History
The prize was initiated in 1942 by Jane Oliver in memory of her husband John Llewellyn Rhys, a young author who was killed on 5 August 1940 while serving as a bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force.
From 1987 to 2003, the prize was funded by the Mail on Sunday. The newspaper withdrew in 2003, after the 2002 prize was awarded to Mary Laven. Since then, the prize has been sponsored by Booktrust, an independent educational charity.
In June 2011 the award was 'suspended' by Booktrust due to funding problems. There was no award for 2011. Booktrust said that it "strongly" intended to bring the award "back with a bang as soon as possible" as it looked for outside funding sources.
As of 2010 the winner receives £5,000, while the runners-up each receive £500.
Read more about this topic: John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“I assure you that in our next class we will concern ourselves solely with the history of Egypt, and not with the more lurid and non-curricular subject of living mummies.”
—Griffin Jay, and Reginald LeBorg. Prof. Norman (Frank Reicher)