Wellcome Trust Book Prize 2010 winner announced

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, an enthralling work of non-fiction, wins the Wellcome Trust Book Prize

Ten years in the making, 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' (Pan Macmillan) - a beautiful but harrowing work of non-fiction by Rebecca Skloot - has won the second Wellcome Trust Book Prize.

Taking readers on a journey of scientific discovery, the book tells the story of a poor Southern tobacco farmer whose cancer cells, taken without her knowledge, became one of the most important tools in medicine.

The £25 000 Wellcome Trust Book Prize is open to outstanding works of fiction and non-fiction on the theme of health and medicine. It brings together the worlds of medicine and literature, appealing to literature lovers and science enthusiasts.

This debut work by Rebecca Skloot took a decade to chronicle and weaves together the Lacks family story from the first culturing of HeLa cells (as they became known) to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans and the birth of bioethics.

HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine and uncovering secrets of cancer, viruses and the effects of the atom bomb. They helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning and gene mapping, and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta herself remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Today, her family can't afford the heath-care advances that their mother’s cells helped to make possible.

This year's shortlist for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize featured a diverse range of fiction and non-fiction with each book giving a unique and dramatic insight into the medical world.

Chairing the judging panel of five, former barrister, comedy writer and presenter Clive Anderson said: "This is an engaging account of the life of Henrietta Lacks who died in Baltimore nearly 60 years ago and the immortal life of her cancer cells, which continue to replicate in research laboratories around the world to this day. There are several stories to be told: the changing attitudes and ethics of the medical profession; the economics of healthcare; and the successes and slip ups of modern scientific methods. In addition, the book reveals the human story of Henrietta Lacks' family, who the author got to know in the course of her extensive research. A worthy winner of a prize designed to honour fine writing on a medical theme."

Clare Matterson, Director of Medical Humanities and Engagement at the Wellcome Trust added: "It's wonderful that the prize has been awarded to a book that was such a labour of love for its author.  Rebecca Skloot's work absolutely meets the objective of this prize.  It has something of everything - a compelling science story, an emotional personal story and intriguing ethical dilemmas - and all woven together and written with great style. Congratulations!"

Clive Anderson’s judging panel included: writer and former Man Booker judge Maggie Gee; writer, professor and former Man Booker judge AC Grayling; University College-based medical historian Michael Neve and anatomist, anthropologist, presenter and author Alice Roberts.  The shortlisted books were: 

'Grace Williams Says it Loud' (Sceptre) by Emma Henderson
'Medic: Saving lives - from Dunkirk to Afghanistan' (Penguin) by John Nichol and Tony Rennell
'Teach Us to Sit Still' (Random House - Harvill Secker) by Tim Parks
'So Much for That' (Harper Collins) by Lionel Shriver
'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' (Pan Macmillan) by Rebecca Skloot
'Angel of Death: The story smallpox' (Palgrave Macmillan) by Gareth Williams

SHORTLISTED BOOKS

Grace Williams Says It Loud, by Emma Henderson (Sceptre)
This is a spirit soaring debut from Emma Henderson. A novel about love against all the odds, set against the unlikely setting of a 1950s care home.  Grace is the severely disabled child of the Williams family and has lived at Briar Mental Institute since the age of eleven.  She is in love with Daniel who brightens up her day with tales from far flung places, who can type with his toes… and who loves Grace back.

We discover the world through Grace’s eyes as she grows from a child into a woman, constantly striving to rise above the humiliations and indignities often heaped upon her by the very people employed to care.  We share her triumphs, disasters and revelations but above all, we experience the discovery of first love. At her story’s heart is the special relationship she shares with the charmingly flawed Daniel - a fellow patient.  An epileptic who lost his arms in an accident, Daniel's brash effervescence changes Grace’s world forever.

Grace’s is a tremendously bold and challenging voice, and through her astounding story we chart the real change in attitudes to mental health in the past few decades.  Emma Henderson has based the character of Grace on her own sister, who was admitted into an institution as a child - a guilty secret that was harboured in her family throughout her childhood.  She spent most of her life in care and was the inspiration for this novel.

Emma Henderson ran a ski chalet in France for several years and now lives in London. 'Grace Williams Says it Loud' is her first novel.

For further information please contact Lyndsey Ng: lyndsey.ng@hodder.co.uk  tel 020 7873 6438.

Medic: Saving lives - from Dunkirk to Afghanistan by John Nichol & Tony Rennell (Penguin)
Doctors, nurses, medics and stretcher bearers go where the bullets are thickest, through bomb alleys and mine fields, ducking mortars and rockets, wherever someone is injured and the cry of "medic!" goes up. War at its rawest is their domain, an ugly place of shattered bodies, severed limbs and death. This is the story of those brave men - and, increasingly, women - who go to war armed with bandages not bombs, scalpels not swords, and put saving life above taking life.  Many have died in the process, the ultimate sacrifice for others, to ensure that when the cry of ‘Medic!’ is heard, it will be answered. Regardless of the cost. From the beaches of Dunkirk to the desert towns of Afghanistan, there can be no nobler cause.

