The Costa award (formerly the Whitbread), one of Britain's most prestigious literary prizes was awarded to Stef Penney for her debut novel, The Tenderness of Wolves, which happens to be set in 19th century Canada. The interesting thing is that Penney is agoraphobic and has never set foot on Canadian soil. She did all her research by studying texts and maps in the British Library. It goes to show you that you don't need to visit somewhere to write about it convincingly. All you need is some imagination and top notch research skills. Which thankfully means I don't have to travel to 19th Century Canada and Ireland to do research for my first novel I'll be working on soon...
Read about Stef Penney's win here.
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