Hope Professor Frank Cottrell Boyce wins children's fiction prize

Frank Cottrell Boyce, Liverpool Hope's Professor of Reading and Communication, has won the 2012 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.

Professor Cottrell Boyce, whose 'The Unforgotten Coat' won the prestigious award, told the BBC: "It would be amazing to win this award with any book I'd written, but it is a special joy to win it with The Unforgotten Coat.

"The photographs in the book were created by my friends and neighbours - Carl Hunter and Claire Heaney. The story was based on a real incident in a school in Bootle."

Professor Cottrell Boyce, who gave his Inaugural Lecture at Liverpool Hope in May 2012, also co-wrote the script for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.

You can read more about Professor Cottrell Boyce, his award and work with Liverpool Hope in the recent Guardian article - A Life In Writing.