Journalist Sophie Elmhirst wins book of the year at Nero Book Awards

Independent

05-03-2025

A book that retells the true story of a couple who were shipwrecked in the 1970s and lived on a life raft for 118 days has won a prestigious £30,000 book prize.
The book, Maurice And Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story Of Shipwreck, Survival And Love, written by journalist Sophie Elmhirst, has been named book of the year at the annual Nero Book Awards.
The Guardian long-reads journalist took home the overall winning title along with the prize money for her debut book, which recounts the couple's story which saw them stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after their boat was struck by a whale.
The award comes after Elmhirst won the Nero best non-fiction category in January along with a £5,000 prize.
Elmhirst was announced the winner on Wednesday evening at a ceremony in central London by renowned journalist and bestselling author Bill Bryson.
Moments after receiving the award, Elmhirst said she was 'stunned' and 'blown away'.
She said: 'It was not what I expected at all. I was delighted just to be here this evening as one of the category winners.
'When I heard my name, it took me a minute to realise it was me.'
Speaking to the PA news agency, Elmhirst said she came by the story 'by chance' and was captivated by both the relationship between the couple and the adventure.
She said: 'I knew that there was something there. It was an extraordinary adventure that they had.
'But there was also this really indelible sort of captivating relationship between the two of them and I just sort of knew that somehow the combination of two things would make, I hoped, an interesting book.'
Used to being on the reporting side of an interview, Elmhirst described the 'huge change' and 'different process' it was to write as an author compared to her work as a journalist as she relied on diaries, letters and the people who survived Maurice And Maralyn including their friends, relations, next-door neighbours and people who worked at the Cafe Maurice they frequented to help bring them to life.
Bryson, who chaired the judging panel, said: 'Maurice And Maralyn is an enthralling, engrossing story of survival and the resilience of the human spirit.
'Impressively novelistic in its narrative approach, it is a gripping retelling of a true but forgotten story.
'It is a story of a marriage as much as of an adventure at sea, one that subtly explores the dynamics of a relationship under the greatest imaginable stress.
'Shining through is the heroine's courage and fortitude; as Maurice flounders, it is Maralyn's strength that allows them to survive at sea for 118 days, the book is a tribute to Maralyn's grit.
'Sophie Elmhirst's writing is understated but powerful, immersing the reader intimately in the unfolding drama and the horror of struggling to survive against the odds with very few resources.'
Bryson said it was a unanimous choice, describing the non-fiction book as a piece of work that 'reaches the highest literary eminence'.
He added: 'It's really well written in a kind of wonderfully low-key way.
'She wasn't showing off and using lots of sort of lyrical language.
'She was really, really well constructed.
'But it was also the story.
'It was just unputdownable, and I thought what she did that I would never have been able to do if I tried to do the same book myself is she really made the reader feel as if you were there, right there with them, just kind of looking over their shoulders.
'They went through this really horrific experience and that is a real gift to be able to do that, to make you feel as if you're right there.
'And I just, I couldn't put the book down, and it was the one book that I really didn't want to get up from my chair and go off and do anything else.
'I just wanted to keep reading it all the time.'
Bryson described how the female character in the book, Maralyn, was the 'real dynamo' in the couple and that her strength and ability to hold them together and take them to safety stood out to the judges.
He said: 'She was the real dynamo of the arrangement and yet in reality she was kind of overlooked.
'When the press, when they landed, she was often excluded from photographs and wasn't interviewed and she was just treated as this kind of little help mate that had gone along for the ride, whereas actually she was really the core of the whole thing.
'And again, I think the book captured that really, really well.'
Among notable names on the judging panel were Girl, Woman, Other author Bernardine Evaristo and former BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis.
The narrative non-fiction book retells the forgotten story of a couple in Derby who decided to sell their house, build a boat and set sail to New Zealand until halfway across the world their boat is struck by a whale.
The couple are cast adrift in the Pacific Ocean, with the book retelling how they managed to survive on a small lifeboat while also saving their marriage.
The prize ceremony follows the Nero category awards that took place in January for best non-fiction, fiction, debut fiction and children's winner.
Maurice And Maralyn claimed the category for best non-fiction while Wild Houses by Colin Barrett won debut fiction.
Adam S Leslie's Lost In The Garden took home best fiction, while Liz Hyder won children's winner for her book The Twelve.
The category winners were all in the running for the top prize, which Elmhirst took home.
Maurice And Maralyn is Elmhirst's first book following a successful career in journalism having received the British Press Award in 2020 for feature writer of the year as well as being shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2024.
The Nero Book Awards celebrates outstanding books and writers of the last 12 months and is open to writers based in the UK and Ireland.