USHER - NAOMI KLEIN WINS WARWICK PRIZE FOR WRITING

NAOMI KLEIN WINS WARWICK PRIZE FOR WRITING

Naomi Klein has won the first £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing.

Klein's book The Shock Doctrine was chosen as the winner of the prize from a shortlist of six international titles.

The new prize, funded and run by the University of Warwick, is open to any genre or form of writing and the theme for this year's prize was "complexity" and was interpreted differently by the six authors, with works ranging from music criticism to Spanish fiction.

At the awards ceremony last night, head judge and author China Miéville said: "'Every book on the shortlist was exceptional, but of course it had, ultimately, to come down to one. Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine is a brilliant, provocative, outstandingly written investigation into some of the great outrages of our time.

"It has started many debates, and will start many more, and we're delighted to award it the first Warwick Prize for Writing."

The Shock Doctrine charts the rise of disaster capitalism where moments of collective crisis, such as September 11th and Hurricane Katrina, are exploited by global corporations to usher in radical social and economic change.

David Morley, director of the Warwick Prize for Writing, added his praise for Klein's work and said writing awards were important as they "offer a beckoning point to a writer", adding: " They set the tone of a writer's progress in the world."

"The best books defy categorization," he continued. "I am therefore delighted that Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine has won the inaugural Warwick Prize for Writing. It is important to recognise her achievement with a prize of international calibre."