Bath Novel Award 2017 Winner:

SOPHIE SNELL for THE PEAR DRUM

(Unpublished PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER)

Prize: £2,000

“I’m very excited by The Pear Drum’s commercial potential, and I loved the creepy concept and the gothic undertones.” Laura Williams, literary agent and 2017 judge.

“The Pear Drum is a gripping read. Loved the fairytale elements and touches of the gothic.”  Joanna Barnard, author of Precocious and Hush Little Baby.

Sophie Snell is a traditional oral storyteller. After a first career in accountancy, motherhood rekindled her love of stories and storytelling. She found her head blossoming with characters and ideas and began travelling the country, entertaining all ages with folk tales and songs. Sophie lives with her family in a rural Derbyshire house filled with music, books, cats and steaming wet sports kit dumped on the kitchen floor.

Always fascinated by fairy tales, the spark for The Pear Drum came to Sophie after moving to the country and waking to find her hillside farm house marooned in a white sea of autumn mist. Sophie imagined a woman travelling back to her childhood home, only to find it filled with fairy tale horrors and elusive memories. Sophie put the unpacking of her removal boxes on hold, cleared a writing desk and finished The Pear Drum just in time for the Bath Novel Award 2017 deadline.

Read the opening pages of all five shortlisted novels here

Visit Sophie Snell’s website at www.sophiesnell.co.uk 

And see the winner announcement and shortlist here: The Bath Novel Award 2017 Winner’s Announcement — The Bath Novel Award