“All must have prizes” declare those who watch the annual round of prizes – but while this seems true for some, it certainly isn’t that case for most. Prizes are the signs by which an outstanding author is supposed to...

When Michael Franks won the annual Wingate Prize yesterday for his memoir the Mighty Franks, a dazzling portrait of an eccentric Los Angeles family, it set the seal on what looks to be an annus mirabilis for a new kind of heroine....