Writer Miles long-listed for children’s book prize (From York Press)

Writer Miles long-listed for children’s book prize

8:50am Saturday 16th January 2010 in

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POET, writer, musician and all-round performer Miles Cain’s first novel for teenagers has been long-listed for a prestigious prize.

The manuscript for his novel, A Song For Nicky Moon, has been chosen from more than 1,000 entries to make the final 18 in The Times/Chicken House children’s novel competition.

If Miles wins, his book will be published by Chicken House, and he will win £10,000.

Miles, 38, who under his real name of Miles Salter runs the York Literature Festival, based the novel partly on his own teenage years. But he was also inspired by Nick Hornby’s Slam, and by The Machine Gunners, a gritty children’s novel by Robert Westall set during the Second World War.

There is plenty of music and teenage angst in the book, Miles says, and a venue bearing a strong resemblance to Fibbers and The Duchess.

He tried to make the book tougher and harder than much teenage fiction – like The Machine Gunners itself. “I wanted to do something that had some of that tough, real quality to it,” he said. “The book opens with a fight scene.”

The shortlist will be announced next month. If he fails to win, Miles, who is writer-in-residence at HMP Everthorpe, plans to publish the novel himself.

He will give a reading from his book during the literature festival, which takes place this year from March 18-28.

Miles Cain, Songs and Poems, York Literature Festival, 7pm, Friday March 19, Oxfam store in Petergate, York. Tickets £3 from the shop.