WH Smith Literary Award

The WH Smith Literary Award was an award founded in 1959 by British high street retailer WH Smith to "encourage and bring international esteem to authors of the British Commonwealth". Originally open to all residents of the UK, the Commonwealth and Ireland, it later admitted foreign works in translation and works by US authors. The final three winners were Americans (Philip Roth, Donna Tartt and Richard Powers), and 2005 was the award's final year.

The WH Smith Illustration Award ran from 1987 to 1994.

The WH Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award for children's literature ran from 1993 to 1996.

WH Smith sponsors the National Book Awards Children's Book of the Year (the "British Children's Book Award" through 2009).

Winners

WH Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award

For a few years, W H Smith also offered a children's book award. The judges were children between nine and twelve, and the intention was to promote books which were "accessible to children in content and price, as well as offering a gripping read."

The winners were:

• 1993: Philip Ridley, Krindlekrax
• 1994: Malorie Blackman, Hacker
• 1995: Maggie Prince, Memoirs of a Dangerous Alien
• 1996: Sharon Creech, Walk Two Moons