Now a 2024 UK True Crime Award winner!

It was quite an honour to join so many celebrated writers, podcasters, documentary film makers and journalists at the 2024 UK True Crime Awards event at the Hilton London Bankside where BETRAYED had been shortlisted for Outstanding Investigative Reporting. Given the titles in this category were primarily focused on crimes in the UK, I didn’t expect my book to attract the judges’ attention. But it did!  They recognised it with the Outstanding Investigative Reporting award. 
It’s worth acknowledging the other shortlisted titles and authors:

• Cocaine Cowboys: The Deadly Rise of Ireland’s Drug Lords – Nicola Tallant / Bonnier Books UK
• Convicting the Moors Murderers: The Arrest, Trial and Imprisonment of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley – C.G.C. Cook / Pen and Sword Books
• Inside The Mind of the Yorkshire Ripper: The Final Investigation – Chris Clark & Tim Hicks / Ad Lib Publishers
• No Ordinary Day – Matt Johnson & John Murray / Ad Lib Publishers

Awards in and of themselves are important only to publishers and authors when they are independent assessments of a book’s merit in the category in which they’ve been judged. They do not necessarily lead to greater sales or increased visibility, but they are a welcome vote of support for the author’s work and the publisher’s faith in the manuscript greenlighted to eventual publication.

I want to acknowledge Crime Con UK True Crime Awards, and in particular David Jones and Anna Green at the Assembly Events Group; Rob Wiltshire and Rachel Hum at Hachette UK; and especially Sophie Hamley, my publisher at Hachette Australia. Glenn Louis at PRforBooks.co.uk has been a great support as well.

As I’ve said many times, I never expected to write this book. I became involved as a young journalist who took an interest in the case of the “drug grannies”, and then advocated for them for a fairer outcome.  Ultimately their 14 year jail sentence was reduced to five years by the time of the women’s release, but even at that point, they had been mentally and physically damaged by their incarceration.

The two part radio documentary — Drug Grannies: Too Old to Run — will be re-broadcast on ABC Radio National’s ‘The History Listen’ with episode 1 on Tuesday May 7 and episode 2 on May 14, both at 11am. Each episode is repeated the following Sunday (May 13 and 20 at 3.30pm and Monday May 14 and 21 at midnight), and of course, you can also download the programs as podcasts from the ABC website. The programs include actuality of the two women, and interviews with the narcotics officers who busted them, the minister who released them, and the prison boss who oversaw their jail time. 

There’s a lot to be said for solid investigative journalism, especially in longform and then published as a book. It’s not always about being the first to print or publish; it’s important to be accurate and truthful when sharing one’s non-fiction work with an audience, and this is something the Crime UK True Crime Awards judges have recognised in BETRAYED by awarding it for Outstanding Investigative Reporting.