Marcus Sedgwick has won the 2007 Booktrust Teenage Prize for his gothic novel My Swordhand is Singing, published in the UK by Orion.

My Swordhand is Singing is a sinister tale of a woodcutter and his son who fight the legendary undead in the wintry isolated forests of seventeenth-century Romania. The novel is a thrilling and menacing story which draws heavily on Sedgwick’s extensive research of the vampire legend in Eastern Europe.

Woodcutters Peter and his father Tomas arrive in the lonely village of Chust, which is under a terrible atmosphere of malevolence. Menacing shadows, sudden disappearances and the reappearance of murdered inhabitants forces Peter to uncover the threat to the village and the secrets of his father’s past.

Sedgwick, whose novels have been shortlisted for a variety of awards including the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award, was present at the ceremony held in the Pearson Building to collect his trophy and cheque for £2,500.

The Booktrust Teenage Prize was established by Booktrust in 2003 to recognise and celebrate contemporary fiction written for teenagers.

Marcus Sedgwick was awarded the Branford Boase award in 2001 for his novel Floodland. His following novel The Dark House was shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize in 2002, the Carnegie Medal and the Blue Peter Book Award. His other novels include Witch Hill, The Book of Dead Days, My Swordhand is Singing and The Foreshadowing for which he was nominated for the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2006. His latest novel is Blood Red, Snow White. Marcus lives in Sussex with wife Pippa and daughter Alice.

Anthony McGowan, judge and winner of Booktrust Teenage Prize 2006 said: “The 2007 Booktrust Prize turned up some stunning novels. But one novel stood out for its utterly gripping narrative, its brilliantly created atmosphere of terror and suspense, and the subtle poetry of its language. Marcus Sedgwick’s My Swordhand is Singing hooks the reader from the opening sentence, and, like the Gypsy music at its core, resonates still in the imagination long after the last note is sounded.”

Viv Bird, Director of Booktrust said: “Choosing this year’s winner from such a superb shortlist was extremely daunting for all our judges. The books were all of extraordinary calibre: compelling, beautifully written and reflecting a wide variety of themes. We are delighted that the Booktrust Teenage Prize is attracting such remarkable authors and congratulate Marcus wholeheartedly on his outstanding book."

Find out more about the 2007 shortlist

The judges for the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2007 are:

Angela Wilkinson, librarian (Chair)
Tom Gatti, Associate Editor, The Times Books
Anthony McGowan, author
Isabelle Ellis-Cockcroft, school student
Sam Audet, young judge short story competition winner
Katharine Flach, young judge short story competition winner
Matthew Sawyer, young judge short story competition winner
Francesca Grapes, young judge short story competition winner
Zita Abila, young judge short story competition winner

Booktrust administers the prize with the support of writers, publishers, teachers, parents and libraries. Publishers may enter works of fiction published in the UK, including novels, collections of short stories and graphic novels.

The 2006 Prize was won by Anthony McGowan for Henry Tumour. Previous winners also include Mark Haddon for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) Anne Cassidy for her book Looking for JJ (2004) and Sarah Singleton for her book Century (2005).

The Reading Agency is promoting the Booktrust Teenage Prize in libraries across the UK primarily through coordination with public and school library services.

About Booktrust

Booktrust is an independent national charity that encourages people of all ages and cultures to discover and enjoy reading. Booktrust is responsible for a number of successful national reading promotions, sponsored book prizes and creative reading projects aimed at encouraging readers of all ages to discover and enjoy books.

For further information log on to: www.booktrust.org.uk

About The Reading Agency

The Reading Agency is an independent reading development agency, a charity, funded by Arts Council England. It works mainly with public libraries to achieve its vision of a society in which everyone has free, democratic access to reading. The charity's main areas of work are policy, research, advocacy, national partnerships and national programmes like the Summer Reading Challenge - all with an emphasis on innovation. For further information visit www.readingagency.org.uk.

Prize information: Megan Farr 020 8875 4821 megan@booktrust.org.uk

Press enquiries: Katherine Solomon 020 8875 4583 katherine@booktrust.org.uk