Hilary Spurling and Tatjana Soli have won the James Tait Black prize. The award is prestigious, for being decided by scholars and students of literature.
Soli won for her debut novel, The Lotus Eaters, which is set during the dying moments of the Vietnam War as a group of western journalists survey the decline. The protagonist, Helen, finds herself in the country after her brother was killed in action. Helen shuns the assorted gonzos in Saigon and goes native. The book received rave reviews, notably from Janet Maslin the New York Times.
Hilary Spurling, a one-time warden of this parish, won the biography prize for her book, Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China. Victoria Glendinning reviewed the book for the Spectator earlier in the year, and called it a ‘subtle and masterly book’.
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