Frank Cottrell Boyce wins 2012 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize

Frank's winning book The Unforgotten Coat is the story of two refugee brothers from Mongolia, living in Liverpool

The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize is the only UK children's fiction prize to be judged by writers. An author can only win it once.

This yer's judging panel was chaired by Guardian children's books editor Julia Eccleshare, who said:  'The Unforgotten Coat's great immediacy and humour really set it apart. With his brilliant depiction of two brothers from Mongolia trying to adapt to school in Liverpool while haunted by a fear from home, Frank Cottrell Boyce never preachers to the reader, and judges felt that he writes with such credibility and warmth that his readers will be left wiser when they have finished the story.'

Frank, who wrote the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, said: 'It would be amazing to win this award with any book I'd written but it is a special joy to win it with The Unforgotten Coat, which started life not as a published book at all, but as a gift. Walker gave away thousands of copies in Liverpool - on buses, at ferry terminals, through schools, prisons and hospitals - to help promote the mighty Reader Organisation.'

The Reader Organisation is a charity and social enterprise that works to bring about social change by sharing great literature.

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