Golden Hill wins Francis Spufford third major prize in a year

Roistering tale of New York in its infancy adds £10,000 Desmond Elliott prize to the Costa first novel and Ondaatje awards it has already clinched

Francis Spufford’s “extraordinarily accomplished” Golden Hill has scored a hat-trick, winning the Desmond Elliott prize for debut novels. It is the book’s third major award this year, after scooping the Costa first novel award and the Ondaatje prize for books with a sense of place.

Announcing the winner of the £10,000 award, chair of judges and literary editor Sam Leith said: “It is an extraordinarily accomplished book. A work of technical virtuosity that ranges from being astoundingly well-structured right down to its wonderful sentences.” He also praised Spufford for “the ability he displays of having in mind a 21st-century reader while keeping true to the 18th-century idiom. That is incredible.”

Related: Golden Hill by Francis Spufford review – a frolicsome first novel

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