Katie Daysh was the big winner at the Isle of Wight Book Awards, with her ‘double’ announced at a luncheon at the Island Sailing Club in Cowes.

Katie won both the fiction category and Book of the Year at the ceremony, for her novel ‘The Devil to Pay’.
She said: “To say I’m shocked and so grateful is an understatement! I have notoriously bad luck with awards, so, to win the fiction category and Book of the Year at the Isle of Wight Book Awards 2025, is amazing. “I’m so appreciative to the judges who loved Nightingale and Courtney’s second adventure.”

It was the fourth anniversary of the event which was founded by award-winning author and journalist, Hunter Davies.

The requirements to enter are to have any book published in 2024 which was either set on or about the Isle of Wight. Authors could live anywhere in the world, as long as their work featured some Isle of Wight content.

Guests enjoyed a meal before the announcement of the winners. The event began with an opening speech by organiser, Paul Armfield, who reiterated that the intention of the awards is to raise the profile of all Island writing, before reading a poem by the recently deceased poet, Tony Harrison.
This was followed by a welcome from Hunter who gave an entertaining talk, including a tribute to his close friend, the best-selling author Jilly Cooper, who had recently passed away.

There were three categories: Children’s, Fiction and Non-Fiction. Each had its own judge: Children: Nicholas Allan, bestselling children’s author and illustrator; Fiction: Mark Eccleston, former BBC journalist and winner of the first Isle of Wight Book Award; Non-Fiction: Lucinda Hawksley, award-winning author, art historian, broadcaster and great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens.

Winners: Children: 1 There Will Be Blue Skies, Jo Cooper; 2 The Search for Donkey Paradise, David Goodday; 3 Chuffle, Tracy Mikich. Fiction: 1 The Devil to Pay, Katie Daysh; 2 A Drowning Tide, Sarah Lawton; 3 The Laughing Robot, Julia Ross. Non-Fiction: 1 There Is No Second, Magnus Wheatley; 2 The Isle of Wight: Women, History, Books and Place, Susanna Hoe; 3 Upgrading the Isle of Wight’s Railway, Richard C Long. Book of the Year: The Devil To Pay, Katie Daysh.
Sporting Opportunities IW was the event’s charity of the year.