Percival Everett named Author of the Year at The British Book Awards
The author of Sunday Times bestseller James also took home the trophy for Fiction Book of the Year.
Percival Everett has been named Author of the Year at this year’s British Book Awards. The author of Sunday Times bestseller James – a retelling of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the perspective of the enslaved Jim – also took home the trophy for Fiction Book of the Year.
Everett joins other recent winners including Katherine Rundell, Marian Keyes, Richard Osmon and Bonnie Garmus.
Presented at Grosvenor House in London on Monday evening (12th May), The British Book Awards – also known as the Nibbies – are the UK’s definitive celebration of books and reading, with the book of the year shortlists celebrating bestselling books well published, well sold and critically acclaimed.
The award for Author of the Year was accepted on his behalf by his UK editor Maria Rejt, Picador Publisher Mary Mount and Pan Macmillan CEO, Joanna Prior.
‘I’m surprised, flattered and honoured by this award. Baffled even. I thank the judges for putting their reputations on the line. Of course the real honour is being considered with these other books and these other writers and to be in this conversation is wonderful.’
Percival Everett, speaking in a video acceptance speech
‘James is a novel we have been so proud to publish, but it's Percival himself and his body of work being celebrated here. It has been a pleasure to publish Percival Everett, since the moment we had the chance to and I hope we will do so for many years to come. ’
Joanna Prior, Pan Macmillan CEO
Published in April 2024 in hardback (Mantle) and February in paperback (Picador) to wide critical acclaim, the Sunday Times bestseller was a 'Book of the Year' in The Observer, The Times & Sunday Times, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Spectator, New Statesman, Independent, TLS, The Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, i newspaper, The Economist, The Irish Times, The New York Times, TIME and The New Yorker
James has also been awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the 2024 National Book Award for fiction and was a finalist for the 2024 Booker Prize and the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction.
James
by Percival Everett
In his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Percival Everett lays out a precise and painful depiction of the Antebellum South on the cusp of Civil War, shot through with his trademark dry humour and semantic flair. The novel is told from the perspective of James (formerly ‘Jim’), the affable companion of Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain’s novel. Crucially in Everett’s re-telling, James is resurrected from the graveyard of racist archetypes, and is given multiple dimensions and a character arc of his own: when James embarks on a quest to secure his wife and daughter’s freedom, Huck tags along for the ride.
