Publishers Simon & Schuster have won the 2010 Colman Getty PEN Quiz which took place on Monday 22 November, at a star-studded bash of the literary and media worlds’ great and good at RIBA. Simon & Schuster’s team ‘Etherneth’ took poll position knocking last year’s reigning champions The Times Thunderer’s off the top spot. The Guardian’s ‘King’s Place Hacks’ came second and The Bookseller ‘The Friends of Horace’ took 3rd place. Members of the winning team by led by Simon & Schuster’s editorial director, Mike Jones included Hannah Corbett, Michael Prodger, Suzi Feay, Colin Midson, Ferdinand Mount, Tom Bromley, Ian Marchant, Margaret Hefferman and Rumana Haider. The night was hosted by comedian, novelist and television presenter David Baddiel.
Comedian, actor and author, Charlie Higson took to the stage to announce the winners of the raffle and some much coveted prizes. This year’s prizes included a weekend for two at the Mandarin Oriental in New York; a limited edition Mont Blanc Writers’ Edition Thomas Mann fountain pen; a week’s stay in a Tuscan castle; a complete set of the Man Booker Prize 2010 shortlist; a year’s subscription to Woman&Home magazine; a long weekend in a Dorset cottage; a jeroboam of Bollinger champagne and an on-the-spot caricature by Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson. Other guests included Grayson Perry, Ian Hislop, Sebastian Faulks, James Harding, Lisa Jardine, Alan Rusbridger, Lisa Appignanesi, Giles Foden, Stella Tillyard, Arabella Weir and India Knight.
English PEN are delighted to have raised approximately £20,000 from the evening. The quiz provides essential funds to support PEN’s work defending freedom of expression, campaigning on behalf of persecuted writers worldwide and promoting literature and literacy.
Jonathan Heawood, Director of English PEN, said: ‘It was a very special evening. Despite the tough economic climate, people in publishing and journalism still know how to enjoy themselves – which means that at PEN, we’re able to continue campaigning for literature and free speech.’
English PEN would like to thank David Baddiel; Charlie Higson, Colman Getty and RIBA.
The teams included Association on Authors’ Agents, Amanda Craig, Bates Wells Braithwaite, The Bookseller, Bloomberg, Clerkenwell Tales, Colman Getty, Faber and Faber, The Guardian, HarperCollins, Hodder Headline Murray, The Independent, Little Brown, London Book Fair, Nielsen Book, The Observer, Orion, Penguin, Poet in the City, Prospect/Political Quarterly, Random House, Susie Boyt, The Times and Waterstones.
Photographs from the evening can be seen on English PEN’s flickr site.
Originally posted with the url: www.englishpen.org/events/reportsonrecentevents/colmangettypenquiz2010/