Oxblood: Winner of the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award

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a book to get lost headlong in. Tom Benn manages to be heart-felt and attentive and generous, without ever resorting to being sentimental..Wonderfully written, deft and pungent and sensuous. It is honest and truthful, but also a great feat of fiction -- STIG ABELL

Matriarch Nedra presides over the household, which bustles with activity as she prepares the welcome feast for her grandson Kelly’s return from prison. The gangland novel you have never read before, the one that gets inside the minds of three generations of women whose lives are bound to the crime lords of Wythenshawe by blood, flesh, fear, desire and a hunger for possession that cannot be contained in one lifetime. In a place where Mean Streets meets Most Haunted, with his hyper-intense, hallucinogenic prose, Benn will make you believe in ghosts' -- CATHI UNSWORTHVic has the natural observational powers of a long-time spy, and this skill makes her an asset to the team. Her abilities remind me of a cross between Cassie from The Naturals series and Veronica Mars. So of course, I enjoyed watching her notice everything. Over the course of a few days, the Dodds women must each confront the true legacy of the men who have defined their lives; and seize the opportunity to break the cycle for good. This was definitely a great story. I loved the action, suspense, non blood family, betrayal, lies, secrets , mystery, bravery, human trafficing, even a little romancebut so much more. The plot was excellantsome errors in grammer and spelling but an easy fix and didn’t detract from the story. I loved all the ins and outs from this awesome storyespecially those with Vic and I highly recommend. I went into this book with no expectations, I had never read anything by this author before and wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I am so glad I did it this way. The prologue hooked me immediately I needed to know why she was in this situation and how in the world she was going to get out of it. Matriarch Nedra presides over the household, which bustles with activity as she prepares the welcome feast for her grandson Kelly's return from prison.

I don’t know what books will make you laugh but here are some that make me laugh: Kafka’s The Trial, Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts, Richard Price’s Ladies’ Man, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood, and Philip Roth’s Sabbath’s Theater. Basically, any screwball tragedy or harrowingly absurd story in which characters confront their own shadows, or experience surreal, mundane or violent social hypocrisies. Whether the torment is a cosmic justice, self-inflicted or a persecution, experiencing the worst day in a fictional life is very funny to me. A book that might move me to tears? An unruly novel about northern nanas in a haunted council house probably sounded like a risky investment to mainstream gatekeepers. There was little that was recent and comparable with Oxblood to point at and say: Well, that broke through; this might just too. What are the traps and tropes associated with working-class fiction? For over 30 years, the UK’s most influential prize for young writers has been a definitive indicator of rising literary talent in Britain and Ireland, and Tom Benn joins an illustrious list of previous winners, including last year’s winner Cal Flyn, as well as Zadie Smith, Simon Armitage, Max Porter, Sally Rooney and Robert Macfarlane. Much of the story involved suspenseful activities, like people trying to kill or capture Vic. Despite not being a trained spy, Vic made use of the skills she did have to survive and even saved others. Once she got to Italy, I had a hard time putting the book down because I wanted to know what happened next (and the book had been enjoyable before that). Once she is involved with the team though, bad things start happening and some in the team start suspecting she might be a mole, but who the real mole was will surprise them all.Prose like poetry...I really felt like I needed to savour each sentence. An utterly unique voice, telling a working-class story that resists the usual clichés' -- OTEGHA UWAGBA AnnaLisa is the youngest of four children and the only daughter, born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. After graduating high school, she moved to Charlotte, NC with her parents. This turned out to be a blessing since it was just a few short years later that she met her husband in the Film Actor's Studio of Charlotte. As she studied acting at the Studio, AnnaLisa was in several films and made-for-TV movies, as well as performed in local theater in both dramatic and musical roles. At one time, it was AnnaLisa's dream to be a professional singer. Billed as a book for teens, I wasn't expecting to get hooked from the very beginning. It's very well written with a lot of action to keep the reader entertained. I love the characters. Victoria is a gutsy young woman who will do anything to find her brother. Ian is the man from Interpol and having such a serious job as leader of his specific group makes him appear very solemn and serious.. but Victoria sees the softer side of him. Much of my poetry has been inspired or provoked by the blues’ ] Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage? AnnaLisa completed her undergraduate degree in Human Services at Wingate University and her Master's degree in Counseling from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. During her thirteen years in the Human Services field, AnnaLisa worked with children in group homes and foster care, and spent two years in private practice counseling individuals, families, and couples.

What a voice Tom Benn has got, what a feel for character and place, and what an uncompromising approach he has to his subject and material. He’s gritty but totally empathetic, and inhabits his milieu of 1980s Manchester with total conviction and no attempt to soften the voices of his characters We were bowled over as a judging panel by Oxblood, and feel confident too that Tom is a talent who will grow and grow.‘ When Victoria realizes something could be terribly wrong with her brother’s trip though, she gets on a plane and leaves for Italy even though it terrifies her. Once there she realizes how hard it is going to be to find Gil. She also meets a certain someone who ends up showing her a whole new world that she didn’t even know existed while at the same time finally giving her a purpose. Set in a council house haunted by memories of dead family members, Benn’s unflinching storytelling unearths the forgotten working class voices left in the footnotes of Manchester’s industrial history, shrouded by criminal secrecy and steeped in a powerful emotional darkness which left this year’s judges’ ‘bowled over’ and certain that Tom Benn’s talent will only continue to ‘grow and grow’.Tom Benn is the winner of the 2022 Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award for his novel, Oxblood Martin Doyle Cheers. It couldn’t be more surreal and encouraging to win an award that has championed so many writers whose work means something to me. Tell us about your latest novel, Oxblood. It took eight years to write?