Literary Late Bloomers and Prizes Honoring Their Achievement: Background information when reading After the Funeral and Other Stories

Literary Late Bloomers and Prizes Honoring Their Achievement

This article relates to After the Funeral and Other Stories

Tessa Hadley, author of After the Funeral and Other Stories, did not have a book published until age 46. In interviews, she has been frank about the fact that her first four or five novels, written in her twenties and long since discarded, didn't measure up. "I am so glad I didn't publish a debut novel at 25, because [the books] were dead. I would have loved it at the time, but they were terrible," she said in 2022. She told the Los Angeles Review of Books, "I was a slow developer and … didn't have a strong, forceful sense of who I was and what my authority was and what I had to say. That took a long time to grow, and I came into it late, and now I don't regret that. I'm almost glad that I had that 20 years of trying and failing … it might be good for you in the long run."

It can seem that young debut authors garner all the attention, with prestigious lists like Granta's decadal "Best of Young British Novelists" and the National Book Foundation's annual "5 Under 35," plus high-profile prizes for those under a certain age.

But many respected authors did not start writing or publishing until later in life. For every Zadie Smith bursting out with a celebrated debut novel at age 24 (White Teeth), there are several older authors working away dutifully – on their writing, or in completely different careers – for decades before achieving literary success. For example, Raymond Chandler's writing career began in 1933, when he was fired from his job as an oil executive during the Great Depression. He wrote his first novel, The Big Sleep, six years later at age 51. Frank McCourt and Laura Ingalls Wilder were in their mid-sixties when they were first published. And there is a plethora of writers who didn't publish books until their late thirties (William S. Burroughs, Anthony Burgess, George Eliot, and Toni Morrison), forties (Joanna Cannon, Helen DeWitt, Alex Haley, O. Henry, and Henry Miller), or fifties (Richard Adams and Anna Sewell).

Luckily, there are a few accolades specifically geared towards older authors. For the last two years, I've been involved with judging the McKitterick Prize, administered by the Society of Authors, the UK's trade union for writers. The prize is open to debut novelists, published or not – my specific role was helping to assess the unpublished manuscripts – over 40. The 2023 winner was Louise Kennedy for Trespasses; previous recipients have included Helen Dunmore, Petina Gappah, Mark Haddon, Lloyd Jones, and Mary Lawson.

The Society of Authors also runs an award for first-time authors over 60, the Paul Torday Memorial Prize. In 2023 it was won by Bonnie Garmus, who has also had a long career as a copywriter and creative director, for Lessons in Chemistry. A third UK award (the highest-value one at £10,000) for older authors is the Royal Society of Literature's Christopher Bland Prize, for debut writers over 50.

Claire Fuller, whose first novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, was published when she was 48, after a career in marketing, has been vocal about the wish to see honors uncoupled from youth to reduce ageism in the literary world: "enough with the 'young'. Let's drop it and change the equation to: book + debut = any age." It's a fine proposal to redress the balance.

Bonnie Garmus, winner of the 2023 Paul Torday Memorial Prize for first-time authors over 60. Photo: © Serena Bolton

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This "beyond the book article" relates to After the Funeral and Other Stories. It originally ran in August 2023 and has been updated for the July 2024 paperback edition. Go to magazine.