8th June, 2017
First YWSP winner writes of her experience
Rosi Byard-Jones won the 16-19 year category of the very first Young Walter Scott Prize in 2015. Exactly a year ago, in June 2016, she travelled to the Borders Book Festival from her home in Reading to receive her prize from the Duchess of Buccleuch, alongside fellow winner Joe Bradley.
In a blog post addressing this year’s recipients, Rosi tells of her experience of winning the prize, and how she came to write her story, In A Time of Shadows, which is set in Indonesia in the 1960s following the ‘Year of Living Dangerously’. It describes a young man’s return to his someplace, which has been destroyed by the brutal new political regime. Over to you Rosi!
The great Maya Angelou once said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you”. For me, as I wrote my YWSP entry over a year ago, this was not strictly true. The tale I burned to tell was an account passed on to me second hand, but silenced for many years before my father heard it. Both the fraught political context against which this story was set and the traumatic memories it held had prevented its telling; a fact true of many important narratives through world history. Yet that fact I could gather inspiration from an event of fifty years ago and liberate it in prose shows the beauty of historical fiction. In 21st century Britain, our culture of protected free speech and limitless potential means that these ‘untold stories’ can – and should – be brought into focus by their most crucial recipients: the next generation.
However, if truth be told, this interpretation of what the YWSP represents didn’t occur to me until much later – moreover, the rewards and opportunity offered by the prize aren’t restricted to ‘deep and meaningful’ musings!
In June 2016, my fellow YSWP winner Joe and I were invited to visit Sir Walter Scott’s house itself, Abbotsford, as well as Melrose’s own Borders Book Festival. From walking through the rooms of ‘the Delilah of [Scott’s] imagination’ and seeing the desk at which his mind was at work, to meeting many successful authors and hearing their own inspirations for writing, being in such an environment would provide ample motivation for anyone with budding literary aspirations.
To conclude the day with a surprise reception on stage alongside the Walter Scott Prize winner himself (Simon Mawer) was a surreal and unprecedented experience for me, as I’m sure it was for Joe too. Since a lifelong dream of mine is to have a book in print someday, I can’t express my gratitude for the launch pad I feel everyone at the YWSP has given me, and their work in supporting the exciting new writing by young people. I sincerely congratulate the next generation (eek!) of YWSP winners, and look forward to welcoming you to this eccentrically wonderful community – what lies in store for you this summer can only be described as a treat.
Rosi Byard-Jones, June 2017