A SCOTTISH activist and rapper has won The Orwell Prize for Books.
Darren McGarvey, also known as Loki, took the award for his first such work, Poverty Safari.
The prize goes to the book which comes closest to the English writer George Orwell’s ambition “to make political writing into an art”.
Darren McGarvey @lokiscottishrap wins The Orwell Prize 2018 for Books. "I never thought I would be involved in this conversation." #orwellprize @rsa pic.twitter.com/44ZIMsP60Q
— The Orwell Foundation (@TheOrwellPrize) June 25, 2018
Chairman of judges Andrew Adonis said: “George Orwell would have loved this book. It echoes Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier. It is heart-rending in its life story and its account of family breakdown and poverty.
“But by the end there is not a scintilla of self-pity and a huge amount of optimism. It made me see the country and its social condition in a new light.”
As winner McGarvey was presented with a cheque for £3,000 by Richard Blair, Orwell’s son, on what would have been the writer’s 115th birthday.
McGarvey grew up in Pollok, Glasgow, and is a writer, performer, community activist, columnist and former rapper-in-residence at Police Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit.
He was part of the Poverty Truth Commission hosted in Glasgow in 2009 and has presented programmes for BBC Scotland exploring the root causes of anti-social behaviour and social deprivation.
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