John Nichol is a former RAF Flight Lieutenant who was shot down on a mission over Iraq during the first Gulf War in 1991. He was captured and became a prisoner of war. He is the bestselling co-author of 'Tornado Down' and, with Tony Rennell, 'The Last Escape', 'Tail-End Charlies' and 'Home Run', and the author of five novels. He is also a journalist and widely quoted military commentator. 

Tony Rennell is the author of 'Last Days of Glory: The death of Queen Victoria' and co-author of 'When Daddy Came Home', a highly praised study of demobilisation in 1945, and with, John Nichol, 'The Last Escape', 'Tail-End Charlies' and 'Home Run'. He writes regularly on historical subjects.

For further information please contact Katherine Stroud: katherine.stroud@uk.penguingroup.com, tel 020 7010 3000.

Teach Us to Sit Still by Tim Parks (Harvill Secker)
Bedevilled by what seemed to be a crippling prostate condition which nobody could explain or relieve, Tim Parks confronts hard truths about the relationship between the mind and the body, the modern world and his life as a writer.  Following a fruitless journey through the conventional medical system in Italy, he finds improvement and relief in an unlikely prescription of breathing exercises that eventually leads him to take up meditation. This was the very last place Parks expected or wanted to find answers; anything New Age simply wasn’t his scene.  In the meantime, he is drawn to consider the effects of illness on the work of other writers, including Hardy, Coleridge, Beckett and D H Lawrence, the role of religions in shaping our sense of self, and the influence of sport and art in our attitudes to health and well-being. Most of us will fall ill at some point; few will describe that journey with the same verve, insight and radiant intelligence as Tim Parks.

Tim Parks was born in Manchester, grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard.  In 1981 he moved to Italy where he has lived ever since. He is the author of novels, non-fictions and essays.

For further information please contact Bethan Jones: Bjones@randomhouse.co.uk, tel 020 7840 8543.

So Much for That by Lionel Shriver (Harper Collins)
'So Much for That' is a deeply affecting novel with heart: an unflinching portrayal of illness and its effect on a marriage and family, told with Lionel Shriver's trademark originality, intelligence and acute perception of the human condition. What do you pack for the rest of your life? Shepherd Knacker has been saving all his working life for his retirement escape route: a one-way ticket to a small island off the coast of Africa. He's sold his successful handy-man business for a million dollars and is now ready to embark on his 'Afterlife'. However, when his wife, Glynis, is diagnosed with an extremely rare and aggressive form of cancer, Shepherd's dreams of an exotic adventure are firmly put on hold. Suddenly a million dollars doesn’t seem like all that much, as the exorbitant cost sends this once well-off couple hurtling towards bankruptcy and both are forced to face the uncomfortable question: how much money is one life worth?

This is classic Lionel Shriver - a profoundly emotive and brutally honest novel tackling the things we don’t talk about: illness, death and money. It is also, perversely, a highly entertaining and compelling novel about illness, the telling of which drives right at the heart of human relationships. Illness brings Shepherd and Glynis closer together and, as Shepherd observes, "Maybe you never really know someone until they're dying."

Lionel Shriver’s novels include 'The Post-Birthday World', 'We Need to Talk about Kevin', 'A Perfectly Good Family' and 'Checker and the Derailleurs'. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications. She lives in London.

For further information please contact Alice Moss: alice.moss@harpercollins.co.uk, tel 020 8307 4295.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Pan Macmillan)
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists knew her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer whose cancer cells taken without her knowledge became one of the most important tools in medicine.  The first immortal human tissue grown in culture, HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of the atom bomb; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.   Yet Henrietta herself remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey in search of Henrietta’s story form the coloured ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live, and struggle with the legacy of her cells.  Full of warmth and questing intelligence, astonishing in scope and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer whose articles have appeared in the New York Times Magazine and O, the Oprah Magazine, among others. She has worked as a correspondent for NPR’s RadioLab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW, and blogs about science, life and writing at Culture Dish, hosted by 'Seed' magazine. She also teaches creative nonfiction at the University of Memphis.
 
For further information please contact Dusty Miller: d.miller@macmillan.co.uk, tel 020 7014 6237.

Angel of Death: The story of smallpox by Gareth Williams (Palgrave Macmillan)
'Angel of Death' exposes the life-changing effects of the devastating disease of smallpox through the eyes of those whose lives were changed forever by the disease, ranging from smallpox victims  to those caught up in the battle for and against vaccination including  Dr Edward Jenner, ‘the father of all vaccination’. A timely, accessible and engaging story, Angel of Death explores contemporary attitudes to disease, including original and engaging insights into the anti-vaccination campaigns that remain active today and into the many unlearned lessons of smallpox,  bringing to life one of the most enthralling, life-changing success stories in the history of medicine and human life.

Gareth Williams is Professor of Medicine and former Dean of Faculty at the University of Bristol, UK.

For further information please contact Laura Conn: l.conn@palgrave.com, tel 01256 303561.

NOTES TO EDITORS

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust's breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests.

Find out more about the 2010 judges

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