely unexpected pleasure,
especially given the calibre of the other writers on the shortlist.
It's a great way of raising the profile of LGBT writing, which I
think can only be a good thing."
