Australia’s Helen Garner wins Baillie Gifford nonfiction prize for her ‘addictive’ diaries

LONDON AP Helen Garner an acclaimed Australian writer whose celebrity fans include singer Dua Lipa won the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction on Tuesday for what judges called her addictive and candid diaries Garner was named winner of the pound prize at a ceremony in London for How to End a Story Journalist Robbie Millen who chaired the prize jury announced Garner was the unanimous choice of the six judges Millen mentioned the judges were captivated by the sharp observation and reckless candor of Garner s book which covers her life and work between and He declared it is a remarkable addictive book Garner takes the diary form mixing the intimate the intellectual and the everyday to new heights There are places it s toe-curlingly embarrassing he explained She puts it all out there Garner s -page opus is the first set of diaries to win the prize which was founded in and recognizes English-language books in current affairs history politics science sport advance biography autobiography and the arts She beat five other finalists including biographies of poet Alfred Lord Tennyson and writer Muriel Spark and books about s revolutionaries European wolves and the history of slavery in the Muslim world Millen revealed Garner ranked alongside those of Virginia Woolf in the canon of great literary diarists Garner s first novel Monkey Grip the semi-autobiographical story of a single mother in bohemian inner-city Melbourne is considered a modern Australian classic Her work includes the novella The Children s Bach several short story collections screenplays including The Last Days of Chez Nous and true crime books including This House of Grief which Lipa chose this year for her monthly book club The singer noted Garner s work was a thrilling discovery She s one of the the greater part fascinating writers I have come across in years Garner is co-author of The Mushroom Tapes Conversations on a Triple Murder Trial a book about Erin Patterson the Australian woman who killed three of her estranged husband s relatives with a lunch containing death cap mushrooms It is published in Australia and the U K this month Garner is less well known outside her home country with U S and U K publishers only in recent weeks publishing a multitude of of her books It has taken us a long while to work out how good she is Millen mentioned Decisively her status is being recognized and I hope this will cement it Garner is the second Australian in a row to win the Baillie Gifford prize Last year s winner was Tasmanian writer Richard Flanagan for his genre-bending memoir Question Source