THE UK - STILL IN LOVE WITH ROMANCE!

News: Romantic Novelists’ Association celebrates 50th anniversary at glittering awards ceremony.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT HONOURS FOR MAEVE BINCHY AND JOANNA TROLLOPE
London, 16 March 2010: The Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) today marked their 50th Anniversary by honouring two of the world’s best-selling and much-loved authors, Maeve Binchy and Joanna Trollope, with Lifetime Achievement Awards for their contributions to this ever popular, block-busting genre. The winners were announced today at the RNA’s Pure Passion Awards lunch at the Royal Garden Hotel, London, hosted by critic and TV personality Barry Norman.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the second award Joanna Trollope has received from the RNA having, thirty years ago, won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award for her novel Parson Harding’s Daughter (1980).
Joanna Trollope said: “I am amazed and thrilled to be given this, and so touched, too. Of course it means a lot in itself, but it means even more to me because I have such admiration and respect for the RNA, which must be one of the most professional and supportive of literary associations around, as all its aspiring writer members know, and of course, I was one of them, once...So my pleasure and gratitude are very heartfelt."
Maeve Binchy was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of the joy she has given to millions of readers around the world. Her first novel, Light A Penny Candle was published in 1982, and her books have sold an estimated 45 million copies in 39 countries worldwide.
Maeve Binchy said, on being presented with her award in Ireland: “Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to say how delighted I am with my Lifetime Achievement Award, and to have it on the 50th anniversary is even better. I’ve always admired the Association because it’s managed to make us believe that stories are important and that we can get lost in the lives of other people.”
The RNA’s long-standing and hotly-contested Romantic Novel of the Year and Love Story of the Year awards, highly respected within the publishing industry, were also presented. In honour of the 50th Anniversary, several new awards were introduced this year: the Romantic Film of the Year, The Romantic Comedy Award and The People’s Choice Award. In keeping with the RNA's desire to help emerging authors, The Harry Bowling Prize for New Writing was included in the RNA ceremony for the first time.
Winner of The Romantic Novel of the Year 2010, which recognises the best of the year’s novels exploring the “deep mysteries of the human heart”, is Lucy Dillon’s Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts, published by Hodder & Stoughton. The perfect story for our nation of dog lovers, the story focuses on the romantic sequence of events that occurs when abandoned strays are matched with new owners, whose lives become interwoven.
Winner of The Love Story of the Year for a shorter romance with a strong emphasis on the developing central relationship is Nell Dixon’s Animal Instincts, published by Little Black Dress. This is the second time Nell Dixon has received an award from the RNA, having won this award, then called the Romance Prize, in 2007 for her novel Marrying Max.
Katie Fforde, Chair, RNA said: “The new awards introduced to celebrate the RNA’s 50th year not only showcase this fantastic, best-selling and popular genre but also provide a wonderful excuse for readers to get to know new writers across the diversity of themes and plots that comprise the romantic fiction genre. These Pure Passion Awards have enjoyed a higher standard of entries than ever before but the judges were unanimously won over by Lucy Dillon and Nell Dixon, whose character development and storylines kept us hooked to the very last page. Clearly the public, who were invited to vote for their favourites for the first time in the new People’s Choice and Romantic Film Awards, were equally as excited by the books as they pointed us to the clear winners.”
On the Lifetime Achievement prizes, Fforde added: “This genre gives so much pleasure to so many people and two of our finest authors are superb examples of doing just that. Maeve Binchy and Joanna Trollope are household names, national treasures and some of the best storytellers of the last 50 years. It was our pleasure and privilege to honour them with Lifetime Achievement Awards.”
The RNA Romantic Film of the Year, celebrating the finest adaptation from a romantic novel to a film released in the UK during 2009, was selected by the public via www.lovereading.co.uk. The winner is An Education, by Lynn Barber, published by Penguin. The film was scripted by Nick Hornby.
The Romantic Comedy Award, which recognises the book “where love and laughter go hand in hand”, was won by Jane Costello’s The Nearly-Weds, published by Simon & Schuster. The judges said the book was “a witty, at times laugh-out-loud romance, full of great characters.”
The People’s Choice Award, a new award recognising key new or developing authors in the romantic genre, was also selected by the public via www.lovereading.co.uk. The winner is Missing You by Louise Douglas, published by Pan.
The Harry Bowling Prize for New Writing, sponsored by Headline, recognises writing promise and is given every two years to the best first chapter and synopsis submitted by an author who has not yet had an adult novel published. Runner up for the 2010 award is Sunrise by John Barfield, and the winner is Fear No Evil by Debbie Johnson, who the judges felt showed great comic potential.