“Declan Burke is his own genre. The Lammisters dazzles, beguiles and transcends. Virtuoso from start to finish.” – Eoin McNamee “This bourbon-smooth riot of jazz-age excess, high satire and Wodehouse flamboyance is a pitch-perfect bullseye of comic brilliance.” – Irish Independent Books of the Year 2019 “This rapid-fire novel deserves a place on any bookshelf that grants asylum to PG Wodehouse, Flann O’Brien or Kyril Bonfiglioli.” – Eoin Colfer, Guardian Best Books of the Year 2019 “The funniest book of the year.” – Sunday Independent “Declan Burke is one funny bastard. The Lammisters ... conducts a forensic analysis on the anatomy of a story.” – Liz Nugent “Burke’s exuberant prose takes centre stage … He plays with language like a jazz soloist stretching the boundaries of musical theory.” – Totally Dublin “A mega-meta smorgasbord of inventive language ... linguistic verve not just on every page but every line.Irish Times “Above all, The Lammisters gives the impression of a writer enjoying himself. And so, dear reader, should you.” – Sunday Times “A triumph of absurdity, which burlesques the literary canon from Shakespeare, Pope and Austen to Flann O’Brien … The Lammisters is very clever indeed.” – The Guardian

Monday, May 28, 2012

On Winning The Goldsboro ‘Last Laugh’ Award, And Failing Better

I genuinely did not expect ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL to win the Goldsboro ‘Last Laugh’ Award at the Bristol Crimefest, not least because the shortlist included two of my all-time favourite writers - Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen - along with a slew of very good contemporary authors, among them a previous winner in the shape of the very gracious Len Tyler.
  In fact, I’d been in touch recently, by email, with Elmore Leonard’s PR guy and right-hand man, and had told him that if Elmore was to win, I’d be more than happy to pick up the award for him, given that I’m travelling to the States in the near future and would love an excuse to visit Elmore Leonard.
  Then David Headley of Goldsboro Books read out the shortlist of nominees, and the winner, and I was halfway to the podium and still in a state of shock when I realised that the only winner’s speech I had prepared was one on behalf of Elmore Leonard. Hence the blithering idiot (the non-Jeffery Deaver guy above, right) who bumbled his lines in front of an audience of wordsmiths, their publishers and agents.
  I do remember saying something about how my wife, before I left, told me not to bother coming home unless I won (which sounded vaguely like the Spartan mother’s blessing, ‘Come home behind your shield, or on it.’), so that winning was something of a pity, because I was really starting to warm to Bristol …
  I’ll write a longer post during the week about the Crimefest weekend in general, but for now I have to hit and run. Suffice to say that I was very pleased indeed to be sitting beside my good friend Peter Rozovsky when the winner’s name was read out; had he not been there to shake my hand, and confirm that it wasn’t some deranged acid flash-back hallucination, I may well have remained sitting in my seat all night, getting more and more paranoid that everyone was staring at me. And thanks too to Brian McGilloway, who took the photo above, and was kind enough to broadcast it to the world on the night.
  I’m still not the best of it, mind. I was very tempted to check out of the hotel early on Sunday morning, in case they’d made a mistake.
  Anyway, I’m back home now, and the prize is taking up pride of place on the office windowsill, and I’m slowly starting to descend from the improbable high of it all. It feels good, it really does.
  One final word, which occurred to me late on Saturday night, and which might be of use to any writers out there who are finding it difficult to find a publisher: ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL went through fourteen publishers, all of whom said no, before finding its place with Liberties Press. To paraphrase Sammy B: fail, fail again, fail better …

17 comments:

bookwitch said...

You're my kind of failure. Keep it up. And make sure you dust that award thing regularly.

Ayo Onatade said...

Congratulations again Declan! I can only say that you winning the award on Saturday evening just confirmed why Absolute Zero Cool was one of my favourite books last year! Stunning!

Naomi Johnson said...

Congratulations! And you do deserve it.

Niamh O'Connor said...

Congratulations! That's absolutely fantastic news.

MichaelsRamblings said...

Well deserved. May you soar.

@michaelcrossann
michaelcwrites.wordpress.com

Paul D Brazill said...

Congratulations on a deserved win.

Erin Hart said...

Great news, Declan! All your fans (myself included) will be pleased at this reaffirmation of our good taste.

Declan Burke said...

Much obliged, folks. You're all very, very kind. Of course, I knew that already ...

Cheers, Dec

Stuart Neville said...

Congratulations, Dec. It truly was a great novel.

lil Gluckstern said...

I think all your fans are pleased to see you get an award that is well deserved. Especially since you are so good at lauding other writers. I'd give something to hear your acceptance speech; you are too humble by half. Congratulations.

Peter Rozovsky said...

I'm here to confirm that your eyes went glassy, your jaws slack, and your face bloodless when your name was called. Congratulations for a well-deserved victory.
================================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com.

Donna said...

Huge congratulations, once again :o) Your speech was lovely!

crimeficreader said...

This time putting words on the screen for posterity:
many congratulations!

Dana King said...

I got home a couple of hours ago from a delightful family reunion weekend and found this blog post to be the perfect capper. Congratulation, Dec. This is well deserved.

Sean Patrick Reardon said...

Big-time congrats! Well deserved and as others have mentioned, AZC was a great read! Wishing much more success in the future.

seana graham said...

Heard about this first through Peter R.'s blog. I am so happy for you. I like your fellow competitors very much, but I really felt that this book deserved some kind of big recognition from your peers. Congratulations.

michael said...

Pardon the lateness, but congratulations. No doubt you will receive plenty of practice in the future to get that speech perfect.