Teacher wins £10,000 prize for unpublished novel

A TEACHER was yesterday named as the winner of the Dundee International Book Prize.

Alan Wright, 59, won the 10,000 award, the largest in the UK for an unpublished writer, and with it a publishing deal for his debut novel, Act of Murder, set in a Lancashire town during Victorian times.

He was presented with his prize last night by David Robinson, Books Editor at The Scotsman, at a gala dinner.

"I suppose it's only aspiring writers who can fully understand what winning such a prize means," Mr Wright said.

"It was much, much easier to become a published author 70 or so years ago, and it takes an act of great courage from the organisers and sponsors of the Dundee Prize to support new writing in such a positive way."

More than 110 writers from across the globe had submitted manuscripts for the competition.