The Penguin Blog

We were thrilled and privileged to have Clay Shirky come into the Penguin offices at 80 Strand yesterday lunchtime to give a fascinating insight into his new book: Cognitive Surplus.

Explaining how for decades, technology encouraged us to squander our time as passive consumers, Clay Shirky argues technology has finally caught up with human potential and examines the changes we will all enjoy as our untapped resources of talent and good will are put to use at last.

Chris Croissant
Marketing Assistant, Penguin Digital

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On the 9th June, 2010, in the Royal Festival Hall, there was the 15th anniversary of the Orange Book Prize. To celebrate this event, six teenagers between 17-19 were chosen to be judges through Spinebreakers to judge and shortlist the previous 14 winners and choose their “best of the best”. These judges came from all over the UK; London itself, Wales, York, Bradford and Norwich-

The last one was me, Hazel Compton. I arrived on this date after a month of balancing reading with my first year of University at the UEA, reading English Lit and Art History.I had met my other judges twice between the end of April and end of May and then in Clarence House, we chose our winner, after having tea and shortcake with HRH the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker-Bowles.

And now, after all this discussion, we were at the Royal Festival Hall, we were very definitely on the list, and we were all dressed for the occasion. I was wearing my favourite item of the moment; a vintage 70’s dress brought from New York by a friend of mine, who had sold it to me so she could earn money to fund her Creative Writing MA (the irony that I would be wearing the garment to a literary awards ceremony!)

I was in love. I was in love with the scene, the feeling, the excitement over books! Something none of my friends shared a passion for, yet these adults did and my fellow judges did. I heard people talking of book deals, of ideas, of news, and I wanted so desperately to be able to join in. 

Danielle from Spinebreakers came and introduced herself to us then. She was lovely, talking to us as if we actually were one of the main people who should be at this party. We thanked her for our opportunity that we were so lucky to have been blessed with, gave our theories on the book that would win and then we were ushered to one side of the stage as the awards were ready to be presented.

Our own prize was then announced, and, as a shorter member of our judging group, I stood on tip toes to see the speaker and the author accept the bouquet of flowers and specially bound book. Camilla came to the stand, talking of our commitment and perseverance to the job of judging the books. It was so surreal; HRH talking of us as if we were to be revered. She then announced our winner; Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels.  I listened, I smiled, I felt my eyes tear up; this is what we had worked toward, and the reward emotionally was as beautiful as I hoped the physicality of holding a bouquet and special bound book would be.

The winner of the main Orange Prize, Barbara Kingsolver, was a wonderful woman with an obvious flair of life, a modest gene and a few laughs that she freely gave to the audience. I remember my fellow judge, Kate Edwards, whisper in my ear “that must be a pinnacle in someone’s life, to receive such a prize.” And thinking how right she was.

We were then heralded to talk to HRH once more. She quickly said hello to each of us and mentioned the immortal words: “I hope I meet you again.” I was very surprised, not by her wanting to meet us again, but the idea that we ever could! After that, I wandered around, wanting to meet publishers to talk to of how the literary world worked. Eventually, Kirsty, Kate and I all decided to talk to the publisher of Anne Michaels and tell her how wonderful she was for spotting such talent from Anne. Kate Mosse managed to help me track her down, and I quickly lead her over to the rest of the judges, whom, as well as me, issues severe compliments. 

Ian Hislop. He was there. Danielle, in her wonderful charming way, managed to introduce us to him. He asked us of the books we had read and we gave him honest opinions on them, and I was overjoyed to see him a happily smiling chap.

The night was an educational experience into the realm of publishing. It has given me the determination to become a publisher, sited me a realistic view of their work and its doings and let me in on personal experience and pointers from publishers.

I hope this is not my last endeavour into the publishing world, but it will definitely be the one literary party I never want to forget a moment of! Thank you Spinebreakers, Orange, Kate Moss, and everyone else on the team, who made me turn from a normal teenage girl into literally living the dream that I’ve always had.

Hazel Compton

Youth Panel Judge

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