Specsavers National Book Awards 2012 Shortlist Announced

The shortlist for the Specsavers National Book Awards 2012 has been announced, with a diverse selection of titles making the cut for a total of ten different categories.

The Reader Organisation patron and supporter Jeanette Winterson is amongst the nominees of UK Author of the Year for her memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Extracts from the book featured in Issue 44 of The Reader, where Jeanette talked to our very own Jane Davis in an insightful interview about her teenage life and relationship with her stepmother - the main subject matter of the memoir - her emotional breakdown, and the search she set out on to find her birth mother as a consequence. Jeanette lines up amongst other nominees including J.K. Rowling, Zadie Smith and Man Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel in a fantastically literary category.

Other names featuring in a bumper list are Kate Mosse, Ian McEwan, Miranda Hart, Pete Townshend and Mary Berry from The Great British Bake-Off. 2012 is the first year that Specsavers are sponsoring the National Book Awards, which will be held in London on Tuesday 4th December.

Readers will also have the chance to vote for their favourite from each of the category winners to win the coveted Specsavers National Book of the Year Award, to be announced on Tuesday 18 December.