The winners of Holyer an Gof 2017 were announced at a ceremony at Waterstones in Truro

Gorsedh Kernow has announced the winners of the annual Holyer an Gof Publishers’ Awards, which are held to raise the standard of publishing in Cornwall.

The awards have become a model for Cornish awards and Gorsedh Kernow continues to encourage new publications about Cornwall and the Cornish Language.

Rael Harvey, Holyer an Gof co-organiser, said: “Although the number of entries is slightly down again this year, probably because books are now entered in one class rather than multiple classes, the quality of writing, illustrating and publishing, especially in the young adults category, is better than ever.

“Our wonderful panel of readers, drawn from the Gorsedh Kernow College of Bards and others with expertise and knowledge of their particular subject, have once again done a great job.”

Craig Green was crowned winner of the ‘books for children of primary age and books for young adults’ category, for his tale, A Christmas in Cornwall.

He said: “We are so pleased to win this award.

“We put so much love into this because we wanted the perfect Christmas book for children and we also applaud Gorsedh Kernow and the Holyer an Gof Awards for championing Cornish language books.”

A special award is given to the writers of the best entry in the entire competition, known as the Holyer an Gof Trophy, and this year it was awarded to David and Stuart Thorn for their publication, Thorn’s of Bude.

Accepting the award, David said: “Our relatives are the real stars of this book, I don’t think anyone had ever taken photographs in Bude before.”

Grand Bard of Cornwall Merv Davey, who presented certificates and cups to the winners on the night, said: “We are very proud of the Holyer an Gof competition and we are very grateful to Waterstones in Truro who very kindly host our awards evening each year and to Kresen Kernow Cornish Studies Library in Redruth who provide administrative help and meeting space for our reader reviewers.”