THE DANGER AWARDS 2018
The Danger Prize was be awarded for the first time at the 2018 BAD festival. It acknowledges the best TV drama, book or film about Sydney and crime. The prize is kindly sponsored by the Daily Telegraph, Prohibition Gin Co., Rocks Brewing and Urban Winery Sydney.
The prize will be awarded for work first published or screened in the 2017/18 financial year. The prize is not for journalism, as there are already several prizes for that.
The judges are: Mark Morri, Daily Telegraph crime editor (chair); Sue Bobbermein, Dymocks PR Manager; Sue Turnbull, Sydney Morning Herald crime book reviewer and scholar of crime on screen; and Denis Tracey, Director of BAD18.
The winner was announced on the 31 August 2018. The prize was awarded by Laurie Oakes at the launch of BAD: Sydney Crime Writers Festival at the Justice & Police Museum on the same day. Mr Oakes is the former distinguished political journalist and current crime book aficionado.
As well as the Danger Prize, there will be the Danger Lifetime Achievement Award.
2018 SHORTLIST
The Fatalist by Campbell McConachie – fascinating biography of serial killer and psychopath Lindsey Rose, now in Goulburn Supermax.
The Suitcase Baby by Tanya Bretherton – moving account of infanticide in Sydney in the 1920s.
Blue Murder: Killer Cop, dir. Michael Jenkins – energetic if often fictionalised story of the last part of Roger Rogerson’s career.
Last King of the Cross by John Ibrahim – memoir of successful nightclub entrepreneur that casts light into some dark corners.
The winner of the inaugural Danger Award:
John Ibrahim for his memoir Last King of the Cross
“This is my first literary award and I am humbled,” Mr Ibrahim said. “I’ve done a lot of things in my life, but this is a new experience.”
Mark Morri, chair of the judging panel, said of Last King of the Cross, “The judges found the book lively, and also informative. It’s in the tradition of immigrant autobiography, but takes that in some interesting directions. It tells us a lot we didn’t know about how Sydney worked in recent decades.”
THE DANGER LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2018
The Winner:
Peter Corris
The Danger Lifetime Achievement Award is being made posthumously to Peter Corris, author of the iconic Cliff Hardy series of detective novels. In the acceptance speech prepared a week before the prize was to be presented, Peter wrote: “I am happy to say that, although worn down by time and illness, I am still alive… my thanks to the organisers of this award, which is all the more welcome as I understand it is to be in liquid form.” Sadly, Peter died the day before the award was made.
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E: debbie@dmcpr.com.au