Previous winners include Eimear McBride, Isabel Waidner and Ali Smith. In 2022, Natasha Soobramanien and Luke Williams became the first collaborative authors to win the prize with their novel Diego Garcia.

And the way that certain characters (eg an owl-eyed boy) and certain motifs (eg wild garlic) echo through the ages makes the sum greater than its sometimes flawed parts. Cuddy is the ninth novel from Benjamin Myers, who was born in Durham and now lives in West Yorkshire. Its central character is St Cuthbert, the unofficial patron saint of the north of England. St Cuthbert was born in Northumbria, became a monk, rose to become abbot of Lindisfarne, and then lived for many years as a hermit.

As Michael comes to realise, he too is part of never-ending history, ‘one more link in a chain of people … a continuum’ Past winners of the Tom-Gallon Trust Award". Society of Authors. 8 May 2020. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020 . Retrieved 27 May 2021.

Turning Blue (2016) was described as a "folk crime" novel, and praised by writers including Val McDermid. A sequel These Darkening Days followed in 2017. In Book I, Cuddy, the dead saint, speaks to Ediva, a young woman adopted by the haliwerfolc, the “people of the saint” as their cook and helper. That community carried the relics of their saint in his wooden coffin away from Viking raids on the island of Lindisfarne until eventually Ediva helps them to find a home for Cuddy on the hill like an island in 995. Some parts worked for me, others really didn't. I think this is the reaction many readers will have, as every different style Myers uses is going to appeal to different people.His novel Beastings (2014) won the Portico Prize For Literature, was the recipient of the Northern Writers’ Award and longlisted for a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award 2015. Widely acclaimed, it featured on several end of year lists, and was chosen by Robert Macfarlane in The Big Issue as one of his books of 2014. This will be incredibly difficult for me to review. My admiration of Benjamin Myers' work is well known, and I think with Cuddy- because it is extremely experimental in style and approach- he has positioned himself more than ever before to be in the running for a longlist nomination on this year's Booker Prize.

Benjamin Myers' "Offene See" ist das Lieblingsbuch der Unabhängigen 2020". Buch Markt. 7 November 2020. What makes this book special are the characters and their first person accounts, the names and things that repeat, linking the stories from period to period, creating a sense of continuity through the centuries-the story begins and ends with a Cuthbert, and the landscape of Northern England, especially Durham and environs, few writers create the strong sense of place like Ben Myers. The Revd Dr Sarah Foot is Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Oxford, and Dean Designate.

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Myers, Benjamin (2002). American heretics: rebel voices in music. Hove: Codex. ISBN 1-899598-23-5. OCLC 50175926. Along the way we meet brewers and masons, archers and academics, monks and labourers, their visionary voices and stories echoing through their ancestors and down the ages.

Richardson, Hollie; Davies, Hannah J.; Verdier, Hannah; Virtue, Graeme (31 May 2023). "TV tonight: Shane Meadows's first period drama is about the Cragg Vale Coiners". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 31 May 2023 . Retrieved 31 May 2023. Myers takes a different narrative approach in each of the five sections (four major parts and one short interlude) and in fact each part is a separate story that could almost be read independently. The thread is St Cuthbert (affectionately known as Cuddy) who was declared a saint in the North of England in the late 600’s. His coffin was taken from Lindisfarne by a group of monks after the Danes invaded. These monks then travelled around the country for years before they settled in what is now known as Durham and the majestic Durham Cathedral was built to inter his coffin. But through all the changes the one voice that never leaves is that of the saintly Cuthbert who never quite seems to get his wish to be left alone to worship God. Whenever I am overcome with existential dread I, like many others, reach for the PG Wodehouse – currently about thrice daily. I only have to think of the title Eggs, Beans and Crumpets and I laugh. Or Viz comic, which is the vocabulary of my childhood. Cuddyis a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England.

Myers, Benjamin (2005). Green Day: American idiots & the new punk explosion. Church Stretton: Independent Music Press. ISBN 0-9539942-9-5. OCLC 64553821. Cuddy, Benjamin Myers’s bewitching tenth novel, starts with a short history lesson about St Cuthbert, a 7th-century shepherd boy who became a monk after experiencing a vision. He died as Bishop of Lindisfarne in 687 on the even more remote island of Inner Farne, off the Northumbrian coast. Today, his remains lie in a shrine in Durham Cathedral, which was founded in his honour in 1093 and draws 700,000 visitors a year. If all of this sounds too heady or terribly uninteresting, there is good news: The five narratives which contribute to the book's overarching story are excellent. The writing is extremely fine. There is plenty of wit, intrigue, conflict, atmosphere, character development, and good old storytelling to make this a worthwhile read. I am very glad this one found its way into my hands. I found the poetry of Thomas Hardy to be dismal and the prose of DH Lawrence to be overwrought – all those exclamation marks. Expressing this was probably the reason I failed A-level English. But I now recognise both as visionaries who saw far beyond the England they occupied. I particularly admire Lawrence’s novellas, The Fox and The Virgin and the Gypsy. Benjaminwill appear at the Cambridge Literary Festival, in conversation with Goldsmiths Prize judgeMaddie Mortimerwhose first novelMaps of Our Spectacular Bodieswas shortlisted for the 2022 Goldsmiths Prize and won the Desmond Elliott Prize, andTom Gatti executive editor at theNew Statesman.