Chocolat author Joanne Harris supports Mervyn Peake Awards

12 February 2010

Best-selling British author Joanne Harris is supporting the 2010 Mervyn Peake Awards, which celebrate the creativity of people with Parkinson's.

Harris, a close friend of the Peake family, praised the Parkinson’s Disease Society's annual awards and will be attending the London awards ceremony on Friday 9 July.

Harris's novel Chocolat was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

(Image right: Chocolat, used by permission of The Random House Group Ltd)

She has also previously been nominated for the Whitbread Prize. She said:

"I am delighted to support the Mervyn Peake Awards, created to give the opportunity to those with Parkinson's to express themselves through poetry, art or photography. These awards remind us all of what can be done when surrender is not an option.

"Living with Parkinson's over the last two decades of his life, Mervyn Peake continued to produce book illustrations, plays and poetry in which he draws quite clearly on aspects, both mental and physical, of his condition.

An inspiration to everyone

"The fact that he was still able to think and to work creatively in such circumstances should be an inspiration to everyone.

"It is all too easy for most of us to focus on what we cannot do; to be bound by our limitations, rather than to explore - and sometimes as Peake did, to challenge outright - the boundaries of possibility."

The Mervyn Peake Awards are held in memory of the late author, illustrator and poet, who Harris described in her statement as: "one of the twentieth century's most original and multi-talented literary figures".

(Image right: Joanne Harris, photographed by Adrian Lourie at Writer Pictures)

Start creating

For experienced artists or those simply wanting to try something new, the Mervyn Peake Awards are the perfect opportunity to pick up a paintbrush, pen or camera and start creating.

Visit our events page for more information on the Mervyn Peake Awards. Entry for the awards is open until 31 March.

Harris's eleventh novel, Blueeyedboy, is due to be published in April 2010. To find out more about Joanne Harris, visit www.joanne-harris.co.uk

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