Kate Thompson has won the Bisto Book of the Year Award for the third time for her book Annan Water.
She was presented with the €3,000 cheque and a trophy at a reception in the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre in Dublin by Minister of State Síle de Valera. Thompson was a previous winner in 2002 for her book The Beguilers. In 2003 she was a joint winner with The Alchemist's Apprentice, and is now the only author to have won the premier prize for Irish children's literature three times.
Annan Water is a book for teenagers, which takes its title from the ballad of the same name.
"I was trying to write a portrait of a boy who was not particularly academic, but who had tremendous skills; skills that aren't really recognised by peer groups," Thompson explained after she had received her prize.
"It's fantastic. I'm stunned. I'd been out in the wilderness for a while, but having won the Bisto three times now has really helped. Prizes do help raise awareness of children's writing among the public."
The awards are in their 15th year. The €1,000 Eilís Dillon Award for first-time children's writers and illustrators went to brother and sister, writer Siobhán Ní Shíthigh and illustrator Seán Seosamh Mac an tSíthigh, for their Irish-language picture book, An Bhó Riabhach.
Three merit awards, of €1,000 each, went to Oisín McGann for his first novel, The Gods and Their Machines; Oliver Jeffers for his picture book, How to Catch a Star; and to illustrators Alan Clarke, Corinna Askin and Emma Byrne for their collective work on the poetry anthology Something Beginning With P.
