FIFTEEN years after starting to write her magisterial bio-graphy of Henri Matisse, the French artist, Hilary Spurling saw her labour of love win one of Britain’s leading literary awards.
The author, 65, followed in the footsteps of the poets Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney, among previous winners, when she picked up a cheque for £30,000 at the Whitbread Book of the Year awards ceremony attended by almost 500 publishers, agents and authors.
She expressed delight, both for herself and Matisse, and thanked her agent, publisher and Matisse’s grandchildren: “Who gave me unrestricted access to his papers.”
The judges — who included the actress Emilia Fox and the novelist Margaret Drabble, under the chairmanship of the former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo — defied expectations. Ali Smith’s novel The Accidental, about a family whose lives are turned upside down by a mysterious stranger, had been odds-on favourite, but it did not even feature in the judges’ heated debate.
Mr Morpurgo said: “I’ve never been on a judging panel which was as close. There was no blood on the carpet but it was very heated.” Eventually the judges picked their winner, saying that Spurling “had made us see Matisse in a new light”.
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Ms Spurling. born in 1940 in Stockport, was a theatre critic and literary editor for The Spectator. She is a regular reviewer for the national press and has written biographies of Ivy Compton-Burnett and Paul Scott, among others.
She was astonished that no one had written a biography of Matisse in the 50 years since his death. She overturned half-truths and misconceptions such as the assumption that he automatically slept with his models, and was given unprecedented access to the painter’s family correspondence.
Whitbread’s £300,000 sponsorship will end this year. New sponsors are being sought.